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diff --git a/40125.txt b/40125.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 72f2c87..0000000 --- a/40125.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7994 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Railroad Problem, by Edward Hungerford - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: The Railroad Problem - - -Author: Edward Hungerford - - - -Release Date: July 2, 2012 [eBook #40125] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAILROAD PROBLEM*** - - -E-text prepared by David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (http://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 40125-h.htm or 40125-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40125/40125-h/40125-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40125/40125-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - http://archive.org/details/railroadproblem00hungrich - - - - - -THE RAILROAD PROBLEM - - -[Illustration: _Courtesy of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway._ - -An interesting illustration of rail-power development. Notice the -evolution of the crude steam engine of 1848 into the giant locomotive of -1913, which in turn is overshadowed by the later arrival--electricity.] - - -[Illustration: _Courtesy of the C. M. & St. P. Railway._ - -Steam, the giant power, which, by welding our states together with bands -of steel, has been a mighty factor in the unifying of the nation.] - - -THE RAILROAD PROBLEM - -by - -EDWARD HUNGERFORD - -Author of "The Modern Railroad," etc. - -Illustrated - - - - - - - -Chicago -A. C. McClurg & Co. -1917 - -Copyright -A. C. McClurg & Co. -1917 - -Published April, 1917 - -W. F. Hall Printing Company, Chicago - - - - - To An Old Friend, and a Good One - SAMUEL O. DUNN - - - - -Acknowledgment - - -I wish to express my indebtedness to the editors of _Collier's_, _Every -Week_, and the _Saturday Evening Post_ for their very gracious permission -to use, as portions of this book, parts of my articles which have appeared -recently in their publications. To Mr. E. W. McKenna of New York is due a -special word of appreciation for his helpfulness in the preparation of -this book. - -E. H. - - - - -Contents - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I The Sick Man of American Business 1 - - II The Plight of the Railroad 5 - - III Organized Labor--The Engineer 30 - - IV Organized Labor--The Conductor 45 - - V Unorganized Labor--The Man with the Shovel 62 - - VI Unorganized Labor--The Station Agent 77 - - VII The Labor Plight of the Railroad 90 - - VIII The Opportunity of the Railroad 105 - - IX The Iron Horse and the Gas Buggy 134 - - X More Railroad Opportunity 158 - - XI The Railroad and National Defense 181 - - XII The Necessity of the Railroad 217 - - XIII Regulation 235 - - Index 261 - - - - -Illustrations - - - PAGE - - Illustration of rail-power development _Frontispiece_ - - The engineer 34 - - The knight of the ticket punch 54 - - The section gang 66 - - The station agent 82 - - The Pennsylvania's electric suburban zone 114 - - Electricity into its own 114 - - The Olympian 130 - - Ore trains hauled by electricity 130 - - The motor-car upon the steel highway 152 - - The adaptable motor-tractor 152 - - When freight is on the move 158 - - The Bush Terminal 166 - - Freight terminal warehouse at Rochester 166 - - The railroad in the Civil War 182 - - The railroad "doing its bit" 186 - - America's "vital area" 196 - - Rock Island government bridge 206 - - Railroad outline map of the United States 216 - - The Royal Gorge 244 - - - - -ERRATUM - - -The word "telephone" on page 182, line 2, should read "telegraph." - - - - -THE RAILROAD PROBLEM - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE SICK MAN OF AMERICAN BUSINESS - - -On a certain estate there dwells a large family of brothers and sisters. -There are many of them and there is great variety in their ages. They are -indifferent to their neighbors; they deem themselves quite -self-sufficient. But, for the most part they are an industrious family. -They are a family of growing wealth--in fact, in every material sense they -may already be called rich. And their great estate is slowly beginning to -reach its full development. - -In this family there are several older brothers who long since attained a -strength and dominance over some of the younger members of the family. It -is one of these brothers about whom this book is written. It does not -assume to be a story of his life. That story has been told by abler pens. -It merely aims to be a brief recital of his present condition. For, truth -to tell, this older brother has come upon hard times. After a long life of -hard work, at a time when his service should be of greatest value to the -estate, he has broken down. He has begun to fail--and in an hour when the -greedy neighbors grow contentious and he may be of greatest service to his -own big family. - -The Railroad is the great sick man of the American business family. He is -a very sick man. Doctors may disagree as to the cause, sometimes as to the -nature, of his ailment; they may quarrel even as to the remedies they deem -necessary for his recovery. But there is no question to the fact that he -is ill. Just at this time, owing to the extraordinary and abnormal -prosperity that has come to the United States, largely because of the -great war in Europe, he has rallied temporarily. But his illness -continues, far too deep-seated to be thrown off in a moment. And the -recent extraordinary legislation passed by Congress has done nothing to -alleviate the condition of the sufferer. On the contrary, it has been a -great aggravation. - -I make no pretense as a doctor. But in the course of ten years of study of -our American railroads certain conditions have forced themselves upon my -attention--time and time again. I have had the opportunity to see the -difficulties under which the railroads labor and some of the difficulties -which the railroads have carved for themselves. I have had the chance to -see how a mass of transportation legislation has acted and reacted upon -these great properties. I have known and talked with their employees--of -every station. And I have made up my own mind as to the great opportunity -that still awaits the railroad in America. For I am firmly convinced that -the great transportation organism of the United States has but scratched -the surface of its usefulness. It is this last phase of the railroad that -is, or should be, of greatest interest to every American. - -Within the short space of the pages of this book, I am going to try to -show first the financial plight that has overtaken the overland carriers -of our country. I am less of a financier than physician. But the figures -upon which my premises are builded have been obtained by a veteran -railroader; they have been carefully checked by expert auditors and -railroad statisticians, and as such they may be called fundamental. - -Given first the financial and the physical plight of our railroads as it -exists today, we shall come to another great phase of its weakness--the -labor question. Partly because of a disposition to put off the real -solution of this problem to a later and apparently easier day, and partly -because of conditions over which the railroads have had no control -whatsoever, this problem has grown from one of transportation to one of -politics--politics of the most vexed and complicated sort. We shall look -at this labor question from the most engrossing angle--the human one--and -we shall try to look upon it from the economic and financial angle as -well. And we shall reserve our real opinion as to its solution until we -have had the opportunity to look from the depressing picture of the -railroad of today to the picture--by no means conceived in entire -fancy--of the railroad of tomorrow. - -Upon that second picture we shall build our opinion as to the present -necessities of the railroads. Because, in my own mind, it is only as the -railroad seeks opportunity, as it seeks to enlarge its vision, that it -will be given the chance to live as a privately owned and managed -institution. It is today close to the parting of the ways, and the men -who control it have come now to the point where they will have to -choose--the one path or the other. It will no longer be possible to delay -the decision of a really vital economic question to a later, and an -easier, day. - - * * * * * - -Around the bedside of this sick man of our great estate are gathered the -physicians and the nurses. They are a motley lot. One of the nurses is -called Labor, and at first thought you will think him well worth watching. -Another nurse is more appealing at first sight. She is a slender -_spirituelle_ thing. We call her Regulation. Perhaps she is worth -watching, too. Perhaps her ways should be mended. She is not bad at heart; -oh, no! but she has had bad advisers. Of that you may be sure--at the -beginning. - -And it is quite certain that until she does mend her manners, until Labor, -the other nurse, does likewise, the caller who stands around the corner -will not come in the sick room. The invalid constantly calls for him. The -man around the corner is known as Capital. He holds a golden purse. But -you may be quite sure that he will not come to the sick man and thrust the -purse within his fingers until both Labor and Regulation have changed -their manners. - -There are no two sides to such an argument. - -With which statement let us turn from parables and toward plainer -speaking. Let us begin consideration of the plight of the railroad. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE PLIGHT OF THE RAILROAD - - -Remember that the Railroad is the big man in the American business family, -the very head of the house, you may say. Sick or well, he dominates his -brothers--even that cool, calculating fellow whom we delight to call "the -Banking Interests." All America pays toll to transportation. And, inasmuch -as the steam railroads are its dominating form of transportation, the -entire country hangs upon them. In the long run this country can prosper -only when its railroads prosper. - -Do you wish to dispute them? Before the facts your contention will not -hold very long. According to the last census more than 1,700,000 persons -were directly employed upon the steam railroads of the United States; some -2,400,000 in industries bearing directly upon the railroads--lumber, car -and locomotive building, iron and steel production, and the mining of -coal. It is a goodly number of folk whose livelihood, or a large portion -of it, comes from an indirect relation to the railroad. It has been said, -with a large degree of statistical accuracy, that one person in every ten -in the United States derives his or her living from the railroad. - -Perhaps you are not one of this great family of 10,500,000 persons--more -folk than dwell in the great state of New York, including the second -largest city upon the face of the world. Granted this--then probably you -are one of the 10,000,000 savings-bank depositors in the United States. If -you are, you are an indirect holder of railroad securities. The -savings-banks of this country have many, many million dollars of their -savings invested in railroad bonds. If you have not even a savings-bank -account let me assume that you have a life-insurance policy; there are -three life-insurance policy-holders for every savings-bank depositor. The -value of every one of those 34,000,000 policies depends on the wealth that -is locked up within the strong boxes of the life-insurance companies. And -a very great proportion of that wealth is expressed in the stocks and -bonds of railroad companies. - -Try as you may, you cannot escape the dominance of the railroad in -financial and industrial America. You might have neither savings-bank -account nor insurance policy of any sort, yet the railroad would touch you -constantly, through both your income and your outgo. If you were a city -man, it would touch you not only in the prices that you pay for milk and -meat and vegetables, but for the rent of your house or apartment. As I -write, the entire East is panic-stricken for fear of a coal famine, faces -steadily rising prices. The production at the mines, despite a scarcity of -labor, has not been far from normal. But the railroad has failed in its -part of the problem--the providing of sufficient cars to transport the -coal from the mines to the consumer. It has been hard put to find cars to -move the munitions of war from the interior to the seaboard towns. And the -coal mines, because of the lack of railroad cars, have been unable to -relieve the situation. So panic has resulted. Upon its heels have come -similar, if somewhat lesser panics over the congestion and lack of -delivery of foodstuffs--conditions which have been reflected in rises in -the prices, if not in the value of most foods. These prices already have -reached higher figures than at any time since the Civil War. Today they -are nearly even with those which prevailed during the dark days of the -sixties. And even if they are due directly to crop shortages and abnormal -exports they still are a reflex of the railroad's intimate touch with -every man, woman, and child all the way across the land. - -Sitting on the porch of his home at dusk, the farmer looks out over his -broad acres, sees the great industrial aids that American invention has -given him for the growing and the harvesting of his crops and forgets, -perhaps, that on each of these mechanical devices he has paid a toll to -the railroad. But when he looks to his wheatlands he must recall that it -is the railroad that carries forth their crops--not only to the cities and -towns of the United States, but to the bread-hungry land, far overseas. In -those markets he competes with the wheat from lands so far distant that -they seem like mere names wrenched from the pages of the geography -book--Argentina, India, Australia. Because of this alone, it is nationally -important that the steel highways which lead from our seaport gateways -inland to the wheat and corn fields be kept healthy and efficient. They -have become integral parts of that broad national policy which says that -the United States is no longer isolated or insular but one of the mighty -company of world nations. - -Will you permit me for a moment to enlarge upon this point--this -competition between our farmer of the West and the farmer of the Argentine -Republic, of India, of Australia, and of the nations of the Baltic Sea in -the market of the consuming nations of the world? As the wheat fields of -each of these nations are nearer tidewater than the wheat fields of the -United States, it long ago became necessary for our railroads to lower the -transportation rate for grain in order that the American farmer might not -become submerged in this great international competition. That this has -been done, a single illustration will show: - -A bushel of wheat today is transported from the center of the great -granary country of our Northwest or Southwest to tidewater--an average -distance of 1,700 miles--for 27 cents. This is at the rate of .53 of a -cent--a minute fraction over half a cent--per ton-mile. The average -ton-mile rate in Great Britain, 2.30 cents, as applied to our average -grain haul in the United States of 1,700 miles, would make the -transportation cost of American wheat four and one-half times as much, or -$1.21. The American farmer owes a far greater debt to the railroad than he -sometimes may believe. He may have suffered under the oppressions and -injustices of badly managed roads--may yet be smarting from these -oppressions and injustices. But how much greater would be the oppression -and injustice of a high grain rate such as I have just shown? And if such -a rate were imposed upon him, would he be able in an average year to grow -wheat at a profit, to say nothing of being able to compete with it in the -broad markets of the entire world? - - * * * * * - -A minute ago and we were speaking of the abnormal prosperity of the -railroads. The flood first descended in October, 1915. It rapidly mounted -in volume. The railroads declared embargoes, first against