The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-08-15
Have MADE
SHIPPER
! SAFE .
Former Policy Toward Politics
Changed for Better In
dustrial Relations
By WILLIAM HARD.

The political heart of the rail
road situation now is that the
railroad managers have turned
from what might be called politi-
cal politics to what might be
called industrial politics.
They cultivate the politicians
much less than they used to. They
much less than ever before have
general counsel" whose duties
are less in the field of the ham
ding of law cases than irAthe field
Of the handling Of politicians.
Railroad owned political ma
chimes" have gone out of fashion
and exist now principally only in
the works of fiction writer's who
get their ideas of politics out of
Renaissance and tradition.
In place of those machines"
and in place of direct influence
over statesmen. the railroads have
turned to the acquiring of influ-
ence with the shipping public-a
public which they hope in turn
will call the politicians off from
tormenting them.
Placating the Shipper.
IL the shippers are contented, and
If the shippers do not complain be-
fore the Interstate Commerce Com.
mission, and il they do not incite
the Congress to anti.railroad feel
ings and activities, the railroad
managers hope that such activities
will in the end falter and fail and
cease.
Such is the new railroad policy
toward politics, and it has its high
est expression in the dozen or more
Of regional advisory boards" OF
shippers now established.
What Is an advisory board !:
The one which is centered at
Lincoln, Neb., may be taken as an
illustration of the lot.
On this board there are some
two hundred shippers and repre-
sentatives Of organizations OF ship
pers in the states Of Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and
Idaho. These shippers are organ
lied into COMMITTEES" by States.
For instance, in the Idaho
division of this Central Western
Regional Advisory Board" there is
a s'potato committee" On this
potato committee" there are nine
potato farmers and representatives
Of associations of potato farmers.
In the Nebraska division there is
similar "hay committee" In the
Utah division, where sugar IS I'M
portant, there is sugar COM
Each of these committees dis
cusses with the railroads all dlf-
eiculties and disputes regarding It's
commodity. Whatever disputes are
not thus settled go before the whole
Regional Advisory Board for Its
consideration.
A Case In Point.
An illustration OF dispute and
Of it's settlement by an ADVISORY
Roard'' may be taken from the re-
cent history of the board, which
has it's headquarters in New YORK
The delaware anu 1dSh1 wanna
Railroad had notified the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad that the latter
could no longer use the Harlem
Terminal, owned by the Delaware
and Lackawanna. Shippers were
unable to persuade the Delaware
and Lackawanna to reverse Its
decision but they then carried the
matter into a debate before the
"Atlantic States Shippers Advisory
Board"
The Board expressed it's views to
the Delaware. and Lackawannai
and the Delaware and Lackawanna
yielded and gave the Baltimore and
Ohio an extension of it's lease in
the Harlem Terminal.
Thus the matter did not go to
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion or to any other public tribunal
but was settled amicably between
and among the railroads and the
shippers themselves.
BY this device of advisory
boards" and by the daily opera.
ton of it, the railroads are build
ing up a better understanding of
railroad problems among shippers
and a closer cO-Operation-firs i'm.
dustrial and then pOlitical-between
the shipping public. and the rail.