The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-06
THE RAILROAD SITUATION.

IN teSLIyln8 before the senate COM
mittee on interstate commerce.. on
January %, Walker D. Hines, former
director general of railroads, said
that the railroad executives seemed
to take as a starting point the idea
that their equipment was in an ideal
condition at the beginning of federal
control;" that the statement that the
railroads were turned back in an I'M
der-maintained and broken-down con-
dition was "a fiction representing
extraordinary distortion of the facts"
that at the end of federal control do
comotnves were in distinctly better
condition than at the beginning" that
the condition of freight cars at the
end of federal control would compare
favorably with the condition at the
beginning.
Mr.. Hines admitted that there had
been some shortage as to rails, cross
ties and ballast ION some railroads."
altho this had been greatly exagger-
ated-' He testified at great length
before the senate interstate commerce
committee concerning his labor poll
cies and his reasons for not increasing
rates to meet added expenses.
To these statements of Mr.. Hines
the Association of Railway Executives
replies as follows:
The material point at issue is
What was the condition OF the rail-
roads at the end of federal control, as
compared to their condition at the
beginning of federal control? The
relative condition of locomotives,
freight cars and road-bed at the be-
ginning and end of federal control is
not a matter of opinion, but of record.
At the beginning of federal control
17.5 per cent of the locomotives of the
railroads were in bad order. After
twenty-six months of government
operation, 25.6 per cent of the loco
motives were in bad order.
At the beginning of federal control,
there were in use by the carriers.
about 2,263,6S4 freight cars, of which
81 per cent or 12S,780 cars were re-
ported in bad order. At the end of
federal control the railroads had
2,s07, O60 cars, of which 81 per cent
or 153,727 cars were in bad order
Cross-tie renewals in 1918 and 1919
(the period of federal contro) were
~. 100000 ties below the test period
4915-16-1D average, a number of
ties sufficient to lay nearly 5000 miles
OF track. Rail renewals during the
two years of federal control were
440, 230 tons below the average of the
test period. The amount of ballast
used during the period of federal con-
troll was 1,916,10O cubic yards less
than the average used in the test Pc
riod.
The greatest danger which the rail-
roads faced during the period of fed
eral control was the impairment or
destruction of their earning power by
an increase of expenses not compen-
stated !;y an adequate increase in rates.
The director general had control of
both expenses and rates. The rail-
roads have Just cause of complaint
against the director general for refus-
ing to recognize at least the moral OBJ
legation to maintain, so far as posi-
BILE the proper relationship between
railroad revenues and railroad ex-
penses.
The railroads. are demanding JUS
tiee and the public is willing that they
shall have it, but how is what is Just
to be determined if the truth can not
be reached? An agreed statement OF
facts is one of the chief needs of the
railroad situation. -