this class of -freight and then against that. Solicitation ceased. The bright young men -of their traffic forces were set to work helping the overworked operating -departments, tracing lost cars and the like. The backs of their operating -departments were all but broken. I myself saw last winter on the railroads -for a hundred miles out of Pittsburgh long lines of freight cars laden -with war munitions and other freight making their slow and tedious ways -toward tidewater. I saw Bridgeport a nightmare, the railroad yards of -every other Connecticut town, congested almost overnight, it seemed. The -New York terminals were even worse. For a long time it seemed as if relief -might never reach them. - -It seemed wonderful, but it was not. It seemed like millions in railroad -earnings, but it was not. Translated into the unfeeling barometage of -percentages it all represented but five and one-half per cent on the -actual value of the railroads of the United States. And that, compared -with the long season of lean years that had gone before, was as nothing. - -Take the season of years from 1907 to 1914--a season for which the -statistical records are now complete. Despite the great financial panic of -1907, these were, in some lines of business, mighty prosperous years. The -output of automobiles was to be measured not in hours but in the very -fractions of minutes. You might figure the earnings of the "movies" well -into the millions each twelvemonth; they were building new theaters in all -the cities and the bigger towns, almost overnight it seemed. Manufacturing -and selling, nationally speaking, were up to the average. Yet in those -very years, it was necessary for some of our very best railroads--the best -operated and the best financed, if you please--to dip into their -previously accumulated assets to pay the dividends which they had promised -to their stockholders, in several cases to either lower or omit dividends. -And some of the best of these were also compelled to pinch their -maintenance expenses to a point that brought them close to the safety line -in operation, or even beyond it. - -And what of the weaker roads--the roads upon which whole communities, -whole states, if you please, are frequently absolutely dependent? What did -these roads do in such an emergency? The record speaks for itself. The -best of these second-class railroads made no secret of the fact that they -were cutting down on maintenance in order to pay their dividends or the -interest upon their mortgage bonds. The worst of them simply marched down -the highway to bankruptcy. At no time in the history of this country has -as much of its railroad mileage been in the hands of receivers as today. - -If you are in that glorious company of self-appointed patriots who -violently proclaim themselves at every possible opportunity -"anti-railroad," you may be asking me now why so many of our roads have -entered bankruptcy. You may be asking me if it is not due in some cases to -bad location, and in others to inefficient or dishonest management. I -shall reply to you by saying that perhaps fifty per cent of the railroads -which are in bankruptcy today are there because they never should have -been constructed in the first place and because of the financial -management. The lack of judgment, ofttimes the sinister motives that -brought them into being are now being paid for and paid for dearly. And in -the second place, I will take no issue with you as to either carelessness -or dishonesty in management of some of our railroads. - -"Why is it that every investigation of a railroad nowadays shows such a -rotten condition throughout its affairs?" asked a distinguished economist -at a dinner in Chicago last winter. - -E. P. Ripley, the veteran president of the Santa Fe, answered that -question. - -"It is because a road is never investigated until it is morally certain -that its affairs are rotten," said he, and then told how but one or two -rotten apples would send their foul odors through an entire barrel and so -seemingly contaminate its entire contents. Would you blacken a whole -company because a few of its members have erred? Take another instance. A -club for a while shelters a genuine blackleg. Are we to say that, because -of this mere fact, its other members are not as good as any of us? So it -is with the railroads. You cannot point even the finger of suspicion to -such properties as the Santa Fe, the Burlington, the Pennsylvania, the -North Western, or the Baltimore and Ohio railroads--to mention a few out -of many, many instances. These are good roads; in some instances because -they have been extraordinarily well located, but in most instances because -of their continuous enlightened management. Yet some of them have been -hard put to it of late to maintain their dividend obligations to their -stockholders. And many roads have been compelled to lower or else suspend -entirely the dividends paid in the years gone before. - - * * * * * - -"How about efficiency?" you may interject. - -You are not the first to ask that question. It was asked several years ago -by a distinguished citizen of Boston--Louis D. Brandeis, now a justice of -the Supreme Court at Washington. In the course of a rate hearing in which -he appeared as counsel, Brandeis asked the question, then answered it -himself. - -"I could save the railroads of the United States a million dollars a day, -by applying the principles of modern efficiency to their operations," was -his quiet answer to his own interrogation. - -The remark was a distinct shock to the railroad executives, to put it -mildly. Some of them were angered by it. The wiser ones, however, went -home and sent their secretaries scurrying out after all the books on the -then new science of efficiency that could be found. - -The more they studied efficiency the less these wise men were inclined to -anger against Brandeis. Some of them found that they had been practicing -efficiency on their properties for a long time past--only they had not -known it by that name. They had been rebuilding whole divisions of their -lines, relocating and reconstructing them so as to lower grades and iron -out curves--all to the ultimate of a more economical operation of their -roads. A bettered railroad means invariably a cheaper one to operate. The -saving in grades and curves--no matter what may be the initial cost--means -a more than proportionate saving in fuel cost, as well as in wear and tear -upon the track and cars. - -Remember, if you will, that one of the biggest things that efficiency -spells is economy. And economy is always a popular virtue in railroading, -particularly among those gentlemen whose only interest in the railroads -arises from the fact that they own them. If greater efficiency meant -greater economy--well, perhaps it was just as well that that smart -attorney from Boston made his remark at the rate hearing, only perhaps he -might have phrased it in a little less violent fashion. - -That is why a man like Daniel Willard, the remarkably efficient president -of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad--the man who has done so much toward -rehabilitating that one-time minstrel-show joke into one of the best -railroad properties in the United States--spent days and nights reading -every scrap about efficiency that could be brought to his attention, why -he brought Harrington Emerson, one of the best-known of the efficiency -experts into his own offices and staff, why, beginning with his great car -and engine repair and construction shops, he is gradually extending the -principles of modern scientific efficiency to every corner of the railroad -which he heads. Willard's example has been followed by other railroad -executives. And it is because of these and other efficiency principles -that the best of our railroads have been enabled to crawl through the hard -years of the past decade, without going into bankruptcy. - - * * * * * - -It is a gloomy record--these lean years in Egypt. They came succeeding a -decade of apparent prosperity for most of the railroads. I say "apparent" -advisedly. For, when you get well under the surface of things, you will -find that even the first six or seven years of the present century were -not genuinely prosperous for the overland carriers. Dip into statistics -for a moment. They are dry and generally uninteresting things but -nevertheless they are the straws which will show the way the wind is -blowing. Look at these: - -In 1901 the net capitalization of our railroads was, in round figures, -$11,700,000,000. Six years later, or at the end of the greatest period of -material prosperity that the United States has ever known, this -capitalization had increased to $16,100,000,000--approximately -thirty-seven per cent. - -A great deal has been written about railroad capitalization--a great deal -without knowledge of the real facts in the case, and a great deal more -with knowledge but also with malicious intent. These figures speak for -themselves. Translated, they represent the expenditures of the railroads -for permanent improvements and expansions during that busy seven-year -period. At first glance an expenditure of more than $4,000,000,000 is -staggering. Yet what are the facts? The facts are that hardly one of these -roads expended enough that memorable season to keep pace with the vast -demands of the freight and passenger traffic--particularly the -freight--upon them. We experienced great railroad congestions during the -winters of 1903, 1905, 1906, and 1907. And the loss to the large users of -railroad facilities because of these earlier congestions is no vague -thing; it can be figured high in the millions of dollars. And furthermore -it can be said that there is no period of expansion in recent American -commercial history that has not been both limited and hampered by the lack -of transportation facilities. What a commentary this, on our so-called -national efficiency! - - * * * * * - -Today we are just crossing the threshold of what seems to be an even -greater period in the industrial expansion of the nation.[1] Yet how are -our railroads prepared to meet their great problem? In 1901, as we have -already seen, they met it by an expansion of their physical facilities. -But in 1901 the railroads had credit. In 1916 the credit of many of them -had become a rather doubtful matter. And this, of course, has been a -serious detriment to their expansion--to put it mildly. - -An analysis of the service, both freight and passenger, of the railroads -in the year 1907, the last of the "big years" in railroad traffic, -compared with that of 1914--the most recent year whose figures are -available--is illuminating in estimating railroad credit today, or the -lack of it. The passenger-mile--representing the progress of one train -over one mile of track--is the unit of that form of traffic. In 1914 the -total passenger-miles had increased to 35,100,000,000 from the total of -27,700,000,000 in 1907--or 25.7 per cent. Similarly the ton-mile is the -unit of freight transportation. As the name indicates, it represents the -carrying of one ton of goods of any description for a mile. In 1914 the -ton-miles had grown to 288,700,000,000 from 236,600,000,000--or twenty-two -per cent. - -But, as the traffic grew, it was necessary that the railroad should grow. -Despite supreme difficulties in finding credit it did manage to invest -some $4,042,000,000 in property expansions and reconstructions during the -seven years from 1907 to 1914. Yet this very money must be paid for, and, -in view of the gradually impaired credit, paid for rather generously. At -five per cent, this expenditure represents an added annual interest charge -of $202,101,000 to the railroads of the United States, a figure whose -great size may be the better appreciated when one realizes that it is -considerably more than half a million dollars a day. - -Against this increased outgo one must measure increased revenues for 1914 -over 1907, of $452,188,000--one deals in large figures when one speaks of -the earnings and expenses of more than a quarter of a million miles of -railroad. Yet even increased earnings of more than $400,000,000 are not so -impressive when one finds that operating expenses and taxes in 1914 were -$506,888,000 higher than in 1907. And both operating expenses and taxes -are far higher in 1916 than they were in 1914. - -Hold this picture up to the light. I have begun to develop the huge plate -for you. Now study its details for yourself. An investment of -$4,000,000,000--more than ten times the cost of the Panama -Canal--produced, at the end of a seven-year cycle, increased -transportation earnings of more than $450,000,000; yet it required -$500,000,000, or an excess in a single year of more than $50,000,000, to -meet the pay-roll, material tax, and other costs of operating the -railroads. And in this figure we have not taken account of that annual -interest charge of more than half a million dollars a day for the huge -$4,000,000,000 investment fund. - -That interest charge cannot be ignored. Bankers demand their pay. Add the -deficit in a single year--a normal year, if you please. Here it -is--$54,698,000 plus $202,100,000--and you have a total deficit of -$256,798,000. And this is but a single year. The years that preceded it -were no better. - -The money that went to meet these deficits was provided from some source. -Where did it come from? Most of the big railroaders know. They will tell -you, without much mincing of words, that it came from previous -accumulations of surplus, or else from money withheld from the upkeep of -the physical property of the railroads. Of this last, much more in due -course. For the present moment, consider that great $4,000,000,000 -expenditure between 1908 and 1914 for additions and betterments. It was -none too much--not even enough when one comes to consider it beside the -great expansions in service as represented by the showings of -passenger-miles and ton-miles. And yet today, as we shall see in due -course, the railroads stand in need of far greater development and -expansion than ever before in their history. Five or six years ago that -supreme railroader, James J. Hill, estimated that the railroads of America -would need a further expenditure of $1,100,000,000 a year upon their -properties before they would be in shape even to decently handle the -traffic that would be coming to them before the end of the present decade. -Hill was a master railroader who stood not only close to his properties -but close to the great territory which they serve. He knew that the states -of the Union which are west of the Mississippi River had been developed to -only twenty-seven per cent of their ultimate possibilities. It would be -hard to state the lack of development of the railroads of that territory -in exact percentage. It certainly would be a figure far less than -twenty-seven. - -If you are a traveler at all familiar with the Middle West and the South; -if you are traveling steadily and consistently these years over all of -their rail routes, you must have been convinced of their appalling -condition. Many of their main lines are deplorable; their branch lines are -unspeakable. Branch-line service in every part of the land has been a -neglected feature of railroad opportunity--as we shall see in due course. -But in the Middle West and in the South they are at their worst. If they -do not actually cry aloud from a physical standpoint for reconstruction, -their service, or the lack of it, certainly does. Yet the people, the -communities, and the industries which are situated upon them are entitled -to a railroad service which shall enable them to compete upon an even -basis with the communities and industries which are situated upon rich and -efficiently managed railroads. I feel that this is an economic principle -to which there can be no dissent. And I think also that there can be no -dissent to the wretched plight of many of the roads of the Middle West and -the South--more particularly the Southwest. In rough figures, the -prosperous railroads of the land, representing some forty per cent of its -mileage, are able to give service to their patrons; sixty per cent are -unable to render a proper