The north Mississippi herald., 1921-09-09
FORD TRAFFIC CAUSE
OF D., 7. &I. REVIVAL
No Magic in Making a Road
Pay If it Gets The Tonnage
1t Can Carry
Former President of Road Scores
Injustice Done Officials by
False Claims

(The following analysis of Mr.. Hen
ry Ford's experiment in railroading
is reprinted from the Chicago Journ-
al of Commerce of August 27, 1921. J
An inside light upon the means by
which the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton
railroad has been able to greatly in
crease its gross and net earnings since
Henry Ford bought control of it has
been obtained from J. A. Gordon,
former president of the road and It's
general manager under federal con-
troll. Mr.. Gordon refused to take
any part in the public discussion of
Mr.. Ford's failroading until it APP
peared that serious injustice was
being done to the executives of other
roads and that the public was being
misled. Mr.. Gordon's staement fol-
lows:
To-day read an item quoted from
the New York World in which after
commenting on D., T. & l. earnings
for six months this remark was made /:
Perhaps the railroads need financial
aid from the government less than
they need five or six Henry Ford's to
run them intelligently.' This article
is unjust and harmful.
No Steel Coaches
''It said that Ford took four steel
private cars from officials and con-
verted them into coaches. The facts
are that the D., T. & /. doesn't own
a single steel passenger car; that
there was but one official car-the 81
In service; that a car numbered
100 had, prior to 1918, been used by
officials, but had been out of service
for over three years and had been
offered for sale,
1T was stated in Ford interview
given the Detroit Times that Ford
gathered up enough junk along the
road to pay for it. Just before Ford
secured control the old board had
purchased 1900 tons of new 3d.
pound rail. Ford then bought TO-
600 tons of new steel rail. 1t was
the scrap released by these purchases
that produced the junk. Ford did
retire 1000 freight cars of 3O-ton
capacity and great age, also five or
SIX light locomotives. Practically all
of this old equipment had been set
aside by the federal administration
as not worth repairing; but it was
the equipment Ford purchased when
he purchased the road. At that its
value was less than s150,0OO.
Rails in Poor Shape
Zone of the inferences to be drawn
is that because Ford did some superior
job of repairing an engine, he had
been able to cut the time between
Detroit and Bainbridge some two
hours. Now the D., T. & /. passen-
ger engines We're mighty old and poor,
but they didn't limit the speed. Track
conditions imposed speed limits, for
up to the fall of 1920 most of the
22O miles between Detroit and
Springfield were laid in 6O-pound rail
which had been in service over 25
years and was fearfully bent and
twisted.
Coming now to the big thing,
namely, that Ford has made finan-
cial success of the road. His formu-
la is not a secret one; it has been
known to all railroad men for ages.
1t prescribes a volume of traffic up
to q roads carrying capacity, es-
pecially high class carload traffic.
Ford has that traffic en- route to and
from his own plants; he doesn't have
TO solicit it. While negotiations for
the roads We're still in progress, / was
asked by Ford representative what
] though could be done with it. NY
reply was that much money would
have to be spent to improve it ply
sically and provide it with appropri-
ate equipment so that patrons could
rely upon its service; that il was