The Connecticut labor news., 1921-10-28
HENRY WOULD ALSO KEEP ROADS AWAY FROM BANKS AND CONSEQUENT CONTROL BY BIG FINANCIAL INTER- ESTS, HE WRITES.

OfhC1al publication Of the Chamber Ot Commerce of the United States tells how he would run a big railroad Mr. FOrd's operation of his own road, the Detroit, Toledo X Ironton, has been the subject of much discussion among rail road men and the public.
 First of all, says MT. Ford, he would get rid of the individual stockhoIder, whom he considers a parasite; then he would turn to lighter rolling stock and finally fire the useless employees, es- peCially the lawyers"
 Finance as it applies to railroads, says MT. Ford, Is a failure and the roads spend money uselessly in red tape of all sorts, particularly in accounting.
 The real purpose of railroad" MT. Ford writes, 'is to serve the public, There IS no reason why 1t 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 roads actual operation. In the end the public pays these dividends They are a tax on the whole people.
 "There is a possible and practicabl system of financing railroads by which those contributing. the money will be i'll position to aid directly to the suc- cess of the undertaking. If the brake man on a railroad owns stock, he has an additional inducement to competent servce. If the railroad is a success, 1t is due to him and his fellow workmen and they are entitled to the profit
 Railroads should not have to go to banks for money They can be other wise financed. The first thing is to make railroad work. Make it possible for people to use it as much as 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 Finance cant do that Finance is a failure.
 Of course, If such course Is attempt ed we could expect a great Outcry for the protection of invested capital: It would be said that people had bought these stocks for the financial protection of their families, their children. Pro- tecton 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, however, it should be possible to retire the parasite, the non-Contribut- ing stockholder and get the ownership into the proper hands.
 ROLLING STOCK TOO HEAVY.
 After removing this dividend drain, the second step would be to remove the great physical burden of the railroads needless weight of its rolling stock. A freight train is several 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 efficiency of the bicycle which weighs twenty pounds and will carry a man who weighs 200 pounds.
 ''On the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton the old types of engine and car will be dis placed by better types. Our patents will guarantee the free use of ideas. We will never proceed against anybody for infringement of our patents. They will 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 expediting the journey of the freight carrier. By speeding up our1 freight over the preliminary part if its journey on the D. T. and l, we have been able to shorten the time of its delivery by periods ranging from seven to fourteen days. This means that our product gets to the people to whom we sell it from seven to fourteen days quicker than 1t used to- It means that we carry on our books $30OOO0OO less undelivered pro- duct than we otherwise would.
 GET RID OF LAWYERS.
 Most railroads have enough law yers working for them to operate them if they were engaged in useful work One of the first things is to dispense with the legal staff. A we'll managed road needs less of that sort of service. The lawyers are mostly in the claim depart ment, which is one of the most Wasteful branches of railroad operation. Any small claim against a railroad Is very likely to knock about the claims depart ment for weeks or months, to cost many times as much as 1t would to pay it. Proper organization would lead. at the time 1t was first presented, to establishing the facts about it and settling 1t on the basis of justice. It would keep all this detail off the books.
 BOOKS TOO COMPLICATED.
 "The bool<keepoing of railroads is complicated fax beyond all necessity. We have simpliied this department, reduced its costs and have transformed it into an actual nelp 10 the railroad instead Ot a vexation and a burden. How did we do it? By viewing the whole proposition as a service to the 'users of railroads and making everything fit into that, instead of having the fear of stockholders and dividends before our eyes. Our faith is that service will pay. Finance does not come first. Work comes first.
 We don't claim to have done any thing new in rairoading- We have only taken the old system of operation and cut off its obvious absurdities. Even the old system of railroadng, brought up to efficiency. would be an immense change for this country, We have sim ply cut out the loahng of men, the loaf ing of engines and the loahng of cars The result seems to have surprised many people. But there is no mystery or magic about 1t. Any one can do 1t. If the of plain, everyday good will create such change, what may. we not expect from really new ideas?
 Il don't like to appear as CritiClsing any railroad managers, for 1 have never done so With their stockholders on their backs and their banker bosses who don't know anything about ralroading, what can they d? They must be liberated from the present system. And you cant | do that by giving them $500,0OOOOO to perpetuate the present bad system either"