service. - -But even in the prosperous sections of the West--of the larger proportion -of the country--one who rides and sees and thinks cannot fail to be -impressed with another great cost, yet to come. I am speaking of the -removal of tens of thousands of highway grade crossings, in our towns and -cities and in the open country. Already a good beginning has been made; -but it is as nothing compared with the work which remains to be done. The -coming of the automobile has hastened the necessity of the completion of -this work. The railroads have contrived many ingenious and perfected -methods of safeguarding their highway grade crossings. The best of them -are most inadequate, however. - -The fact remains--a fact that must be particularly patent to you when you -ride across Michigan, or Indiana, or Illinois, or Iowa, or any of their -sister states--that here is a great and vastly expensive work awaiting the -railroads of this country. In the larger cities--New York, Boston, -Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, to name a few striking -examples--many millions have been expended in this work within the past -few decades. While the several communities--in some instances the state -treasuries--have borne a portion of these expenditures, the burden has -fallen invariably upon the backs of the railroads. Fortunately the -railroads which have succeeded in absolutely eliminating many of their -highway crossings--and, in so doing, reducing a large part of their -accident claims--have been the wealthier roads. But that is little -satisfaction to a community unfortunate enough to be situated on the lines -of a bankrupt road. The chances are that its grade crossings, being more -poorly protected, are more dangerous. - -One thing more, while we are upon this subject and are speaking -particularly of this lack of development of the railroads of the West and -of the Southwest. It is an interesting fact that there are but three -railroads--the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, and the Southern -Pacific--which have done any considerable amount of double-tracking west -of the Missouri River. Yet, as we shall see when we come to the military -necessity of our railroads, it is only a double-track railroad which is -competent to handle any really considerable volume of traffic. And it is -equally true that it is more than foolish to attempt to build or to -develop any considerable mileage of branch lines until there are -double-track main stems to serve it adequately. James J. Hill had all -these things in mind when he made his definite statement as to the -financial needs of the railroads of the United States during the present -decade. And he did not need to give consideration to the abnormal traffic -which the great war has given to our railroads. The normal development of -the West, its gigantic possibilities, were sufficient to convince that man -of great vision, to set his ready pencil at statistics. - -As a matter of fact and in view of the record of these past half-dozen -years, the average well-posted railroader of today will tell you that Hill -was only conservative in his estimate. But, being even more conservative -ourselves, let us allow that, if the railroads had been unhampered during -the past decade, they would have expended as high as $1,000,000,000 a year -in permanent improvements.[2] Ten billions instead of four! Ten billions -of dollars makes dramatic comparison even with our great trade balance -that has accumulated during the European war--the excess of exports over -imports already amounting to only a little over $3,000,000,000. And as to -what it would have meant to industrial America, poured out through many -channels, raw materials, manufactured goods, labor--it takes no stimulated -mind to imagine. The flush period into which the war has suddenly plunged -us can give a fair indication. - - * * * * * - -Now consider for a moment not the possible expansion that the railroad -might have made in the last decade and did not, and see how it has failed -in the ordinary upkeep of its property. This last phase of its plight -bears directly upon the great railroad financial problem as it exists in -this year of grace, 1916--the epochal year in which the roads need to -replenish their equipment; the year in which they find the doors of the -money markets, open to almost all other forms of industrial investment, -all but closed in their faces. By equipment, I now speak in the broad -sense of the word not merely of cars and locomotives but tracks and -bridges and terminals as well--the entire physical aspect of the -properties. Yet take, if you will, the word "equipment" in its narrow and -technical sense. The sense of railroad necessity is not lessened. - -The other day the Massachusetts Public Service Commission complained that -the largest of the railroads operating out of Boston was using in its -suburban service some 700 wooden passenger coaches, varying in age from -twenty-five to forty years. The railroad did not deny that allegation. It -merely said that it had no money with which to buy modern coaches. - -Its condition is typical. Week after week in the glorious autumn of the -year of grace 1916, the news columns of the commercial pages of our -morning newspapers were telling with unvarying monotony of the shortage of -freight cars as bulletined by the American Railway Association--100,000 -this week, 75,000 last, 150,000 next--who knows? The merchant and the -manufacturer know. They know in shipments of every sort delayed; in the -delays running into sizable money losses week upon week and month upon -month. - -It may not be able to convince them that at the close of the fiscal year -1914--the period upon which we are working--there were upon the roads of -the United States 2,325,647 freight cars, a number which, although greatly -added to since that date, has not yet been made adequate for the normal -traffic demands of the country.[3] And a large proportion of these cars -are both obsolete and inadequate. In 1914, out of the 2,325,647 freight -cars some 347,000 were of a capacity of but 60,000 pounds or under--a type -today considered obsolete by the most efficient operating man. A great -majority of this latter number of cars was of all-wood construction. If -the financial condition of the railroads had permitted, they doubtless -would have been replaced long since with all-steel cars of far greater -carrying capacity. This situation in the freight-car equipment is -reflected in larger measure in the passenger-car and locomotive situation. -There are railroads in the United States that today are compelled by the -exigencies of a really serious situation to operate locomotives whose very -condition is a menace not only to the men who must ride and operate them -but also to the passengers in the trains they haul. The annual number of -serious delays that may be charged to "engine failure" is appalling.[4] - -Now consider "equipment" in its broader sense. Expert railroaders will -tell you that save in the case of the larger and more prosperous roads, -there has been, in the course of the past seven or eight years, a serious -depreciation in the maintenance of the way and structure of the railroad. -In the prosperous years from 1901 to 1907 a very great improvement was -made in this physical feature of the railroad. In the last of these years -the American railroad reached the highest standard of physical perfection -that it has ever known. - -In 1907 came the great panic. It made drastic economies immediately -necessary. The railroads in their anxiety to meet, first, their dividends, -and second, their interest obligations, pinched maintenance to the extreme -limit. This was effective in two ways: In the first place the great -preponderance of roads did not have earnings to make ordinary -improvements, nor credit to provide the capital charge that would apply -for improved rights of way, bridges, stations, freight houses, shops, and -the like. Expert track engineers say that the loss in the maintenance of -line during these lean years in Egypt that have just passed will average -at least $2,000 a mile. Multiplied by a total of 245,000 miles of railroad -line in the United States this means that the railroads are "back" in the -upkeep of their lines alone some $491,788,000.[5] - -An expert railroader of my acquaintance takes this great -figure--considerably exceeding the cost of the Panama Canal--adds to it as -representing a carefully ascertained deficiency in the replacement of -rolling stock an almost equal sum--$445,940,586. To these he further adds -the dividends paid by the solvent roads out of their surpluses during the -seven hard years--$784,563,406--and the depreciation of the value of the -securities of the roads in bankruptcy during the same period--$719,528,328. -The total of these four great items is $2,441,820,320--a sum instantly -comparable with that of the national debt. - -There is, however, from a bookkeeping standpoint, at least, an offset -against these losses in the equipment account of $394,736,506 which has, -under a wise ruling of the Interstate Commerce Commission, been charged -to expenses during the seven years and set up as a reserve to meet the -accruing deficiency of equipment. However, there have been no restrictions -as to the maintenance of this fund, or how it should be handled. The very -prosperous lines--representing some 100,000 miles, or less than half the -total mileage of the country--probably have their contribution to this -depreciation fund as an asset. In the case of the poorer roads--speaking -financially--it doubtless has been applied to other purposes, in order to -help them maintain their bare existence. It has come home to these, and -with great force, that the governing conditions which make their income -fixed take little cognizance of the vast annual increases in material, in -tax, and in labor costs. In rough figures--decidedly rough, it seems to -me--it has been estimated that the losses of our railroads during the -past ten years alone have amounted to approximately one-half the entire -cost of the Civil War. That figure is impressive--it is little less than -appalling. - -Even with the depreciation accounts of the American railroads deducted as -an asset, we still have this awe-inspiring total of $2,000,000,000 -confronting us. Some of this--the unpaid dividends of more than seven -attenuated years--is water that will never come to the mill again. But the -neglected rights of way, the ancient buildings, and the bridges needing -rehabilitation on some of our railroads, the locomotives and the cars -travel-racked and fairly shrieking for repairs, are all of them physical -matters that must be set right before the sick man of American business -can stand firmly on his feet once again. And when these things are done, -the railroad will stand physically just where it stood from eight to nine -years ago. And who can deny that it should stand nine years ahead of 1917 -instead of nine years behind it? - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ORGANIZED LABOR--THE ENGINEER - - -So much then for the physical condition of the railroad as it exists -today--the condition that constantly is being reflected in its inability -to handle the supertides of traffic that, in this memorable winter that -ushers in 1917, are coming to its sidings and to the doors of its freight -houses. Consider now the condition of its great human factor--its -relations with its employees. I am sure that you will find this, in many -ways, in quite as deplorable a condition as the track and physical -equipment. It is a condition that steadily has grown worse, instead of -better--and this despite a constant improvement in the quality of the -individual men in railroad service. - -There is not an honest-speaking railroad executive all the way across the -land who cannot tell you that he would a dozen times rather deal with the -average individual railroader of today than with the average individual -railroader of, let us say, a quarter of a century ago. With the -railroader's boss--his grand chief and any of the smaller chiefs--well, -here is a far different matter. But there has been a steady improvement in -the quality of railroaders--of every sort and degree. - -If you have traveled upon our steel pathways for twenty years or more you -must have noticed that yourself. The transition of the rough-looking, -rough-speaking, rough-thinking brakeman into the courteous trainman comes -first to my mind. And if the old-time conductor with lantern on his arm -has disappeared, there has appeared a diplomat in his stead, a gentleman -with whom we are soon to become a little better acquainted. We still have -railroad wrecks, some of them admittedly the fault of the engineer. But -apparently we have ceased to have railroad wrecks due to the fact that -there was a drunken man in the engine cab. The last serious wreck where -this accusation was made was near Corning, New York, on the night of the -Fourth of July, 1912. More than forty persons lost their lives in a -rear-end collision and the railroad which paid the damages, both in money -and in reputation, did its very best to follow up a suspicion in its mind -that the engineer of the second train was drunk when he climbed into its -engine cab. It was never able to prove that charge. And one of the best -things that you may say about that extraordinarily well-organized -union--the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers--has been its unceasing -efforts to drive out drinking among its members. Its record along these -lines is of unspotted cleanliness. - -Do you happen to know of Rule G, that stringent regulation in the standard -rule books of the operating departments of the railroads of America, which -is written not alone against the use of liquor by employees when on or off -duty but also against their frequenting the places where liquor is sold? -Time was when the abuse of Rule G sometimes was winked at, upon certain -roads. That time has passed. Today it is perhaps the most stringently -observed of all the manifold commandments in American railroading. And the -influence of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has done much toward -consummating that very end. - -A little while ago an engineer running on one of the soft-coal roads of -West Virginia suspected one of his fellows in the engine cab of drinking. -It disturbed him more than a little. Finally he went to the man. - -"Jim," said he, in the course of their heart-to-heart talk, "you've simply -got to cut out the stuff or--" - -"If I don't, what?" - -"If you don't I'm a-goin' to take it up at the lodge. You know the -Brotherhood's against that sort of thing." - -Jim laid his hand upon the other's arm. - -"Don't do _that_," he protested. "I'd a whole sight rather you'd report -me, if you feel that you've got to report me, to the superintendent." - -There was no doubt in that engineer's mind as to the stand of the biggest -of the brotherhoods on Rule G. Nor is that stand based entirely on -sentiment. The men who stand at the head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive -Engineers never lose sight of the responsibility that rests upon the man -in the engine cab. It is one of the strongest arguments which they may use -in their appeals for increased wages. It is an argument which meets with -ready and popular approval in the minds of the public which rides back and -forth upon the railroad trains of America. And no stronger support can be -offered by the strongest of their organizations than an adherence to Rule -G that is practical as well as theoretical. - -Responsibility in the engine cab! Who is going to deny that the engineer -has a superb responsibility--from the moment when he arrives at the -roundhouse and signs for and receives his engine to the moment when he -"checks out" at the terminal at the far end of his run? To the better -appreciate the fullness of such responsibility, one would do well to climb -into the cab of one of our fast trains and watch the man there at his -task. So, if you would know something of the man in the engine cab, come -and ride a little way with him. It is not easily arranged. The railroaders -have