The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-10-26
FORD TELLS HOW TO
RUN RAILROADS
Would Fire Useless En-.
ployes, Especially Rail-
road Lawyers
STOCKHOLDERS
CALLED PARASITES
Would Have Railroad Workers Own
Stock Lighter Rolling Stock AdvO-
Gated - Bookkeeping too Complicated
and Expensive-Cut on Absurdities.

and Expensive-Cut on Absurdities.
WASHINGTON. Oct. 28-Henry Ford,
writing in the current number of the
Official publication of the chamber of
commerce of tie United States tells
how he would run a big railroad Mr..
Ford 5 operation of his own road, the
Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, has been
the subject of much discussion among
railroad men and the public.
First of all. says Mr.. Ford, he would
get rid of the individual stockholders,
whom he considered a parasite; then
he would turn to lighter rolling stock
and finally - fire the useless employees,
especially the lawyers.
Useless Red Tape
Finance as it applies to railroads,
says Mr.. Ford, is a failure; and the
roads spend money uselessly in red
tape of ali sorts, particularly in &C
counting.
1.-The real purpose of a railroad - Mr.
Ford writes. - 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-put-
ting money into the pockets of stock
holders who make no contribution to
the road actual operation. In the end
the public pays these dividends. They
are tax on the whole people.
There Is a possible and practicable
system of financing railroads by which
those contributing the money will be
in positions TO aid directly in the sue
cess of the undertaking. If the break
man on a railroad owns stock in it. he
has an additional iuducement to com
peteut service. If the railroad is a sue
cess. il is due to him and his fellow
workmen, and they are entitled to the
profit.
Finance is a Failure"
" Railroads should got have to 90 to
banks for money, They can be other
wise financed. The first thing Is to
make a railroad work. Make it poss-
ible for people TO use it rs much as they
want to. Then there will be no trouble
about finances. The trouble is that we
start with finance and expect finance
to make the road go. Finances can t
do that. Finance Is a failure.
"Of course, if such course were
attempted. we could expect a great out
cry for the protection of invested
capital 1t would be said that people
had bought these stocks for the finan-
cial protection of their families, their
children. Protection from what From
the necessity of earning their living
Their children would be better off if
they had to finance themselves Proper
financing would, of course. be easier
on new roads. On the old ones. how
ever. it should be possible to retire the
parasite. the noncontributing stock
holder and get the ownership into proper
hands.
Remove Dividend Drain
- After removing this dividend drain.
the second step would be to remove the
great physical burden of the railroads
needless weight of this rolling stock
A freight train Is several times the
weight of the load it carries. and a
passenger train is ~ times as heavy.
The cost of pulling empty trains is
needlesslv large. Contrast this with the
efficiency of the bicycle which weighs
20 pounds and Will carry a man who
weighs 300 rounds.
con the Detroit, Toledo and IrontOn
the old tvpes of engines and cars will be
disnlaced by better types Our patents
will guarantee the free use of ideas.
We will never proceed against anybody
for infringement of our patents They
win belong to the world.
''The third step. an immediate step
which should be taken IN the operation
of any great railroad system would be
that of eXpediating the journey of the
freight carrier. Bv speeding IN ous
freight over the preliminary part of its
journey on the ID. T. & l. we have been
able to shorten the time of its delivery
bv periods ranging from seven to II
days. This means that our product gets
10 the people to whom we sell it from
seven to II DAYS quicker than it used TO-
" areans that we carry on our books
$50 0g0 600 less undelivered product than
we otherwise would
Enough Lawyers to Run Road
Most railroads have enough LAWYERS
working for them to operate them if
they were engaged in useful work One
af the fret things IS to dispense with the
legal staff 4 well managed road needs
l,ss of that sort of service. The lawyers
ore mostly in the claim department
which il one of the most wastefliI
branches Of railroad operation. ANY
rrralI claim against 2 railroad is verv
likely TO knock about the claims depart
rlcnt for weeks or months, to cost
ANY times as much az it would to pay
It. Proper organization would lead at
the time it is first presented, to es-