New Britain herald., 1929-12-06
PELLEY 0PT|M|ST
 ON TRADE FUTURE
(Continued from Page Three)


 which traffic through New England ports can be further developed.
 More sympathetic treatment on , the part of state regulatory bodies in connection with use of more eco- nomical rail units or the substitution of bus on light passenger lines. { Further extension of use of railroad operated trucks in expedit- ing freight movements-a project already we'll advanced by both the New Haven and Boston and Maine. , There is another situation which l believe should, and l feel sure will, be corrected (even if legisla- tion is necessary so that the rail- 7 reads may not be strangulated in their efforts to retain and regain that traffic which I believe is lc- ultimately and logically theirs. re- | fer to store door pick up and deliv- cry service by truck, coordinate1 with intermediate rail service. To- day the railroads may not legally : perform this service and meet all- " the-way truck rates (which are ad- ministered without any regulation or tarif) without filing tariffs for the trucking ,ervioe as we would file ! tariffs for rail service.
 "The result is that we have a frozen set of rates permitting of TO tleXibility to meet the very elastic { independent truck rates. I believe th time will come when the rail- read may legally take such com mon sense action as will enable them 10 coordinate store door pick up and delivery with rail haul, and which will give the shipper re- sponsible transportation agency - door to door.
 7 ''Dscontinue the employment of the independent self-styled traffic experts who make their living by pot hunting tactics and who have no particular interest in the contin- uing welfare of the shipper, com- munity or railroad On the other hand, encourage the more general . employment of the regular indus- trial traffic manager who is a real asset to the carrier, shipper and community.
 We shall continue to welcome a free discussion of our respective problems with the accredited traffic representatives of industries or or ganizations-and we shall make even greater efforts on our part to settle these questions across the ta- ble-and out Of court"
 President Todd's Speech
 President Todd spoke as follows:
 One Of the sections of the Transportation Act, enacted by Congress in 1920, provides that rail. . - roads shall be honestly, efficiently and economically operated' So far as my knowledge goes there is no difficulty in administering a rail road honestly; ] think all shippers twill admit that during the past few years they have been operated efficiently; but when it comes to operating them economically it is q sshard task and one which the ship pers unconsciously sometimes ren- der very difficult and in this re- spect l refer more particularly 10
 
 Q in agricultural products.
 'At a recent meeting of the New England Shippers Advisory Board at Poland Springs, Maine, the Gen. ..eral Manager of our company call ed attention to the fact that com ment in the public press is very frequent in regard to the large
 
 ~ California, usually about GO.O00 carloads, but that no one in New England seemed to think or take much notice of the fact that last year there was in excess of 40,000 carloads of potatoes shipped from the State of Maine and this year it will probably reach 50,000 carloads, % per cent of which will come from one county-Aroostook l re- peat that statement here because it iS rather characteristic of New England not to get excited about or "to think very much about New England products.
 "In the movement of this large volume of potatoes, which of course come under the head Of 'pershable freight much difficulty has existed in the past due to the fact that the potato shippers have &no regular organization and no res;- uiar marketing methods; the marx etlng of these potatoes has always been more or less of a haphazard transactions: for instance, the first car seems invariably to be shipped to Boston, which is natural enough. but because the first car went to that market every other shipper Nand there are hundreds of them--- forwards his potatoes to Boston, with the result that that market is quickly over-stocked and the price sdrops. Then some bright shipper will conceive the idea of selling in New York and everybody will fol- low him and they glut the New York market. In the meantime Hundreds, and in some cases thou sands of cars to be loaded with po- tatoes, have been ordered and when a drop in the market comes the or hders for these cars are cancelled and the Bangor and Aroostook is left with one or two thousand empty cars on hand, belonging to other Arailroads, on which they have to pay Sl per day per car per diem charge and this has gone on year after year, causing a vast addition al expense to our company and making 1t almost impossible to con. form with that clause in the law that provides that a railroad shall .Ee operated economically and yet tthe railroad is not to blame for this
 ''The same condition existed ir the West and particularly in the Northwest. in the nnoYemeut ni