grown very strict in the enforcement of the rule which forbids -strangers in the engine cabs. It is one of the ways in which they have -been tightening their safety precautions. Yet in this one instance it can -be arranged. You sign tremendously portentous legal "releases," whose -verbiage, freely translated, gives you the distinct impression that you -are going to your sure doom. But you are not. You are going to ride with -Jimmie Freeman, crack passenger engineer of one of the best and the -biggest of our eastern railroads. You are going to have a close look at -the man in the engine cab. - - * * * * * - -Forty minutes before the leaving time of Freeman's train her big K-I -engine backs into the terminal from the roundhouse and is quietly fastened -to the long string of heavy cars. The engineer went over the big, clean, -lusterless mechanism before it left the inspection-pit at the roundhouse. -It is part of his routine; part of his pride as well. And even though it -cuts him out of a Sunday dinner with his folks in the little house at the -edge of the town, he prefers that it be so. In his simple, direct way he -tells you that he has the same satisfaction in speeding a locomotive on -which, by personal inspection, he knows that every bolt and nut is in the -proper position, that a crack chauffeur has in speeding a good car up the -boulevard knowing that it, too, is in condition--engine, driver, axles, -all the hundred and one friction parts that must work truly, even at high -speed and under the great heat that high speed generates in a bearing. - -For remember that Freeman's limited is a crack train--its name a household -word at least halfway across the land. He came to it five years ago--a -prize for an engine-runner who had judgment, who had kept a good "on time" -record for eight years with a less important passenger train; a man who -knew the complications of a locomotive as you and I know the fingers of -our two hands. It was not a "seniority" appointment. The "seniority" jobs -come to the very oldest of the passenger engineers who, because of the -very length of their service, are permitted to pick and choose the runs -that would suit them best. These rarely are the very fast runs. They are -more apt to be some modest local train making its way up a branch line and -back, where there is little congestion of traffic and a throttle-man's -nerves are not kept on edge every blessed moment that he is on the job. - - -[Illustration: THE ENGINEER - -Oiling is too important a matter to be deputed, so he attends to it -himself.] - - -Jimmie Freeman did not pick his job. It picked him. It picked him because -he had nerve, a steady head, good physique, a knowledge of the -locomotive and of all of its whims and vagaries. And if his is one of the -hardest jobs on the big road for which he works, he is perhaps only one of -a half-thousand passenger engineers it might pick from its ranks and find -fully able to measure to it. - - * * * * * - -An air signal over the engineer's head rasps twice; a starting signal. He -pulls out the throttle ever and ever so little a way--a distance to be -measured in inches and fractions of inches--and the limited is in motion. - -"We're sixty seconds late in getting off," says Freeman as he replaces his -watch and settles down for the forty-mile pull up to B----, the first stop -and scheduled to be reached in forty-three minutes. That means, with "slow -orders" through station yards, as well as one or two sharp curves and a -steep grade midway, that Jimmie will have no time to loaf on the -straight-aways--he calls them "tangents." - -"Green on the high," says the fireman, as the big K-I ducks her head under -a signal bridge and her pilot trucks find their way to the long crossover -that brings her from the platform track in the tangle of the terminal yard -over to a "lead-track," which in turn gives to the "main," stretching out -over the sunshiny open country to distant B----. - -"Yellow on the low," calls the fireman again as the engine slips under -still another signal bridge and finds her way to the long, unbroken sweep -of the beginning of the "main." Freeman repeats the signals. For his part -he is supposed to read them all the way to P----, where his run ends and -the limited goes, bag and baggage, upon the rails of a connecting road. He -is supposed to read, the fireman to repeat. As a practical thing it is -sometimes out of the question. The cab of the big passenger puller is far -from a quiet place. There is the dull pound of the drivers over the smooth -rails, the roar of the great fire between them, the deafening racket of -the forced draft that pours into it. The cab does not lend itself to -conversation. But if Freeman does not repeat the signal indications -audibly he does it mentally. It is part of his job. And the mere repeating -of the signal does not assure safety. - - * * * * * - -Once, a number of years ago and upon another railroad, I rode in the cab -of a fast passenger train. The road ran straight for many miles and across -a level country. Each mile of its path was marked by a clock signal, -gleaming against the night. The engineer shouted each of those signals, -and his fireman echoed them back. - -"White," he would call--for white was then the safety color, not the green -that has been almost universally adopted now. - -"White it is," would come the reply. And in another mile: - -"White," and "White she is." - -And once my heart all but leaped into my mouth. The block showed red--red, -the changeless signal for danger. But our engineer did not close his -throttle or reach for the handle of his air brake. - -"Red," he chanted in his emotionless fashion; but the fireman altering his -echo to "Red she is," looked up for a moment into his chief's face. The -chief never moved a muscle. Sixty seconds later he shouted again. - -"White." - -"White she is," repeated the fireman, and grinned as he thrust another -shovelful of coal into the fire box. - -After the run was over and we sat at the comfortable eating counter of the -Railroad Y.M.C.A., I asked the engineer why he had run by that red signal. -He hesitated a moment. - -"Man alive," said he, "do you suppose I can afford to bring my train to a -full stop every time one of those pesky blocks gives me the bloody eye? I -could get the next two blocks and saw they were safe. I know every inch of -the line, and knew that there was not an interlocking"--meaning switches -and crossing tracks--"within ten miles of us. The block was out of order -and I knew it. And I was right." - -"Suppose there was a broken rail in that block," I suggested, "wouldn't -that break the current and automatically send the signal to danger?" - -The engineer did not answer that quickly. He knew the point was well -taken. Finally, pressed, he said that his was a "penalty train," which -meant that it carried the mail and excess-fare passengers and that it -would cost his railroad dollars and cents if it were more than thirty -minutes late at its final terminal. To have stopped this train flat at the -red signal, when he felt morally certain and could practically see that -the line was clear and open, would have cost fifteen minutes or more. If -the practice was repeated and even his detention sheets showed that the -time lost was due to stopping at a signal that was out of order, he would -not be censured. Oh, no! But sooner or later there would be a new man on -that run--a man who had the reputation of bringing his train in on time -over his division. That was what the engineer told me that night as we -munched our crullers and sipped our coffee. - - * * * * * - -Freeman tells another story. Freeman says that he never ran past a red -signal in his life and that he could not have held his run on the limited -for five long years if he had not been in the habit of bringing her in "in -her time." Freeman speaks a good word for the signals. You take note of -it. Then you remember that in one of the innumerable cases that came up -before the Interstate Commerce Commission down in Washington, the engineer -of the Congressional Limited testified that in the five-hour run from the -national capital up to the outskirts of New York he had to read and -understand and observe exactly 550 signals. It was one of the things that -he said made his job difficult. - -Yet when this run today is over and we are standing with Freeman by the -side of the turntable in the big and smoky roundhouse, as his big -long-boned black baby is edging gently into her bunk for a few hours of -well-earned rest, he will tell you frankly that he has a genuine affection -for the 162 signals that stand to beckon him on or to halt him in his run -of 135 miles up the main line. - -"I just let myself think of another fairly fast run I had once--up on a -side line, single-track at that, where there wasn't but two interlockings -the whole distance or a single block protection from one end to the -other." Then he adds, "I'd hate without the signals to pull Twenty-four at -a sixty-mile-an-hour clip. To my mind they're like watchmen, with flags or -lanterns every mile up the main line. Only a watchman couldn't see a mile -and know of a break in the rail, the way that electric block knows it. -Talk about a thing being human. That toy's better than human. It has a -test record of less than one per cent of failures, and in that small -failure record, ninety-eight per cent of the actual failures turned the -signal automatically to danger." - -On Freeman's road they do not penalize a man for failing to make his time, -by finding some other excuse and then quietly removing him from his run. -On the contrary, there are maximum speed limits for every mile of the main -line and its branches--ways by which the road knows that the maximums are -not being exceeded. And Freeman likes to quote the big boss of one of the -big roads--Daniel Willard, come from an engine cab to be president of the -Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Once, when discussing this very question, -Willard said: - -"If there is a rule on our railroad that delays an engineman and tends to -prevent his making his schedule time we want to know it--at once. If we -believe the rule is wrong we will remove it. If not, and it delays the -trains, we will lengthen their running time." - -In fact, the steady tendency of all American roads during the past ten -years has been toward lengthening schedules rather than shortening them. -The two whirlwind trains between New York and Chicago now take twenty -hours for the trip, instead of eighteen, as was the case when they were -first installed. The famous run of the Jarrett and Palmer special in 1876, -from Jersey City to Oakland on San Francisco Bay, in four days flat, still -stands almost as a transcontinental record, while the fastest running time -ever accredited to a locomotive--112-1/2 miles an hour by a New York -Central locomotive with four cars, for a short distance between Rochester -and Buffalo--was accomplished more than twenty years ago. - -The railroads are playing fairer with their Jimmie Freemans. The men who -sit on the right-hand side of the engine cabs appreciate that. They know -the responsibility that sits unseen, but not unnoticed, at the side of the -man who guides the locomotive. - - * * * * * - -"We've passed the sixty mark," shouts Freeman's fireman into your ear. -Above the din of the engine you catch his words as the faintest of -whispers. And you look ahead at the curving track. Curving? Forever -curving, and each time it swerves and the path that we are eating up at -the rate of eighty-eight feet to the second is lost behind the brow of a -hill or through a clump of trees, your heart rises to your mouth and you -wonder if all is well just over there beyond. And then you remember that -the friendly raised arm of the block semaphore has said "yes." - -The engineer's figure is immobile but his mind is alert. His touch upon -the throttle is as light as that of a child. His face, half hidden behind -his great goggles, is expressionless. Yet behind those same protecting -glasses the windows of his soul are open--and watching, watching, forever -watching the curving track. Sometimes the track curves away from his side -of the cab, and then the fireman climbs up on his seat behind and picks up -the lookout. But he does not pick up Freeman's responsibility. - - * * * * * - -Freeman has a high regard for signals. He never permits them to become -monotonous. - -"If ever I get that way, I'll know it myself," says he, "and it will be -high time for me to get out." - -After all, his service on this extra-fast train may not exceed ten years. -A man whose nerve was not iron and his physique steel could not last -one-third of that time. According to the insurance figures of the -Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, to which Freeman and most of his -fellows belong, eleven years and seven days is the average length of -service for an engineer upon an American railroad. The railroad managers -figure it a little differently and place the average at something over -twelve years. And out in the West, where the railroads span the mountains -and thread the canyons, the man in the engine cab will rarely last more -than six years. - -Of course the situation varies on different railroads. Before me lies the -report of the Boston and Albany Railroad--impressive because of the length -of the service of the engineers of that staunch property. It is the habit -of that railroad to give annual passes to the employees who have been in -its service more than fifteen years. More than half of its engineers -receive such passes. And early in the present year it retired from active -service Engineer James W. Chamberlain, who had been in its employ more -than fifty-three years. And for a dozen years past Chamberlain had been -piloting two of the road's fastest trains between Boston and Springfield. -You cannot always rely upon averages. - - * * * * * - -We are within five miles of B----, where our ride in the engine cab ends. -Around us is the typical vicinage of a growing American town already -almost great--gas tanks, factories, truck gardens, encroaching upon these -the neat pattern of new streets upon which small houses are rearing their -heads--close round about us the railroad yards, vast in their -ramifications and peopled with a seemingly infinite number of red and blue -and yellow freight cars. There is a trail of them close beside Freeman's -arm. The trail culminates in a caboose which shows flags and we know that -it is a freight that has just come scampering down the line into the -yard--a bare five or six minutes leeway to get out of our way--out of the -way of the trains whose delays mean personal reports and excuses to the -"old man," a practical, hard-headed railroader who has a fine contempt for -excuses of every sort. - -"You writer fellows like to talk about the heroes of the engine cab," says -the fireman; "the boy who is pulling that greasy old Baldwin comes nearer -being a hero than Jimmie or any of the rest of the passenger bunch." - -There is nothing cryptic in his meaning. He means that the freight -engineer, pulling a less carefully maintained piece of motive power, to -which had been added not only its full working capacity of cars, but as -many extra as an energetic and hard-pressed trainmaster may add, up to the -risk point of an engine-failure and consequent complete breakdown out upon -the main line, must keep out of the way of the gleaming green and gold and -brass contraption that has the right of way from the very moment that she -starts out from the terminal. Yet it is the freight-puller and his train -that are earning the money that must be used to pay the deficit on the -limited that whirls by him so contemptuously. For that proud and showy -thing of green and gold and brass has never been a money-earner--and never -will be. Everyone with the road says that of her. They call her a parasite -and say things about Solomon in all his glory when they look at the gay -flowers in her dining cars and the rampant luxury in her lounging -cars--but how they do love her! It is the parasite of which they brag, and -not the dull and dusty freight. - - * * * * * - -It is forty minutes since we first pulled out of the terminal and our -journey with Freeman began. And now, a few blocks away and around a sharp -curve to the left, is the big and sprawling passenger station at B----, -with the twilight shadows gathering beneath the roof of its expansive -train shed. And Freeman has already put on the air brakes, the big engine -is feeling its way cautiously through the maze of tracks and switches -while once again you hear the fireman call the signals. Three minutes -later the train is halted--beside the long platform under that great and -smoky shed, folk are getting on and off the cars--there is all the gay -confusion that marks the arrival and the departure of an important train. -But there is no confusion about Freeman. With his long-nosed oil can in -hand he is around the front of "his baby," making sure that she is attuned -for her next long leap up the line. Freeman takes no chances. Instead, he -takes each and every opportunity for renewed inspections of his -locomotive. - -Responsibility in the engine cab! - -One cannot deny that it exists there. One finds it hard to confound the -hard fact that the engineer is worthy of a good wage--how good a wage is -the only point to be determined. For responsibility must be well -paid--whether it is responsibility at the dispatcher's desk, in the lonely -signal tower, in the track-foreman's shanty, in any of the many, many -forms of railroad operation where the human factor in safety can never be -eliminated--where danger ever lurks, just around the corner and within -easy reach of the outstretched hand. The engineer has his full share of -responsibility. But he has no monopoly of it. