The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-10-12
RAILROAD PROGRESS.

in administration consequent on the re-
 turning of the roads to private manage.
 ment has been remarkable. The freight
 congestion of 1920 and the car shortages
 have almost passed out of mind, because
 there appears no real danger of. either
 any more. According to the Railway
 Age: "In the seven weeks ended on Sep
 tember 27, the total number of carloads lof grain. and grain products moved ex-
 ceeded 100000 cars. This was 121, ,50O
 more than in the corresponding weeks of
 1919, when the railways were under gov
 ernment operation; 157,000 more than lin. 1920; 61,O00 more than in 1921; S4, 900 more, thani in 1922, and S7, 1000 more than in 19239s This is good showing and publicly very gratifying, in spite of the fact that the Railway Age empha-
 sizes the excess tonnage over the similar tpsriod in the last year of government topsration.
 That this is not necessarily to be in- Eterpreted adversely to the efficiency of the warsenforced public operation of the railroads is shown by two admissions in the Railway Ages comment. First, if the railroads in 1924 hauled 121,500
 more cars of grain in the fall of 1924
 than in the same period in 1919 under
 government operation, it must not be forgotten that the railroads now have 271,397 more cars to do it with. This alone would not argue superior efficiency of the, present management. Then, as the Railway Age further states, there
 has been in the fall of 1924 "a world wide increase in the demand for Ameri- can grain" Perhaps the; railways in the fall of 1919 might have been made to haul more grain if they had had more grain to haul, There is no point in using the period of emergency government op- eration of the railways as a text against public operation, for the purpose was not primarily to benefit the roads, but to move the necessary goods at all costs. Then, too, if it took the private manage ments two years to re-organize, in spite of much railway experience on the part of rail officials, it might be admitted that the government did pretty well during it's brief effort, all things being consid- cred. I.#.. t%a. f.9.E
 Nevertheless, the people of this coun- try do not favor public operation of the railroads except sn unavoidable emer- |gency. All the people want is faif deal ing and efficient operation of the rail facilities. It appears that the railways have in the past two or three years dis covered that they can operate far more efficiently than was customary in the past. They now make one freight car doathe work formerly requiring two or more. Thus necessity has reduced waste ful methods to lower point than ever before, and the need for new equipment has been correspondingly lessened. It may not be too much to say that the stress full railroad period of 1920 and 1921 has been invaluable to the railroads in fore ing them to practice economies in ad- ministration and operation, neglect of which had been costing the people of this country heavily in years past. More di- rect routings, less free loading and un- loading time, charging cars to capacity, and the like, have made it possible for the roads to haul more goods with pro- portionately less equipment than ever before.
 Yet the Railway Ages belief that the farmers will do well to turn deaf ear to the LaFollette doctrine is we'll taken, for LaFollette is "advocating the most radical and destructive policy of railway regulation ever sponsored by any group of men in this country. There may be some virtue in LaFollette's criticisms, but there is no doubt that his remedies are extreme and likely to be far more pub licly injurious than the evils he seeks to cure. There are railway practices that must be discouraged, and there are rate which must be corrected, just as there are railroad favorftisms that cannot be tolerated; but all these things require adjustment and not major op- erations.
 Such adjustments are continually in process and more are contemplated. There are sufficient authorized agencies of government to correct the outstand- ing abuses, if these agencies will do their duty, as to a great extent they are do- ing. With that prospect the people should for the present, at least, be con- tent, seeking only such major admins trative changes as will make the present laws and commissions more fully opera tive and defensive of the public trust with which they are. charged.