The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-06-21
Bv WEsTBROOK PEGLER

|
ate heartily in the matter OF keeping off the
train. this summer because, not to make a
patriotic virtue of this decision, the going is
| Just too tough nowadays. may have to take
a couple of hops to Washington but no fair
person would call that run a pleasure trip
because the journey itself is a monotonous
grind after the first few hundred times and
about all do is tear over those magnificent
distances pretty much of the mileage on foot,
| trying to see people who have just moved to
another set of offices just around the corner
! from where l was when I started out to call
| on them And the heat is awful there now and
| the locals who home there and can't get away
lhave taken such a beating from dear old
friends whom they hardly knew by sight back
| in the old hometown that they tip-toe around
| their quarters behind drawn shades and black
out the lights at night, and have adopted a
habit of sying when they answer the phone,
!; eyes this is Sassafras 3709 but this is
lO'Brien's garage and there is not no Spelvin
| lives here"
1t took long time to satisfy a longing
that was aroused back In Minnesota When
hung around the Water-tank down by the depot
and heard those marvellous stories OF their
tours hither and yon from the buns who
| dropped off there to rinse out a shirt and
catch little sleep in the bushes by the right
of way 1t took hundreds Of days and nights
| between here and Chicago and Detroit and
the South and the West coast but am cured
and in fact my trouble nowadays is not in
keeping off the cars but in getting myself
going when I know I ought to go somewhere
| and see some people, personally, about some
thing.
| The railroad men have done wonderful
lob pushing the traffic along in this war and
| have to admire their courage in sticking to
| the road because some OF the old conductors
| have told me very frankly that the equipment
is lust hanging together and some OF the new
talent simply can't appreciate the Importance
| o. the rules of safety. | happen to know a
couple of railroad residents, too, whose last
thought as they drop off at night is a dread
that the phone will ring and the office will
saw that the big train has piled into freight
| or hit curve little too fast somewhere and
tumbled down a mountain. This happens often
nowadays and the fine old record OF safety
| in railroad travel is just memory and
standard to strive for after the war when
there will be new cars and plenty OF men
to work over them and TX up spongy places
! in the roaGbedS.
| Up to now not many Of our people have
| taken seriously the exhortatons from Wash
ington to stay off the railroads and give the
| service men and, for that matter, the country,
a break. Or, anyway, those who did take then,
seriously have been heavily outnumbered by
| the thousands who didn't A great many OF
| these civilian passengers have been relatives
| of service men going to visit them in camp
or going to the seaboard in the hope of seeing
them off or greeting them their return.
Some of the traffic 10 the coastal areas has
consisted of relatives hurrying to the hospitals.
| There has been no analysis of the reasons
for civilian travel however, because our PEG.
pie are not the kind to give you polite
answer if you step up, flashing badge, and
| ,ap1aa
Nevertheless the railroad men hear enough
| to be sure that lot of their business, which
they distinctly do not want, has been idle and
unnecessary jaunting by people who just want
to see the country and go somewhere.
Some business men simply have to keep
going, such as some I know whose jobs are d.
vided between Chicago and New York and
Washington Their life is hard these days be.
cause they can't be sure whether they are
going to get Pullman accommodations and a
man who is working hard and has to spend
two nights week Gathering across the cocn-
try can't be blamed for wanting a little room
| so that he doesn't have to stand on the back
of his neck in the morning to pull his pants
on and wait in line to take off the whiskers
The meals are poor, the air conditioning goes
|haywire causing an almost Suffocating atmos-
|phere and they are groggy two days week
after their travels.
| That jam up around Buffalo last winter was
awful. The Twentieth Century, one of the
greatest trains in the world, froze Up couple
of times, lights would fail in some Of the
cars and one night in New York the great
century was more than an hour late backing
into the slot in Grand Central to load up for
the run to Chicago.
| The western trains are worse, however, and
eating is catch-as-catch-can proposition with
priorities for service men, and usually, only
two meals a day.
| I think one reason why people thought it
didn't mean them, personally, when Washing
ton asked them to have heart for the service
men and their families was that we got
very bad example from some prominent in
dividuals who also thought it didn't mean them.
These people were on the 60 constantly and
then we would read of big union officials
tripping to Miami and New Orleans for dis
cussions that could have been conducted by
phone and out to San Francisco for the peace
conference which was more their business
than it was the business Of the Elks or the
retail druggist and say to ourselves that if
| this travel was necessary, SO was ours.
| But I assure the o. D. T. that l will not
press my right to stand in a red-hot train
corridor for hundred miles to catch a sorry
meal dumped on the table by an overWorked
and exhausted waiter or to cling to the furni-
ture as some dashing jockey up front does his
best to straghten out curve. l will waive
| DOGS AND MONEY.