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -ORGANIZED LABOR--THE CONDUCTOR - - -Here is another of the well-organized and protected forms of the -railroad's labor--the conductor. He will tell you that a goodly measure of -responsibility rests upon his own broad shoulders. Yet your veteran -railroad executive does not regard his conductor so much as a -responsibility man as a diplomat. This last, after all, is his chief role. - -You gather your brow. You do not understand. - -"I thought," you begin slowly, for you have made some sort of a study of -this big game of railroading, "I thought that the traveling freight and -passenger agents, all that solicitous company which travels through the -highways and byways of the land, the big towns and the small, seeking out -traffic, for the railroad, were regarded as its diplomats." - -You are partly right--partly wrong. - -For the real diplomat of the railroad is multiplied in its service, far -more than the freight or the passenger agents. The humblest and the rarest -of passengers do not fail to see him. The man who rides on the railroad -train for the first time in his life comes into almost instant touch with -him. You yourself have seen him many times making his way down the aisle -of the car; stopping patiently beside each of his passengers--we use the -phrase "his passengers" advisedly--greeting old friends with cheery nods; -upholding the dignity of the railroad and his own authority--quietly, but -none the less surely--time and time again. Here, as we shall come in a -moment to understand, is a real diplomat of the railroad--an autocrat of -no small authority in those rare instances where he may fail to be a -gentleman. And all this stands to the infinite credit of more than 60,000 -conductors in the railroad service across the land. - -We have just called him an autocrat. Remember, however, that for the safe -movement of his train up and down the railroad's busy lines he shares, in -an important degree, the responsibility with the man with whom we have -just ridden in the engine cab; but the engineer cannot very well make or -lose business for his railroad unless he stops his train too sharply and -too many times. The conductor--well, we are going to see him in his role -of peacemaker plenipotentiary to the public. It, of itself, is a role -where he can be and is of infinite value to the railroad. - - * * * * * - -Do you chance to recall the conductor of yesteryear--conceding no more -than his blue cap to the growing use of uniforms in a republican country; -somewhat unkempt perhaps as to clothes--yet benevolent and fatherly in his -way? Did that sickly-looking woman at the end of the coach fumble and then -attempt a feeble and impotent smile when he asked her for her ticket? And -did he, with a sublime myopia, pass her by without demanding that bit of -pasteboard? Your old-time conductor knew the difference between -impostors--even in skirts--and empty-pocketed folks to whom a railroad -journey might be a tragic necessity. A few years up and down the line, the -constant study of the folk within his cars quickly taught him that. And it -would have been a pretty poor sort of old-fashioned railroad that would -not have allowed him discretion in such cases. - -Your new-time railroad allows him little or no discretion in matters of -this sort. Your conductor of today, finally quite at ease in the trimness -of his well-set uniform, his arm-lantern gone into the scrap heap in these -days of electric-lighted cars, on most railroads has practically no -opportunity to use his judgment in matters that pertain to the fares. If -he lets anyone ride free on his train--and the boss learns of it--he hears -dire threats about the Interstate Commerce Commission, sees the yawning -doors of the penitentiary close at hand. - -Railroad managements have a way of using that law for the punishment of -dishonest employees. So your conductor of today lacks the power of his -brethren of an earlier day. They worked in a generation when the railroad -still was a personal thing. Men and families owned railroads as they might -own farms or banks or grocery stores. They headed their own roads and they -assumed an attitude toward their men, autocratic or benevolent as the case -might be, but almost always distinctly personal. The railroad as a -separate unit had not then grown beyond a point where that was possible -and the big boss was a real factor in the lives of his men. They might -come to have a real affection for him--such as they had for Lucius Tuttle, -when he was president of the Boston and Maine--and call him by his first -name. No higher compliment can come up from the ranks to a railroad -executive. - -Today discretion is discrimination in far too many cases. So reads the -Interstate Commerce Law about discrimination. It places discrimination in -the same class with burglary and the shippers who had dealings with many -of our railroads a quarter of a century ago are thanking all the political -gods of the United States of America that this law was placed upon the -statute-books; but it can be read too literally, just as the conductor of -a modern train can be too sharp-sighted. Here is a case, which from too -fine or technical a reading of the law might be read into discrimination; -in reality it was an instance of real discretion on the part of the -conductor. - -A man--a nervous, tired man--was bound east through the state of New York -upon the Lake Shore Limited. His destination was Kingston, which is -situate upon the west bank of the Hudson River, almost half way between -New York and Albany. The route of the Lake Shore Limited is down the east -shore of the river, without a stop between Albany and New York. Anyone who -knows the Hudson Valley well knows how atrocious are the facilities for -crossing the river at almost any point between those two cities. This -tired, nervous man planned to catch the last train of the afternoon down -the West Shore Railroad from Albany to Kingston. Under normal conditions -he had about thirty minutes' leeway in which to make the change; but on -this occasion the Lake Shore Limited was a little more than thirty minutes -late and he did not alight at Albany--he had no wish to hang around there -until some time in the early morning. He decided that he would go through -to New York, cross the city from the Grand Central Station to Weehawken -and then go through to Kingston on a night train. This meant 180 extra -miles of travel; but the man was in a very great hurry and with him time -counted more than miles. - -As his train swept across the bridge and out of Albany the conductor came -through. He was a round, genial-faced fellow, typical of that other -generation of train captains that one often finds upon the older railroads -of the land; and the man from Kingston halted him--told his story very -much as we have told it here. - -"I didn't know but that, if you were going to stop for water at -Poughkeepsie, I might slip off some way," he finally ventured. "That would -leave me less than twenty miles from home." - -The conductor did not hesitate. - -"We don't stop at Poughkeepsie--for water or anything else," he said. "But -I'll stop at Rhinecliff for you." - -Rhinecliff is on the east bank of the Hudson, directly opposite Kingston. -That seemed too good to be true--and the man stammered out his thanks. - -"I didn't think you'd stop this crack train for anybody," he said quite -frankly. "The time card doesn't--" - -"This train stops for the proper accommodation of the patrons of this -road," interrupted the conductor, "and I'm its high judge. You lost out on -your connection at Albany through no fault of yours. It was our fault and -we are doing our best to make it up to you." - -Consider the value of such a man to the organization which employs him. -That little act was worth more to the big railroad whose uniform he bore -than a ton of advertising tracts or a month's service of its corps of -soliciting agents. The Kingston man crossed the river from Rhinecliff in a -motor boat and thanked the road and its conductor for the service it had -rendered him. He was a large shipper and his factory in the western part -of the state is in a hotly competitive territory; but the road that -through the good sense of its employee had saved him much valuable time -today hardly knows a competitor in his shipping room. - -Discrimination? Your attorney, skilled in the fine workings of the -Interstate Commerce Law, may tell you "Yes," but we are inclined to think -he is wrong, for the man was not permitted to alight at Rhinecliff because -he was anything more than a patron of the road. He had no political or -newspaper affiliations to parade before the conductor; he did not hint at -his strength as a shipper, he did not even give his name. If there is -discrimination in that, I fail to see it. - -A certain man took a trip from New York to Chicago three or four years -ago. He went on a famous road, well conducted, and he returned on its -equally famous competitor. Each road had just conquered a mighty river by -boring an electrically operated tunnel underneath it. The tunnel had been -well advertised and the man, whose mind had a mechanical turn, was anxious -to see both of them. In each case the train bore a wide-vestibuled day -coach as its last car. - -In the first tunnel through which he passed he went to the rear of the day -coach with the intention of taking a look at the under-river bore. He -wanted to stand at the rear of the aisle and look through the door at the -electrically lighted tube. But the conductor anticipated him. He drew down -the sash curtain of the car door. - -"Sorry," he said, "but the company's rules prohibit passengers from -standing in the aisles." - -One might write a whole chapter on the thoroughly asinine rules that some -roads have made for the guidance not only of their employees but of their -patrons as well. But this man did not argue. He bowed dutifully to the -strong arm of the rule book and went back to his seat--thoroughly cowed. -But how different was the case on the other railroad, by which he returned -from Chicago! This second time he went to the rear of the train, recalling -his first experience and the rebuff he had received. But this road and its -conductor were of a different sort. This second conductor was fastening -the outside doors of the vestibule at the rear of the last car and saying -to the little group assembled there: - -"If you will wait a minute I will give you a chance to get out on this -rear platform and see the big job we've been working on so long. We all of -us are mighty proud of it." - -How much of an asset do you suppose this conductor was to his company? - -By this time the new-fangled railroad executive who reads this will be -filled with disgust. - -"Doesn't he know," I can hear him say, "that railroading has taken some -pretty big strides within the past fifteen or twenty years? We're -perfecting; we're systematizing. We've studied the motions of the -bricklayer and we're dabbling in efficiency. We've modeled our railroads -after the best of the standing armies of Europe and we've begun to move -men like units. That means that we've no room in railroad ranks for -individualists. An individualist never makes an ideal unit and the new -efficiency demands units--not thinkers!" - -Does it? In the minds of a good many railroaders of the newer schools it -seems to. Yet some of these very same railroaders were overjoyed a little -time ago--when the half-baked Adamson eight-hour law was being jammed -through Congress--to see out from the Middle West, from the rails of the -Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, the Milwaukee roads, veteran conductors -coming forward, who not only did not hesitate to speak their minds against -the measure, but actually sought out injunctions against it. What it might -cost these men in prestige and in the affection of their fellows, in -possible punishments by the lodges of their brotherhoods, the outside -public may never know. It can be fairly assured that the price was no -small one. - -Would the railroad executives of the Middle West have preferred that these -men be units, rather than individualists? I think not. The truth of the -matter is, that in its very desire to stand straight, the new school of -railroading sometimes leans backward. We will grant that in the coming of -the great combinations of new-time railroads it was a mighty good step to -eliminate the haphazard, wasteful, inefficient old school of personal -railroading. Consolidation has effected some wonderful working advantages -in the operation of our giant systems, and it is a grave question whether -today, with the margin between income and operating cost constantly -narrowing, if the eggs were unscrambled and the famous little old roads -returned, they could be operated long and dodge the scrawny fingers of -receivership. Yet it is a fact that if they have gained in many ways by -consolidation and centralization, they have lost something definite in the -personal feeling which used to exist between their men and themselves. It -was an asset that could hardly be expressed in dollars and cents. - -After the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad had absorbed the -famous Old Colony--down there in the southeastern corner of -Massachusetts--it was five years before its conductors ceased to know it -and to love it as the Old Colony. To older conductors the Panhandle and -the Lake Shore are still as real and as vital as if those beloved names -still appeared upon the rolling stock. Measure such an asset in dollars -and cents if you can! You cannot, thank God, place a valuation upon such -assets as affection and loyalty. - -So to your first qualities of dignity and authority and discretion--in -these days we dare not call it discrimination--supplement those of -affection and of loyalty. And to these add that of ability; for a -conductor's entire work is not merely collecting his tickets and keeping -the passengers of his train in good humor--though sometimes this last is a -man's job by itself. He must bear in mind that Bible of the railroad--the -time card--the place his train takes upon it; its relation to every other -train, regular and special, on the line. His mind must be--every minute -that he is on the road--a replica of the dispatcher's, working in perfect -synchronism with that of the controlling head who bends over the train -sheet back at headquarters. This work, comparatively simple on a -double-track line, becomes, in many