The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-07-26

withdraws and the road Is heade,
for a receivership or bankruptcy
which, in turn hastens the with
drawal of capital. Therefore it i
vital that the, management shall sat
isfy the public, patrons Of the road
the stockholders, and keep improv
ing the property, for in q countr.
like this where population and bust
ness are constantly increasing, there
must be additional service with eacf
succeeding year or period of years
Tho Car Shortage
Shortage of cars arises from many
Causes road may stop buying carl
and locomotives. or it may keep or
buying, but have them tied up by the
lack of repairs when needed, or they
may be loaded out to distant parts
OF the country and not returned
promptly by the other roads over
which they pass; those roads may let
them get into congested districts be-
fore. or after unloading, or they may
push them out on sidings and store
them indefinitely or they may keep
them lingering along thru many
state, side tracked at many places.
| w lieu CATS 6IC n8IQ " Bcts IhCA e 40
tendency for shippers to ask for
more cars than they actually need,
on the theory that they will not get
enough anyway, and II they really
get more than enough, they hold
them on the sidings from day to day
waiting till they can be loaded, and
every day car is idle, adds to the
car shortage by that much. When
this condition exists in some degree
at thousands of stations and sidings,
it runs into tremendous totals. Re-
sponsible men at Blackfoot have at
times stepped into the breach and
applied for certain numbers of cars
for certain days and guaranteed
that every car would be loaded that
day, and by that means worked the
cars to full efficiency into and out
of Blackfoot and its tributary load
ing stations. Representatives of the
Blackfoot Commercial club, know
ing the local shippers and knowing
the management of the road, have
been and can be of great service to
both by acting for both in such mat
tiers. The road has 10000 freight
cars valued at about seventy million
dollars, and are adding $500 this
year and a large order Of lOcomo-
tives. They now have 1900 cars
stored ready for the busy season.
Taking a previous date as standard
by which to measure the car situa-
ton, last year at this time they had
81 per cent of cars available for
moving crops and freight, and now
they have ITO per cent, or almost |
double the number of a year ago, and
while they had serious strike on
last summer, they now have clear ,
sailing; and large orders for loco
motives in course Of construction
and delivery, while last year they
had construction work held up by
the shopmen's strike.
Returning Empty Cars
The practice of returning empty
cars to the road that owns them,
after being unloaded, or keeping
them around to load back when
there is opportunity has been
source of much trouble and the
Union Pacific made proposals to the
of American railways
this summer at their convention,
cars should be accounted
Tor and returned promptly. E. E.
Calvin was sent to the convention to
press the matter, and in a twO-day
Meeting, he got the plan adopted and
afterward got it en-
lorsed by a convention of all rail-
way executives. The plan now will
re for each road to return the, cars
O the line they were received from,
md hold each road responsible for I
ny delay in moving them on to their
wners. This plan, it is believed, {
viii greatly increase the number of
avs that each car can be made to '
AIRY frienght in given year.
Cost of Materials f
In the last ten years the cost of d
ne primary materials used in rail- n
Dads has advanced in price and t.
allied to come down again, the gen. s.
raj increase being about AZ per n
snt. Steel rails that formerly cost a
80, now cost SAT; ties that ten b
ears ago cost SO cents, now cost "
40, and the U. P. uses three mil W
on of them a year. Labor is 80 h
Or cent higher, coal rs per cent, and 81
lei oil alone has gone down a little h
compared with then years ago. W
How Railroad Improves - -
When a railroad wants to make a,
tensions or improvements, it has 10
find new capital to do it. 1t can It
It charge improvements and charge h,
EN- as operating costs and keep er
thin the law. If a road would &c
AXE extensions it must keep it's th
edit SO good that new capital can dc
obtained for it. They were asked
build eleven miles to connect the =,
nth spur with the Lincoln and 10
nmon spur, which will cost about go
100000 and it will not bring them 49,
y more tonnage than at present, or
t it will allow good many farm ~
5 to get their crops to the loading 70
ltion with shorter hauls. Rail- -.
ads want a long haul for them nv
YES, and the farmer is seeking the =
ortest haul possible, to get his
Dps to the loading station, and III
len they were in the Ammon and WI
shen country he met one farmer
10 stated that he now hauls his liz
,p twelve miles to doad it, and with ns
? completion of the Goshen spur an
will haul only two miles. With Co