The Washington times., 1928-04-23
RE ADJUSTMEN Nj
Of RAIL WAYS
FORECAST
By MERRYLE STANLEY
RUKEYSER

NEW YORK. April 23.--The coun-
trv may be on the eve.of q radical
reorganization Of the railroad pas
senger service.
Postwar railroad prosperity has
been based almost exclusively on
revenues from carrying freight.
There Is widespread dissatisfaction
ON the part OF railroad executives
with the passenger situation.
r. B. White, president of the Gem
tral Railroad of New Jersey, in con-
versation. remarked that, il the rail-
road builders could have foreseen
conditions it would have been more
profitable to have built exclusively
freight carriers and exclusively pas.
senger roads. The safety devices and
high speed arrangements OF passen-
ger lines, he said, were not needed
by freight carriers,
. Cuts Into Business
The development Of the bus and
the /: automobile has been persistently
cutting into railroad revenues
throughout the country. and yet the
Interstate Commerce Commission re-
ouires the roads to give at least
3, minimum schedule of service all
along the line. Some executives ex-
pect further losses from continued
use Of the automobile and later
from more widespread adoption Of
the airplane. At first, railroad ex-
ecutives tried to fight the newer
agencies of transportation. but they
soon discovered that 50 doing was
futile. Now they are coming to
show wider vision. They are grad
ually using buses and motor trucks
as feeders. and the more progress.
sive are considering the feasibility
of using airplanes az supplements
to their regular service.
Az for rates, railroad executives
take this position. IL the public de-
sires to travel along certain routes
by automobile. instead OF by train,
and yet insists that the train be
there to give service in bad weather.
it must be prepared to pay higher
rate than If the train was regularly
patronized.
Railroad executives complain that
the chief gains in demand for passen-
ger service Is from commuters, which
they a1lege Is the least profitable
business.
Incidentally. the railroads centering
at the port of New York are COM
planning that the new Holland Tun-
mel under the Hudson River il TAX
ing revenues from the railroad -owned
terry lines. The railroads are find
Ing that they cannot stand still like
the Pyramids of Egypt while all
other industries have been making
astounding progress.
IL the railroads either individually
or collectively set up great research
laboratories, such as the Bell TeIe-
phone System, the General Electric
Company and e. /. du pont DE
Nemours & Co. maintain, their fu-
ture success would be more as
sured.
Crop Reporting
After numerous fumbles in recent
years, which brought widespread
complaint. the crop reporting board
of the United States Department of
Agriculture has done the most mag.
mA4C6Ht Jou u AIS career Ia AUES"
casting the 1927.192S cotton crop.
w. r. Callander, chief, modestly
ascribes the good record partly to
the fact that 1t was an average
crop reacting In accordance with
the figures of past performance.
However, the Improvement il also
due to the marked strides In scien.
tific methods made by this govern
mental agency in recent years. 1t
has substituted mechanical means
for offsetting the bias Of human
crnn reporters. who have been in.