instances, tremendously complicated -upon the many miles of single-track railroads that still bear a heavy -traffic up and down and across America. - -The "opposing trains" to be met and passed; the slower trains moving in -the same direction to be overtaken and also passed; the complications of -special movements--all these must be borne in accurate correlation as the -conductor passes up or down the line. He may have extra cars to his train -and an extraordinarily difficult crowd of passengers to handle, but he -cannot for a moment ignore the most minute detail of the flimsy messages -that are handed to him during the entire length of his trip. And back of -his specific orders for the day he must ever carry the entire scheme of -the division's operation. - - -[Illustration: THE KNIGHT OF THE TICKET PUNCH - -Courtesy, diplomacy, helpfulness are quite as much parts of his job as -anything else. He is a distinctive American figure; no railroads elsewhere -have his counterpart.] - - -So here you have the passenger conductor--a real knight of the road, if -you please--careful, discerning, courageous; a rare diplomat; perhaps in -this commercial day of big things the spirit of the skipper of the -famous old-time clipper ship incarnate! He is worthy of the great railroad -empire of the world. In Europe, the state railroads of Germany and of -France, the short, congested lines of Great Britain have not his -counterpart. He is a product both of our nationalism and of the hard -necessity that has hedged him in. And, in passing, it is worthy of note -that some of the men who sit today in the highest executive positions of -the greatest of our railroads have stood their long, hard turns with the -ticket-punch. A recent and a peculiarly gifted chairman of the Interstate -Commerce Commission--Edgar E. Clark--was for many years a passenger -conductor; his pride in his calling of those earlier years is unbounded. - -Here I have shown you in a word the two strongest of the four types of -railroad organized labor. For while there are organizations among some -other forms of the railroads' employees, switchmen, telegraphers, and the -like, it is the engineers, the firemen, the conductors, and the trainmen -who hold the whiphand of authority over the railroad executive and the -politician alike. They have a power that is to be feared--they have said -it themselves. And the politicians, the public, a good many of the biggest -railroad executives have believed it. Once in a while you will find a -railroad executive--like that stern old lion, Edward Payson Ripley, who -brought the Santa Fe Railroad out of bankruptcy into affluence and became -its president--who states his disbelief and states it so plainly that -there can be no doubt as to its meaning. For a long time Ripley has seen -the handwriting on the wall. And so seeing, he has had small patience -with the weak-kneed compromise that invariably has followed the so-called -recurrent crises between the four big brotherhoods of the railroads and -their employers. There is nothing weak-kneed about Ripley and the rapidly -growing group of executives rallying about him. It must come to an issue, -open warfare if you please. In such a war either the railroads or their -labor will win. But upon the victory, no matter how it may go, definite -economic policy may be builded. You cannot build either definite or -enduring policy upon compromise. Our own Civil War and the weak-kneed -years of compromise that preceded it ought to show that to each of us, -beyond a shadow of a doubt. - - * * * * * - -We are just passing through one of the periodic "crises" between the -railroads and their four big brotherhoods. These "crises," which, up to -the present time at least, have always ended in wage adjustments of a -decidedly upward trend, are apt to be staged on the eve of an important -election. They invariably are accompanied by threats of a strike--the -German _der Tag_ reduced to an American rule of terror. These threats are -so definite as to leave nothing but alarm in the public breast. - -Then arbitration may be brought to play upon the situation. There is a -vast amount of understanding--accompanied by a still greater amount of -misunderstanding. The big leaders of the big brotherhoods are no fools. -They are skilled in the new-fangled science of publicity. And so are the -railroads. Yet finally the men get their increased wages--or a good part -of what they have asked. And finally the cost is slipped along to the -public, in the form of increased passenger fares or freight tariffs. Then, -sooner or later, the brotherhood railroad employee feels the increased -cost of transportation distinctly reflected in his own rising cost of -living. He feels it distinctly, because an instinctive idea of the -manufacturer or the distributor is to add on the transportation cost to -his manufacturing and selling cost, with something more than a fair -margin. Thus a general increase of five per cent in freight rates may only -mean that it costs a fraction less than two cents more to ship a pair of -shoes from Boston to Cleveland. But the manufacturer in Boston is tempted -to add five cents to his selling cost--to cover not only the increase in -transportation, but other manufacturing-cost increases, less definite in -detail but appreciable in volume. The wholesaler, under the same pressure -from a steadily advancing cost of maintaining his business, makes his -increase ten cents, and the retailer, not immune from the same general -conditions which govern the manufacturer or the wholesaler, protects -himself by placing an extra charge of twenty-five cents to his retail -patron. If the final patron--the man or the woman who is to wear the -shoes--protests, the retailer informs him that the recent increase in -freight rates--well advertised in the public prints--is responsible for -the new selling price. So has the increase in freight rates been -magnified--both in reality and in the public mind. - -It is when the brotherhood man or his wife or daughter buys the shoes -that they begin to pinch--economically, at least. It is not only shoes, it -is clothing, it is foodstuffs, it is coal--the pressure gains and from -every quarter. Then the brotherhood man--engineer or conductor or fireman -or trainman--rises in lodge-meeting and demands a better wage. His margin -between income and outgo is beginning to narrow. He has a family to rear, -a home to maintain--a pride in both. In the course of a short time the men -at the top of the brotherhoods feel this mass pressure from below. They -must yield to it. If they do not, their positions and their prestige will -be taken away from them. So they get together, decide on the amount of the -relief they must have, and begin their demands upon the railroads. And -when the railroads, with their well-known cost sheets ever in front of -them, show resistance, the threats of strike once again fill the air. -Gentle, peace-loving folk of every sort become alarmed. There is turmoil -among the politicians, of every sort and variety. After that, arbitration. - -President Wilson in his recent address to Congress, in his accurate, -authoritative way, laid great stress upon this very point of arbitration. -He had laid stress upon it in the crisis of September, 1916--when it -looked as if railroad union labor and the executives of the railroads had -come to an actual parting of the ways--and the country was to be turned -from threats into the terrorizing actuality of a strike. Only Congress, -which seems rarely able to realize that it can ever be anything else than -Congress and so bound to its traditions of inefficiency, chose to overlook -this portion of the President's solution of the situation. It granted the -eight-hour day--so called--but it was deaf to arbitration. - -Said President Wilson in his address: - - To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to - leave his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so - would be to adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take - it for granted we are not prepared to introduce. But the proposal that - the operation of the railways of the country shall not be stopped or - interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies of men until a - public investigation shall have been instituted which shall make the - whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of the - nation is not to propose any such principle. - -The President is nearly always right--particularly so in domestic affairs. -But never, in my knowledge, has he expressed himself with greater vigor -and strength than in this particular instance. Not that the principle is -apt to be popular--quite the reverse is probable. There are employers of a -certain type, also employees of a certain type, whose bitterness against -any fair measure of arbitration is unyielding. The great railroad -brotherhoods have never shown any enthusiasm over the idea, despite the -fact that the two countries in which arbitration is strongest and most -successful--Australia and New Zealand--are controlled by organized labor. - -There are railroad executives also who have been opposed to arbitration -save where they might manipulate it to serve their own selfish ends. But -these are the types of railroad chiefs who are beginning to disappear -under the new order of things in America. Theirs was another and somewhat -less enlightened generation--particularly in regard to social economics. -And even in the railroad the old order is rapidly giving way to the new. - -There is a class in America which enthusiastically receives -arbitration--compulsory arbitration--and demands that it be extended in -full to the railroad, as well as to every other form of industrial -enterprise. I am referring to the average citizen--the man who stands to -lose, and to lose heavily, while a strike of any magnitude is in progress. -He is an innocent party to the entire matter. And he must be -protected--absolutely and finally. - -That is why we must have arbitration--compulsory arbitration, for any -arbitration which is not compulsory and practically final, is useless. We -have had the other sort already and it has brought us nowhere. We had -arbitration of the uncompulsory sort before the critical days at the end -of last August. In the final course of events both the railroads and their -brotherhood employees ignored it. And the average man, the man in the -street, was ignorant of the fact that it had even been tried. - -After that sort of arbitration comes compromise, and compromise of that -sort is a thin veil for failure. And failure means that the whole thing -must be gone over once again. The circle has been completed--in a -remarkably short space of time. - -It all is a merry-go-round, without merriment; a juggernaut which revolves -upon a seemingly unending path. Yet he is a real juggernaut. For while -the brotherhood man may seek and obtain relief upon the lines which I -have just indicated--how about the salaried man outside the railroad? And -how about the man inside the railroad whom no strong brotherhood -organization, no gifted, diplomatic leader of men protects? It is this -last class--the unorganized labor of the railroad, that I want you to -consider for a little time. It is obviously unfair, from any broad -economic standpoint, that these men, far outnumbering the organized labor -of the railroad, should be ignored when it comes to any general -readjustment of its wages. Yet, as a matter of fact, this is the very -thing that has been coming to pass. And today it is one of the most -pronounced symptoms of weakness in the great sick man of American -business. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -UNORGANIZED LABOR--THE MAN WITH THE SHOVEL - - -In choosing the engineer and the conductor as the two very best types of -organized labor upon the railroad I have had in mind the special -qualifications that go with each. With the engineer one instantly links -responsibility. And I think that in a preceding chapter I showed you with -some definiteness that responsibility is never far from the engine cab. -With the conductor one touches the diplomat of the rank and file of -railroad service--one of the most frequent of the railroad's touching -points with the public which it aims to serve. - -How about unorganized labor--the great groups of railroad workers who have -no brotherhoods to look out for their rights or to further their -interests? Has organized labor a monopoly of responsibility or of -diplomacy? I think not. And if you will permit me, I shall try to show you -an unorganized worker whose responsibility is quite as constant and as -great as that of the men in the engine cab. This man is the one who makes -the path for the locomotive safe--he is the track foreman, or -section-boss. And the station agent, not of the metropolitan city but -rather of the smaller cities or even the villages that multiplied many -times make up the America that we all know, may yield nothing to the -conductor in diplomacy. Of him, more in the next chapter. - -Consider first, if you will, the section-boss--the man who makes the steel -highway safe for you and me each time we venture forth upon it. It is -obvious that no amount of brains in the engine cab, no skill, no sagacity, -no reserve force, is going to compensate for a neglected track. A single -broken rail may send the best-driven locomotive in the world into the -ditch beside the right of way, a mass of tangled and useless scrap iron. -The section foreman knows this. And knowing it does not diminish his own -sense of responsibility. - - * * * * * - -Sometimes when you sit in the observation end of the limited and look back -idly upon the retreating landscape you will see him, shovel in hand, -standing beside the track and glancing in a dazed fashion at a fast-flying -luxury which he has never enjoyed. He seems, at first sight, to be a -fairly inconsequential part in the manifold details of railroad operation. -Yet it would be well if you could come a little closer to this important -human factor in the comfort and the safety of your trip; could understand -more fully the difficulties of his work. First you would have to -understand that from the very hour the railroad is completed it requires -constant and exacting care to keep it from quick deterioration. Continual -strains of the traffic and the elements, seen and unseen, are wearing it -out. Temperature, wind, moisture, friction, and chemical action are doing -their best to tear down the nicety of the work of man in building the best -of his pathways. The effects of temperature--of the wonderful range of -heat and cold which the greater part of America experiences and sometimes -within a remarkably short space of time--are to expand, contract, and -ofttimes to break the rails; to sever telegraph lines, the maintenance of -which is so vital to the safe conduct of the railroad; to disrupt the -equally important signal service. - -A single flat-wheeled freight car went bumping up a railroad side line in -Minnesota on a zero day a few winters ago and broke so many rails that it -was necessary to tie up the entire line for twenty-four hours, until it -could be made fit for operation once again. - -Track looks tough. In reality it is a wonderfully sensitive thing. Not -only is the rail itself a sensitive and uncertain thing, whether it weighs -56 pounds to the yard or 110 pounds to the yard, but the ballast and the -ties, and even the spikes, must be in absolute order or something is going -to happen, before long, to some train that goes rolling over them. A large -percentage of railroad accidents, charged to the account of the failure of -mechanism, is due to this very thing. Therefore the maintenance of track -alone--to say nothing of bridges, culverts, switches, and signals--becomes -from the very beginning a very vital, although little understood, feature -of railroad operation. - -Here then is the floor-plan of the job of the man who stands there beside -the track as you go whizzing by and who salutes you joyously as you toss a -morning paper over the brass rail. His own facilities for getting -newspapers are rather limited. He is a type--a man typical, if you -please--of 400,000 of his fellows who