The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-08
By HOLLAND

New York, August 7.-(Special)
 The increased earnings of the rail-
 roads of the Unieed States as whole which were reported for the four
 weeks of June and three subsequent.
 weeks of July are attributed by
 those who have studied the situation, to the rates allowed by the interstate
 ment of grain and also for the haul ing of sand, stone and gravel. If the inference drawn from these fig
 ures be correct, then the rates charged for the movement of these
 commodities have not interfered with the traffic. Of course, there is a
 possibility that if the rates were lower the traffic might have been
 increased but that would have been at the expense of the railroad com panies.
 If we take the traffic on the Amer
 ican railroads as represented by car loadings and by the number of cars
 employed in hauling grain and grain products. it will be discovered that although there was severe falling off in the transportation of other products excepting sand, stone and gravel, nevertheless there was an in- crease in the number of cars em- ployed in moving grain and grain products. As, for instance, in the i second week of July the number of cars loaded with grain in 1919 was in round numbers, 45,000. In 1920 the number of cars thus employed was
 nearly S4.Oo0, but in 1921, 57,0o0 cars
 which carried grain were moved in
 the week of July 16, 1921.
 l Had the entire transportation of 1 freight by rail for these weeks been ! equally good then it would have
 been reported that the railroads were occupied to their capacity in hauling l products In these seven weeks near 1 ly 0O,OO0 cars were loaded With
 grain, whereas year ago in the same period of time 230.000 of cars
 were in like manner loaded while ii l 1919, almost exactly the same num- Der of cars were loaded with grain as was the case in 1920. Or to put l it in another way, the excess or 1921 over 1920 was in round nun l bers 675O0 cars, while in 1921 the | excess over 1919 was almost exactly
 70,000 cars.
 | Apparently notwithstanding the
 rates that are complained of, the rail- | roads did larger traffic in the movement of grain and grain prod
 ucts in June and July of this year | than in the previous two years. Was ! this done in spite of the high rates or would there have been larger ] movement of cars had the rates been
 lowerr That is something which the
 committee on interstate commerce of
 the Senate will try to decide.
 sand, Stone and Gravel
 If lis a far cry from grain and grain | products of which the world stands
 in need to sand. stone and gravel. 1 The mere mention of these things would justify the impression that
 they would be about the last Mntsl'
 would entail heavy railroad traffic. | Rut these articles are needed for road construction of which the ag- rreeate throughout the United States
 is enormous They are also re- ouired for building operations, al l though the building industry has
 been greatly stagnated some or i the shippers have urged reouctor
 of rates upon sand. stone and gravel, l And vet. the railroads have carried
 a larger amount measured by the
 number of cars of these things than
 they have of any other American ! products. except grain and gram products. The number of cars loadei l with this road making material be- tween June and July was tn | round numbers 166,000, and about 10000 less than the nu"per oi ooi loaded with grain. But in the year I 1920 for the like period of six weeks \ inc number of cars loaded with this
 road making and building material | was little in excess of l25,0Ou. Therefore. the exces in the number of cars which handled this material m
 these six weeks over the number oi i, cars in like manner occupied in 1920 , was 1000.
 Totn, Loading of All Freight Although there has been an unpre- 5 cedented decrease so far this year in
 the loading of all freight in the limited States. yet that decrease
 would would have been much greater } had it not been for the increase 1 in the number of cars employed in the hauling of grain and Of sand 4 stone and gravel.
 some idea of the traffic in freight | represented by the number of cars
 employed in this movement may be obtained by an official report of the total loading. In 1921 the total foi seven weeks was 5.24o,0o0. The total : for 1920 was more than a million l, greater and the total for 1919 wa' l some 400, 900 greater. A mere glance at these figures demonstrates the , business and industrial depressior : which began early in the year 1920
 It is observed. however. that the