The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-06-14

| AAShl UAOASh OANOth 4Ox 1AOkG freight cars to take ere of in- creased defense transportation loads.
 A lot of things have happened to the railroad picture since the roads were caught with their tracks down in 1917, when freight piled up at the Atlantic ports, when 5000 car- loads of materials for Hog Island shipyards could not be unloaded, when cars were used for storage, when demurrage charges ran Into millions, when whole trains were tied up In traflc snarls because of wild ordering, unscheduled delivery, complete lack of organization or coordination. That was the mess that Railroad Administrator Wil- liam c. McAdoo tried to unscram- ble.
 FOLLOW
 THE RULE . Today, under J. J. Policy as pres- ident, the Association of American Railroads has as its Rule No. for all shippers and receivers, Don't load cars until you know they can be unloaded." Strict adherence to that simple rule has done more to keep the railroad situation un- tangled than all the government regulation that could be devised, and 1t has left the railroads in Q sound position to handle any peak loads that can be showed on them now.
 To show how the rule has worked, take typical case of the construc- tion of the big powder plant at Ra. venna, O. The area Is served by four railroads Before construction began, traffic men went to the con- tractor, got his schedule of mater ials and time wanted for delivery Then, by enforcing the rule of don't load-till-you-can- unload, 1t was possible to make sure that roofing didMN arrive before the structural steel and have to stand around on sidings in boxcars.
 That same principle has been used in handling all the material being shipped to Britain under the lease-lend bill. Goods are simply not shipped to the seaboard until there Is boat in port ready to receive it's cargo.
 One of the first acts in the pres- ent emergency was for the railroads [ oput manager of military trans portation in the ofiice of the quar- termaster general in Washington. It was his job to keep informed on all Army and Navy cont, cts, supply problems and troop 'ovements. Working through 'eA ieFvice d. vision of the 4 of Amer ican Railroads, % function of this office G te railroad problems and sea the euulp- ment was availabl~ so ao the haul- ing job at the time required.
 The next problem was to anti- cipate what the probable rail loads might be, right through l942. The railroads asked the government for It's estimates, and the slide rule boys in the statistical section of what is now Offlce of Production Management got busy. By Q neat calculation based on what they ex- pected the national income to be, this year and next, and the relation of that income to the national in- come and the freight hauled in 1926 and 1929, the years that the rail- roads broke all records, they came up with the calculation that freight car loadings for this year would be 76 per cent of the 1928-20 peak av- craze, and 1942 loadings about 8l per cent.
 The peak job for the railroads will therefore come in October, 1942, when they estimate some e30,000 cars will be loaded, with the total for next year at 42,493 900 cars. The record for 1929 was 5S,000,0 ,000 cars. STRIKE THREAT
 AHEAD
 Equipment now being better. with freight train efficiency and per- formance twice as good as 1t was in 1920 as to speed of trains, freight per car and per train, the railroads think they can do the job ahead.
 Railroads won't, of course, be without their headaches. Staring at them are threats of priorities con- trol, restriction of shipping facilities to manufacturers not complying with governmetal price regulation and, most direct and most import ant of all, the threat of . strike of their l,l50,00O employees for in- creased wages of half . billion dol- lars a year.
 This Is another one of those strikes that won't be allowed to happen" but the success of nego- tiations will be . test of the model Railway Mediation Board and its cooling off machinery.