Evening journal., 1923-01-13
(From the Boston Herald).

shrin of the rising breeze and hur.
ries to his cyclone cellar.
Now that seems to be a fair state
ment of what Judge Anderson says
he learned from official government
statistios about the railroads. His
percentages are stated in terms OF
traffic units" but they mean. es-
sentially what Is stated here. These
figures are for the railroads of New
England, excepting the Boston &
Albany and the Canadian lines.
The figures for the United States
as a whole are not very different.
showing an increase in traffic rev.
enue Of a little over So per cent.
and an increase for fuel and labor
Of more than 102 per cent. In that
same interval OF IL IL years. Now
what are the railroads to do in a
case like that?
Consider also that for the railroad
man life since the war has been just
one strike after another. Not that
all the strikes have been on the
railways. There have been forty
times as many strikes in other
dustries. But no strike OF any
magnitude can occur anywhere In
the country without affecting the
roads.
The railroads are the transporta-
ton system OF the United States, the
cireulator-y system of the nation, and
whatever affects the nation as a
whole in the nature OF the case
affects that system. Give the short
haul business to the motor trucks
and you thin the blood, Divert
long-haul traffic to the canals and
the rivers OF the middle West and
you thin the circulating fluid yet
more. Let a strike disrupt a great
industry and the railroads are hurt
by it. They are instantaneously
sensitive 10 all such troubles, and
next to strike on the railroads
themselves, the most serious indus
trial calamity that can hit the lines
is a coal strike. The calamity hit
them a body blow this last year.
4. Coal was not mined, therefore the
usual quantity of coal TO haul was
not forthcoming, and coal makes one
of the great commodities OF railway
freight. As the strike heightened
from weeks into months It became
more difficult for the roads to get
the fuel they must have. They en-
ployed all sorts Of makeshifts TO
get by and tide over the period
Of the strike. They used inferior
coal with poor steaming qualities.
Many Of them bought coal from
Britain and paid for It at the rate
Of SO a ton more than their contract
price for American coal. The Brit
lsh coal was not we'll adapted to the
American locomotive, because, as the
technicians put the case, the ash
fused at relatively low temperature,
causing ollnkering and producing
engine failures due to low steam.
And besides this coal strike the
railways of the nation had to face an
actual strike IN their own shops the
last summer. The public well re-
members the history of that strug-
gle. We ourselves feel that the men
had no right to strike, that they
struck against the decision Of a gov
ernment agency whose function It
was to prevent just such strikes. But
never mind the merits of the strike
for the present purpose. The strike
occurred--and whoever was right,
whatever were the rights and wrongs
of the situation-the strike was a
calamity to the roads and to the
general public.
The strige cost the roads an'enor-
nous sum Of money. They did re-
markably we'll In maintaining trains
and schedules through all that trou-
bled time. At the outset with the
help OF supervisory forces and volun-
teers they kept the public pretty well
satisfied. But while the new forces
we're acquiring experience-learning
the game. so to speak--it was newt