make the track safe for you. The -brigadiers general of this sturdy corps of railroaders are the engineers -of the maintenance of way. A very large road will boast several executives -of this title, reporting in all probability to a chief engineer of -maintenance. Reporting to these from each superintendent's division is a -division engineer--probably some chap out of Tech who is getting his first -view of railroading at extremely short range. He, in turn, will have his -assistants; but he is probably placing his chief reliance on his track -supervisors. - -Now we are coming much closer to the man whom you see standing there -beside your train. These track supervisors are the field-rangers of -maintenance. Each is in charge of from ten to twelve sections, which -probably will mean from eighty to one hundred miles of single-track--much -less in the case of double-or three-or four-track railroads. The section -has its own lieutenant--section foreman he is rated on the railroad's -pay-roll; but in its lore he will ever be the section-boss, and boss of -the section he must be indeed. If ever there was need of an autocrat in -the railroad service, it is right here; and yet, as we shall presently -see, even the section-boss must learn to temper his authority with finesse -and with tact. - -Here, then, is our man with the shovel. Suppose that, for this instant, -the limited grinds to a stop, and you climb down to him and see the -railroad as he sees it. Underneath him are four or six or eight -workers--perhaps an assistant of some sort or other. Over him are the -supervisors and above them those smart young engineers who can figure out -track with lines and pothooks, though the section-boss is never sure that -his keen eye and unfailing intuition are not better than all those books -which the college boys keep tucked under their arms. - -The college boys, however, seem to have the sway with the big bosses down -at headquarters and the section-boss knows, in his heart as well as in his -mind, that he can go only a little distance ahead before he comes against -a solid wall, the only doors of which are marked Technical Education. He -can be a supervisor at from $90 to $125 a month and ride up and down the -division at the rear door of a local train six days a week; the time has -gone when he might advance to the proud title of roadmaster--a proud title -whose emolument is not higher than that of the organized brotherhood man -who pulls the throttle on the way-freight up the branch. And, as a matter -of fact, there are only a few roads which nowadays cling even to the title -of roadmaster. - -Yet this man is not discouraged. It is not his way. He will tell you so -himself. - -"Go up?" he asks. "Go up where?" - -Let the limited go, without you. This man is worthy of your studied -attention. Give it to him. You are standing with him beside a curving bit -of single-track. The country is soft and restful and quiet, save for the -chattering of the crickets and the distant call of your train which has -gone a-roaring down the line. The August day is indolent--but the section -gang is not. The temperature is close to ninety, but the gang is -tamping at the track with the enthusiasm of volunteer firemen at a blaze -in a lumberyard. It is only its foreman who has deigned to give you a few -minutes of his attention. - - -[Illustration: THE SECTION GANG - -In the section-boss and his men is vested the responsibility of making the -steel highway safe. A single broken rail may send the best driven -locomotive into the ditch--a mass of tangled and useless scrap iron.] - - -"Up where?" he asks once again--then answers his own question: "To some -stuffy sort of office? Not by a long shot! I'm built for the road, for -track work. This road needs me here. We're only single-track as yet on -this division; but next summer we'll be getting eastbound and westbound, -and then a bigger routing of the through stuff. Tonight the fastest -through train in this state will come through here, at nearer seventy -miles an hour than sixty, and my track's got to be in order--every foot of -the 37,000 feet of it." - -"That's your job," you say to him. - -"Part of it," he replies. "My job is seven miles long and has more kinks -to it than an eel's tail. See here!" - -He points to a splice-bar, almost under your feet. You look at it. You are -frank to admit that it looks just like any other splice-bar that you have -ever seen; but the section-boss shows you a discoloration on it, hardly -larger than a silver dollar. - -"Salt water from a leaky refrigerator car did that. We've got to look out -for it all the time--especially on the bridges." - -You choke a desire to ask him how he knows and merely inquire: - -"Are you responsible for the bridges too?" - -"To the extent of seeing that they are O.K. for train movement. My job -includes tracks, switches, drains, crossings, switch and semaphore lamps. -We get out on our old hand-power Mallet here and make every sort of -emergency repair you can think of--and then some more--on telegraph wires, -culverts, signals, and the interlocking. We've got to know the time card -and keep out of the way of the regular trains. Every little while a -special comes along and we have to dump our little Pullman in the -ditch--without much time for ceremony. We've got to know as much about -flagging as the trainmen. And sometimes we have to act as sextons." - -"Sextons?" you venture. - -He thumbs a little notebook. - -"Last year I performed the last rites over seven cows, two sheep, and a -horse. My job has a lot of dimensions." - -He puts his book back in his pocket and draws out a circular letter which -the general manager at headquarters has been sending out to all the -track-bosses. He hands it to you, with a grin. It says: - - More than any other class of employees you have the opportunity of - close contact with the farmers who are producing today that which - means tonnage and therefore revenue for the company tomorrow. Have you - ever thought of cultivating the farmer as he is cultivating the - fields? A friendly chat over the fence, a wave of the hand as you pass - by, may mean a shipment of corn or cattle--just because you are - interested in him. For your company's welfare as well as your own, - cultivate the farmer. - -The railroad can and does do a lot of efficient solicitation through its -fixed employees in the field; the opportunities of the station agent in -this wise are particularly large. And there is a good deal of real sense -in this particular circular. Yet the section-boss seems to regard it as -distinctly humorous. - -"The big boss sits in his office or in his car," is his comment, "and I -think he forgets sometimes that he was once a section man himself and -working fourteen hours a day. The farmer doesn't have a lot of time for -promiscuous conversation, nor do we. We'll wave the hand all right--but a -chat over the fence? Along would come my supervisor and I might have a -time of it explaining to him that I was trying to sell two tickets to -California for the road. No, sir, we're not hanging very much over fences -and chatting to farmers. Under the very best conditions we work about ten -hours a day. And there are times when a sixteen-hour law, even if we had -one, wouldn't be of much account to us." - -"What times?" - -"Accidents and storms! When we get a smash-up on this section or on one of -my neighbors' we all turn to and help the wrecking crew. I've worked -fifty-one hours with no more than a snatch of sleep and without getting -out of my clothing--and that was both accident and storm. It's storm that -counts the most. It's nice and pretty out here today, even if a little -warmish. Come round here next February, when the wind begins to whistle -and the mercury is trying to hide in the bottom of its little tube, and -help me replace rails in a snow-packed track." - -Against conditions such as these the railroad finds no little difficulty -in securing good trackmen. The section-boss will tell you how, until -about twenty years ago, these were largely Irishmen, with a fair mixture -of Germans and Scots--even a few Englishmen. The Italians began coming -over in droves a little more than a quarter of a century ago and almost -the first men they displaced were the Irish trackmen on our railroads. -Perhaps it would be fairer to say they took the jobs which the Irishmen -were beginning to scorn. The latter preferred to become contractors, -politicians, lawyers. What is the use of driving like a slave all day -long, they argued, when you can earn five times as much by using your -wits? - -Of recent years there have been few Irishmen in track service--an -occasional section-boss like the man to whom we have just been -talking--and with the exception of Wisconsin and Minnesota, practically -none of the men from the north of Europe. Even the better grades of -Italians have begun to turn from track work. They, too, make good -contractors and politicians and lawyers. In the stead of these have come -the men from the south of Italy, Greeks, Slavs, a few Poles, and a few -Huns. These seem particularly to lack intelligence. Yet they seemingly are -all that the railroad may draw upon for its track maintenance. - -These were the conditions that prevailed up to the beginning of the Great -War in Europe. Since that time the situation has grown steadily worse. -With the tightening of the labor market, with the inadequate rates of pay -in both the car and right of way maintenance departments of the railroads, -the average railroad manager is hard pressed today to keep his line in -order. Sometimes he fails. And a distinct factor in the run-down condition -of so many of our second-and third- and fourth-grade railroads is not -alone their financial condition, to which we already have referred, but -quite as much their utter inability to summon track labor at any price -within their possibility. It is rather difficult, to say the least, to get -a section foreman at three dollars a day when Henry Ford is paying five -dollars as a minimum wage in his Detroit factory and munition -manufacturers are even going ahead of this figure. I myself have seen -grass growing this last summer in the tracks of some mighty good roads. -And weeds between the ties and the rails are all too apt to be the -indication of even worse conditions--not quite so perceptible to the eye. - - * * * * * - -It is this very polyglot nature of the men who work upon the track which -has operated against their being brought into a brotherhood--such as those -who man the freight and passenger trains. The isolation of the -section-bosses and their gangs, as well as the dominance of the padrone -system among the Italians until very recently, have been other factors -against a stout union of the trackmen. But the mixture of tongues and -races has been the chief objection. You do not find Italians or Slavs or -Poles or Greeks on the throttle side of the locomotive cab or wearing the -conductor's uniform in passenger service, although you will find them many -times in the caboose of the freight and the Negro fireman is rather a -knotty problem with the chief of that big brotherhood. In fact, it has -been rather a steady boast of the engineers and the conductors that their -great organizations are composed of Americans. That fact, of itself, is -peculiarly significant. - -Yet what are Americans? And how many of those fine fellows who drive -locomotives and who captain fancy trains will fail to find some part of -their ancestry in Europe, within three or four generations at the longest? -We have shown that responsibility is not a matter of color, of race, nor -of language. And it is responsibility--responsibility plus energy and -ability and honesty--that the railroad seeks to obtain when it goes into -the market to purchase labor. - -The day has come when the railroad has begun to take keener notice of the -personnel of the men to whom is given the actual labor of keeping the -track in order. The better roads offer prizes to the foremen for the -best-kept sections. The prizes are substantial. They need to be. With hard -work as the seeming reward in this branch of service the railroad, even -before the coming of the war, was no longer able to pick and choose from -hordes of applicants. A dozen years ago it began to fairly dragnet the -labor markets of the largest cities; and when it gets men it has to use -them with a degree of consideration that was not even dreamed of in other -days. - -No longer can an autocratic and brutal foreman stand and curse at his -section hands. They simply will not stand for it. "Bawlers-out," as the -worst of these fellows used to be known along the line, are not now in -fashion. And the track supervisor who used to stand on the rear platform -of a train and toss out "butterflies" is far more careful in his -criticism. "Butterflies," be it known, are indited by the supervisor _en -route_ to call the attention of the foremen to track defects in their -sections. - - * * * * * - -The Negro is still in large service in the South--below the Ohio and east -of the Mississippi. He is a good trackman--and with the labor market as it -stands today, drained to the bottom, it is a pity there are not more of -him. Unlike most of the south-of-Europe men, he has strength and stamina -for heavy, sustained work. Moreover, he is built to rhythm. If you can set -his work to syncopated time he seems never to tire of it. He is a real -artist. He cuts six or eight inches off the handle of his sledge hammer -and it becomes his "short dog." Gripping it at the end with both hands he -swings it completely around his head and strikes two blows to the white -man's one, no matter how clever the white man may be. And he is actually -fond of a bawler-out. He respects a real boss. - -The hobo trackman is in a class by himself. He is not the migratory -creature that you may imagine him. On the contrary, in nine cases out of -ten he can be classed by distinct districts. Thus he may be known as a St. -Paul man, a Chicago man, or a Kansas City man, and you may be quite sure -that he will venture only a certain limited distance from his favorite -haunts. In the spring, however, he generally is so hungry that he is quite -willing to undertake any sort of job at any old price, provided free -railroad tickets are given. - -The majority of these hoboes have had experience with the shovel. Some of -them know more about track than their foremen. Unless the section-boss has -had previous experience with hoboes, however, he will get no benefit from -their superior knowledge, but will be left to work out his problem -entirely alone. - -As a rule the hobo becomes independently rich on the acquisition of ten -dollars. Then he turns his face toward that town to which he gives his -devoted allegiance. He now has money to pay fares; but he does not pay -them. Summer is on the land and he likes to protract the joys of the road; -so he beats his way slowly home and leaves a record of his migration -executed in a chirography that is nothing less than marvelous. The day -that masonry went out of fashion in railroad construction and concrete -came in was a bonanza to him. On the flat concrete surfaces of bridge -abutments and piers, telephone houses and retaining walls, he marks the -record of his going and whither he is bound--and marks it so plainly with -thick, black paint that even he who rides upon the fastest of the limited -trains may read--although it may not be given to him to ever understand. - -Down in the Southwest the track laborer is Mexican, while in the Far West -he is a little brown man, with poetry in his soul and a vast amount of -energy in his strong little arms. The Japanese invasion has been something -of a godsend to the railroads beyond the Rocky Mountains. Up in British -Columbia, where John Chinaman is not in legal disfavor, you will find him -a track laborer--faithful and efficient. On the Canadian Pacific seventeen -per cent of the total force of trackmen is Chinese. At the west end of -that Canadian transcontinental, the track gangs almost exclusively are -Chinese. - -The Jap is not illegal in the United States, however, and he is turning -rapidly to railroading. It is only fair to say that he is the best track -laborer our railroads have known. He is energetic, receptive, ambitious, -intelligent, and therefore easily instructed. His mind being retentive, he -rarely has to be told a thing a second time. Though small, he is robust -and possessed of powers of endurance far beyond any other race. -Furthermore, he is cleanly--bathing and changing his clothes several times -a week. His camp is always sanitary and he prides himself on the -thoroughness of his work. You may be sure he is carrying a -Japanese-English dictionary and that from it he is learning his three -English words a day. Track workers from the south of Europe will spend a -lifetime without ever learning a single word of English. - -There is another class of Asiatic workers that in recent years has begun -to show itself along the west coast and this class is far less -satisfactory in every way. These are the Hindus. They have drifted across -the Seven Seas and marched into a new land through the gates of San -Francisco or Portland or Seattle. But as yet they have not come in -sufficient numbers to represent a new problem in American railroading. The -Japanese already have attained that distinction. - -Here, then, is the polyglot material with which our section-boss must -work. His name may be Smith, he may have come out of New England itself, -and his little house there beside the track is probably as neat as yours -or mine. He works long hours and hard, with his body, his hands, and his -mind; the men under his authority are more apt to be inefficient than -efficient; his responsibility is unceasing. It is not an easy job. And for -it he is paid from sixty-five to ninety dollars a month--rarely more. A -locomotive engineer is paid three times as much. Yet he is protected by -the eight-hour day as his standard of employment, although it is more than -likely that his actual hours of work may be even less than eight. And his -responsibility is little greater than that of the section-boss. