Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-02
Railroads Must Get on to Business
Basis, Says Babson
Famous Statistican Gives Reason for 2O-Year
q Decline in Railroad Securities

The car charge per day is too small.
Also free checking of trunks is alb
surd. I was examining railroad
property in the south a few weeks
ago. In the mornings ride noticed
that the baggage man handled but
one trunk during the entire trip.
That baggao"" man was paid S.
day. Although there were several
other trainmen who could have cared
for this trunk, yet because the in
terstate commerce commission re-
quired that a baggage man be en-
ployed on that train, he had to make
the trip. The railroads are doing
too much for nothing. OF course
they should render service; but they
should be paid for that service 1cJ
the people to whom it is rendered"
In conclusion Mr.. Babson brought
out the fifth reason that railroad
securities have continued to decline
due to the management: THE rail-
roads were built by civil engineers.
These engineers have gradually
worked up until they have become
the operators. They are honest,
Woodworking, intelligent men, but
they are trained for engineers and
not for merchants. Now Il banker
might efficiently operate the rail
road if he would live on it and give
it his attention, but a banker can
not successfully operate a railroad
in the south or west from an office
chair in New York city. Transpor-
tation today is a matter of mer-
chandising. The construction pc
Rod of railroading is gone by. There
is no more reason why civil en-
gineer should run railroad today
than that he should run the Wool
worth business or the Sears-Roe-
buck business. Transportation is
a commodity like steel, cotton or
fruit. The railroads should be run
by men who are natural merchants;
men who were we'll trained to get
business, render service and operate
business at profit.
FtWhen the railroads are operated
as great merchandising propositions,
looking to their territories instead
of to Washington, looking to their
customers instead of to politicians
and labor leaders, endeavorlng to
please their customers and serve
them as a merchant is compelled to
serve his customers, then the rail-
roads will regain their lost prestige.
The railroads bear the same relation
to the prosperity of the country as
a mans arteries and veins bear to
his body; thus, a business cannot be
prosperous for any length of time
unless the railroad that is serving
it is also prosperous.
"The railroads are suffering TO-
day from precedent. The operators,
employees and the interstate COM
merce commission are all doing
things because their predecessors
did them. While conditions remain
the same, precedent is good guide
to follow. However, when condl-
lions change precedent becomes a
most dangerous guide to follow. IN
vestors are fast coming to this can
clusion. The railroad president of
the future will be great merchant
and the railroad employees of the
future will be trained in salesman
ship and service. Then the rail-
roads will come back and the rail-
road securities will again return to
the high place which they deserve"
Despite the recent stock market
activity, general business continues
| the SlQeWlSe movement ~ Aio'o UooIi
! following since last December. The
index figure of the Babson chart
shows general <activity Is per cent
below normal.
"Discounting this better day, Mr..
Babson concluded, investors are
justified in their, purchase of rail
road securities, especially those of
the trunk. lines, such as New York
Central, Illinois Central, Baltimore
and Ohio, Union Pacific, Northern
Pacific and Great Northern, South
ern Pacific, Chicago Rock Island.
St. Louis and San Francisco, and
Kansas City and Southern"