Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1921-12-23
SOME RADICAL CHANGES ARE
SUGGESTED
To Increase Efficiency the Employees
Should be Given Part Ownership
in RaiIrOads-SOme Lawyers
Fired and Lost Time
Eliminated

Puy, Henry Ford expressed himself
on the railroad situation as follows:
"1f you were operating such rail
road as the Pennsylvania or the New
York Central" / said to Henry Ford,
out at his office at Dearborn, chow
would you proceed?"
'1 would reorganiZe in way to get
rid of the unproductive stockholder.
l would redesign the rolling stock.
l. would expedite the delivery Of
freight. l would discharge unneces-
sary employees.
"The first thing to be done any
where is to reorganize by getting rid
of, the unproductive stockholders. The
real purpose of a railroad is to serve
the public.
"There is no reason why it should
be diverted from that service and set
to doing an entirely different thing
putting money into the pockets of
stockholders who make no cOntribu-
tion to the roads actual operation.
There is a possible and practicable
system of financing railroads by
which those contributing money will
be in positions to add directly to the
success of the undertaking. If the
brakeman on a railroad owns stock
in it, he has an additional induceemnt
to competent service.
Railroads should not have to go
to banks for money. They can be
otherwise financed. In fact, finance
is the wrong term to use. We talk
too much about finance. The first
thing to do is to make railroad work.
The trouble is that we start with
finance and expect finance to make
the road go. Finance can't do that.
Finance is a failure.
"Proper financing would of course
be easier on new roads. On the old
ones, however, it should be possible
to retire the parasite, non-contribut-
ing stockholder and get the ownership
into the proper hands.
"After removing this dividend
strain, the second step would be to
remove the great physical burden of
the ailroads-needless weight of its
rolling stock. A freight train is sew
eral times the weight of the load it
carries, and a passenger train is
twenty times as heavy. The cost of
pulling empty trains is needlessly
large. Contrast this with the eff
cheney of the bicycle which weighs
twenty pounds and will carry man
who weighs 200 pounds.
"It is contended," I suggested,
"that weight is necessary to make
railroad cars hold the track"
"Were you ever arrested for speed
ing" Mr.. Ford countered. eff so,
the cop who overhauled you was
mounted on a motorcycle that weigh
ed about one tenth as much as your
car, yet it was speedier than you
were. The problem of holding the
rails can be taken care of in redesign.
"Here is an example of redesign in
freight cars. The axle of a car and
the two wheels upon it operate as a
unit almost as though they were in
one piece. When a car goes around
curve one wheel has to travel farther
than the other. There are theoretical
compensations which take care of this
difference in the distance the wheels
; have to travel, that will make the slip
unnecessary. We have already solved
the problem. But in doing so we have
greatly reduced the weight of the
undergear of every car. We will
| DdICHU Jul IlCW WllCII CACy
are patentable, but we will do this
only to prevent someone else from
doing so. Some patents are taken
out to prevent the free use of ideas.
We will never proceed against any
/ body for infringement of our patents.
they will belong to the world.
"It is said, Mr.. Ford" l interjected,
"that your claim of economy of tighter
rolling stock is an undemonstrated
theory How do you know that it
would be more economical"
"Well," he replied, "It doesn't do
much good to talk about it. Any
thing that one can say is open to dis
pute or denial, but whatever one ac-
tually succeeds in doing is beyond
argument. We have a pretty clear
J idea of what we are going to do.
/ Once it is done, it won't need any
explanation.
"The third step, an immediate step
which should be taken in the opera
tion of any great railroad SYSTEM y
Mr.. Ford continued, "would be that
of expediting the journey of the
freight carrier. On the Detroit,
Toledo and Ironton we tolerate no
idle men, idle cars or trains or idle
engines.
"Our experience illustrates this ex-
cellently. The road we have acquired
runs north and south and crosses
most of the transcontinental lines.
By speeding up our freight on this
preliminary part of it's journey we
have been able to shorten the time of
it's delivery by periods, ranging from
seven to fourteen daYs. This ia q