Evening star., 1932-04-17
Continued From Third Page3

tie taxpayer pays in the long run
and generally not such long run at
that.
But the bus is not the gasoline COM
hs&itor that the railroad fears the
most. For every man who rides in a
bus upon q highway, at least four are
riding in privately owned and operated
motor cars. Here the flexibility only
increaSeS-the motor car owner makes
his own schedules. is free to come or
go when or where he wills, to a de-
gree that makes the railroader scratch
his head sadly and wonder how he can
combat this sort of thing solution
of the problem seems impossible
There is one possibility. however
the better Development Of the local pas
senger train upon the American rail-
road for it is in the local OF Short
haul traffic that the highway has It's
chief opportunity to devaState the rail-
road. Automatically some Of the un-
fair advantages that the motor bus and
the motor truck have over the railroad
are now being checked by the various
State Legislatures. Taxes are being re-
adjusted to figure which a little
more nearly represents the great wear
and tear upon pavementS and sharp
restrictions against oversize and over
speed are being more rigidly enforced.
Local Train Not Licked.
The local train is not necessarily
whipped as yet-especiaAy on slightly
longer haulS. Given attractive coaches
and good swift running time. the rates
we'll adjusted to the needs ol the sit
uation it seeks to meet. and 1t still
stands good fighting chance of get
ting its own fair share of the passenger
fro moro thar,
real right to expect. The longer the
run, the better that chance becomes
To this very end many Of our railroads
already are moving.
These passenger details of the rail-
road picture are repeated with remark
able accuracy when one comes to the
freight traffic.
More than a year ago the American
railroad first began to realize the de-
vastation that the trucking interests,
using the fine new public highways of
the land. were Wreaking upon them.
Motor trucks were making sad inrOadS
upon railroad freight traffic, particu
larly the less than carload or package
freight The roads should have in
stalled a pickup and delivery system
long ago but they had not so done
Here was one way the truck had them
badly whipped In small towns big
trucks came. ofttimes in the middle OF
the night or very early morning. and
exchanged goods with small trucks on
local runs Public streets and open
squares Were-and still aroused for
this freight interchange, many times in
communities where the railroads long
ago built large freight interchange sta
tions at no small cost to themselves,
upon which they are paying goodly
taxes in addition to sizable pay rolls.
From the truck interChanges the aver
age town gets nothing whatsoever save
wear and tear upon its pavementS. And
only the expert highway engineers know
how great this really is.
Some Of the railroads themselves
have made use of the highways as cor
relating factors Through contractors
or otherwise they have operated their
own trucks in connection with their
train service, and few Of them, in
New Jersey and in Eastern Pennsyl-
vania, have recently adopted an ingeni-
GUS method of placing truck bodies
upon fat cars Such methods are ad
vances In the long run the highway
must correlate with the railroad, not
combat it. There is plenty of traffic
for each. 1t takes only fair degree OF
intelligence to discover which traffic Is
best suited for the different forms Of
carriers.
There are other bEsght sides to this
certain fundaznentaa things: Co-opera-
ton, consolftafion, elimination. The
fact that the roads have not succeeded
very well up to the present time in real
cooperation Is no token that the thing
cannot be done In certain sporadic
instances it already has been done, and
done well. The work of the American
Railway Association in its car service
division and in its Advisory Committee
in cooperation with the shippers shows
what may be accomplished when the
proper start is once given. A thousand
or more little matters Of difference, be-
tween the roads and their patrons,
which in other days might easily have
led to the filing of actions before the
State or the Federal regulatory COM
missions, have been quietly and amic-
ably adjusted-out of coure-and
friendships kept where otherwise they
might easily have been destroyed.
Consultations Important.
The most necessary thing by far in
the railroad world today is the CONSOLE
dation Of many of our minor and major
roads into far larger single properties.
This radical step, commanded by the
LIdnSEjDIbaI act OI ~ years dkO, has
been a long time in proceSS-due. once
again. to this inability of the roads 10
cooperate. Yet you can hardly expect
so presidents of so important individual
railroads-almost every one of them
man who has climbed to the top
through the force Of sheer ability. lead
ership and decision and years Of con-
slant battling-to sit in docile fashion
and take orders from another, particu-
larly when those orders NAV seem to
spell disaster to the presidents own
property in which he holds an inordi-
nate pride, to say nothing of large
sense of responsibility. Talk about
Gattt- CasaZZa or Herbert WitherspoOn
and their groups OF prima -dOnnas!
Handling a bunch Of opera singers is
a BONANZA in comparison with motley
Of railroad presidents
In these 10 years a few steps actually
have been accomplished In railroad con-
solldation-but not manY. The South
ern Pacific has completely absorbed the
former El PasO l. Southwestern. and
the Baltimore & Ohio has taken over
the Chicago & Alton, the Buffalo ROcn-
ester Pittsburgh, and one or two 9TH
ers-and has coveted both the Reading
and the Central Of New Jersey for the
entrance they give into New York. as
we'll as a possible short line across
Pennsylvania
Daniel Willard Of the B & O. has
displayed a vast amount of energy in
this entire consolidation plan. For a
time he was almost the only outstand-
ing railroad president who in his heart
and soul favored the scheme By his
driving force and almost unlimited pa
thence ne recently brought the heads of
the other three leading railroad systems
In the NortheaSt-the Pennsylvania. the
New YORK Central and the Van Swer-
in2en lines-into accord on the So
called four-system plan" For a time
this had threatened to be a five-system
arrangement Leonor F. Ioree. presi-
dent of the Delaware Hudson, was
anxious TO use that property. the Ie-
high Valley and the Wabash in the
concoction Of fifth trunk-line prop
erty between New York and Chicago
and st. Louis To give this fifth trunk
1frA1