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -UNORGANIZED LABOR--THE STATION AGENT - - -The primary schools of railroading are the little red and yellow and gray -buildings that one finds up and down the steel highways of the nation, -dotting big lines and small. You find at least one in every American town -that thinks itself worthy of the title. And they are hardly less to the -towns themselves than the red schoolhouses of only a little greater -traditional lore. To the railroad their importance can hardly be -minimized. They are its tentacles--the high spots and the low where it -touches its territory and its patrons. - -To best understand how a station agent measures to his job, let us do as -we have done heretofore and take one of them who is typical. Here is one -man who in personality and environment is representative and the small New -York State town in which he is the railroad's agent is typical of tens of -thousands of others all the way from Maine to California. Brier Hill is an -old-fashioned village of less than 10,000 population, albeit it is a -county seat and the gateway to a prosperous and beautiful farming -district. Two railroads reach it by their side lines, which means -competition and the fact that the agent for each must be a considerable -man and on the job about all of the time. Our man--we will call him -Blinks and his road the Great Midland--has never lived or worked in -another town. Thirty years ago he entered the service of the G.M. as a -general utility boy around the old brick depot at twelve dollars a month. -The old brick depot is still in service and so is Blinks. - -In thirty years his pay has been advanced. He now gets $110 a month; in -addition his commissions amount to $40 or $50 a month. Engineers and -conductors get much more, but the station agent, as we have come to -understand, is not protected by a powerful labor organization. There is an -Order of Railroad Station Agents, to be sure, but it is weak and hardly to -be compared with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers or the Order of -Railroad Trainmen. In some cases the station agents rising from a -telegraph key have never relinquished their membership in the -telegraphers' union. But, with the telephone almost accepted as a complete -success in the dispatching of trains, the railroads see a new opportunity -for the efficient use of men who have been crippled in the service; in -some cases for the widows and the daughters of men who have died in the -ranks. It takes aptitude, long months, and sometimes years to learn the -rapid use of the telegraph. A clear mind and quick wit are all that is -necessary when the long-distance telephone moves the trains up and down -the line. - -Blinks, being typical, does not belong to a labor organization. Although -he was an expert telegrapher with a high speed rate, he did not happen to -belong to the telegraphers' organization. Instead there is in him a fine -vein of old-fashioned loyalty to the property. He was all but born in the -service of the Great Midland; he expects to die in the harness there in -his homely old-fashioned office in the brick depot at Brier Hill. His is -the sort of loyalty whose value to the road can hardly be expressed in -mere dollars and cents. - -If you would like to know the truth of the matter, you would quickly come -to know that the real reason why Blinks has never joined a union is that -he holds an innate and unexpressed feeling that he is a captain in the -railroad army, rather than a private in its ranks. For he is secretly -proud of the "force" that reports to him--chief clerk, ticket agent, two -clerks, a baggagemaster, and three freight-house men. Not a man of these -draws less than seventy dollars a month, so there is not much difference -in their social status and that of the boss. No one has been quicker than -he to recognize such democracy. He prides himself that he is an easy -captain. - -"We work here together like a big family," he will tell you, "although I'm -quite of the opinion that we're about the best little collection of -teamwork here in the village. Together we make quite an aggregate. Only -two concerns here employ more help--the paper mill and the collar -factory." - -You are a bit astonished at that--and at that you begin to think--not of -the relation of the town to the railroad but rather of the railroad to the -town. You ask Blinks as to the volume of the business his road does at his -station. He hesitates in replying. That is rather a state secret. Finally -he tells you--although still as a secret. - -"We do a business of $50,000 a month," he says quietly, "which is as much -as any two industries here--and this time I'm making no exceptions of the -paper mill or the collar factory." - -Quickly he explains that this is no unusual figure. And figures do not -always indicate. Smithville, up on another division, is only a third as -large and does a business of $20,000 a month. There are paper mills here -and inasmuch as they handle their products in carload lots on their own -sidings there is need of a large force around the station. On the other -hand, a neighboring town of the same size shows about the same monthly -revenue and needs a station force much larger than Blinks's. For its -leading industry is a paint factory, without siding facilities. Its -products move in comparatively small individual boxes, requiring -individual care and handling--that is the answer. - -"You work long hours and hard hours?" you may demand of Blinks. - -He shakes his head slowly. - -"Long hours a good deal of the time, but not very often hard hours," he -tells you. "My work is complicated and diverse but it is largely a case of -having it organized." - -Indeed it is complicated and diverse. There are only four passenger trains -each day up and down the line, but the rush of freight is heavy, -particularly at certain seasons of the year. And both of these functions -of the railroad as they relate to Blinks's town come under his watchful -eye. In addition, remember that he is the express agent and is paid a -commission both on the business bound in and on the business bound out of -his office, as well as the representative of the telegraph company. The -telegraph company pays him nothing for handling its messages, but from the -express company he will probably average forty-five dollars a month, -particularly as his brisk county-seat town is one in which the -small-package traffic does not greatly vary at any season of the year. -Down in the Southwest, where a great amount of foodstuffs moves out by -express within a very few weeks there are men who may, in two months, take -several hundred dollars, perhaps a check into four figures from the -express company. The gateway to a summer resort is regarded as something -of the same sort of a bonanza to the station agent. Still Blinks, if he -would, could tell you of a man at a famous resort gateway who lost his job -through it. The president of his road was a stickler for appearances. On a -bright summer day when vacation traffic was running at flood tide, his car -came rolling into the place. Word of it came to the station agent, but the -station agent was lost in an avalanche of express way-bills. He should -have been out on the platform in his pretty new cap and uniform. At least -that was what the president thought. So nowadays that station agent gives -all his time to the express way-bills. There is a new man for the cap and -uniform, and when the president of that railroad arrives in the town he is -greeted with sufficient formality. - -As a matter of fact the express companies prefer to maintain offices -wherever it is at all possible. The bonanza offices for the railroad -agents are few and far between and when the railroad begins to find them -it is apt to part. So Blinks can consider himself lucky that his -commissions do not run over fifty dollars a month. That means that the -express company will not attempt anything as suicidal as establishing its -own office in Brier Hill and his own modest perquisite is not apt to be -interrupted. - -His is routine work and intricate work. He writes enough letters in a week -to do credit to a respectable correspondence school and he makes enough -reports in seven days to run three businesses. His incoming mail arrives -like a flood. There are tariffs, bulletins, more tariffs, instructions, -more tariffs, suggestions--and still more tariffs. The tariffs, both -freight and passenger, are fairly encyclopedic in dimensions and the folks -down at headquarters fondly imagine that he has memorized them. At least -that seems to be their assumption if Blinks can judge from their letters. -Every department of the road requests information of him, and gets it. And -when he is done with the railroad he realizes that he is violating -biblical injunction and serving two masters, at least. For the express -company is fairly prolific with its own tariffs and other literature. And -the telegraph company has many things also to say to Blinks there in the -old brick depot. - - -[Illustration: THE STATION AGENT - -He is the human tentacle of the railroad; the flesh-and-blood factor by -which it keeps in touch with many, many thousands of patrons.] - - -Yet the wonder of it is that Blinks endures it all--not only endures but -actually thrives under it. In a single hour while you are sitting in his -dingy, homy little office just back of the ticket cage, you can see the -press of work upon him. He has just finished a four-page report to the -legal department, explaining the likelihood of the road's being able to -stave off that demand for an overhead crossing just back of the town; -there is a letter on his desk from the general freight agent asking him -for a "picture" of the business at Brier Hill, which means a careful -analysis of its industries and trade--not an easy job of itself. There is -an express package of $25,000 in gold destined to a local bank, over in -the corner of the ticket cage. Blinks keeps a bit of watchfulness for that -"value package" down in the corner of his mind while a thousand things -press in upon it. Number Four is almost within hearing when a young man -and his wife appear at the window, baggage in hand, and demand a ticket -via Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Sedalia to Muskogee. The young ticket clerk -tears madly through a few dozen tariffs, scratches his head blankly--and -Blinks has to jump into the breach. In thirty seconds he has the right -tariff. - -"I think the through one way is thirty-four sixteen," he smiles at the -patrons, "but I had better look up and make sure." - -His memory was right--but Blinks takes no chances. - -"Can we get a stop-over at Urbana?" asks the woman. - -The station agent dives into a tariff, after a moment nods "yes." - -"Wonder if we could go around by Jefferson City and stop off there?" -inquires the man, "I've relatives there." - -Blinks starts to say "yes," then hesitates. Wasn't there a special -bulletin issued by the Missouri Pacific covering that detour? or was it -the Katy? He finds his way through twenty or thirty tariff supplements. He -knows that if he makes a mistake he not only will be censured, but will -probably be forced to make good the mistake from his own pocket--according -to the ruling of the Interstate Commerce Law, which he feels is yet to be -his nemesis. - -Number Four is almost near enough to hear the hissing of her valves but he -tells his patrons not to worry--she has a deal of express matter to handle -this morning and will tarry two or three minutes at the station. He finds -the right ticket forms, clips and pastes them, stamps and punches them, -until he has two long green and yellow contracts each calling for the -passage of a person from his town to Muskogee. Incidentally he finds time -to sell a little sheaf of travelers' checks and an accident insurance -policy in addition to promising to telegraph down to the junction to -reserve Pullman space. In six or seven minutes he has completed an -important passenger transaction, with rare accuracy. Rare accuracy, did we -say? We were mistaken. That sort of accuracy is common among the station -agents of America. - -When the nervous, hurried, accurate transaction is done you might expect -Blinks to rail against the judgment of travelers who wait until the last -minute to buy tickets involving a trip over a group of railroads. But that -is not the way of Blinks. - -"I could have sent them down to the junction on a local ticket and let -them get their through tickets there. But I like those tickets on my -receipt totals and I'm rather proud of the fact that they've made this a -coupon station. My rival here on the R---- road has to send down to -headquarters for blank tickets and a punch whenever he hears in advance of -a party that's going to make a trip and a clerk down there figures out the -rate. We make our own rates and folks know they can get through tickets at -short notice." - -That means business and Blinks knows that it means business. - -"But he almost had me stumped on that alternative route via Jefferson -City," he laughs. "They catch us up mighty quickly these days if we make -mistakes of that sort." - -The Interstate Commerce Law, as we have already seen, is a pretty rigid -thing and lest a perfectly virtuous railroad should be accused of making -purposeful "mistakes" in quoting the wrong rate, it insists that the agent -himself shall pay the difference when he fails to charge the patron the -fully established rate for either passenger or freight transportation. In -fact it does more. It demands that the agent shall seek out the patron and -make him pay the dollars and cents of the error, which is rather nice in -theory but difficult in execution. The average citizen does not live in -any great fear of the Interstate Commerce Law. - -Blinks, being a practical sort of railroader, is willing to tell you of -the line as it works today--of the problems and the perplexities that -constantly confront him. And occasionally he gives thought to his rival, -whose little depot is on the far side of the village. - -"Now Fremont is up against it," he tells you confidentially. "His road is -different from ours. We have built up a pretty good reputation for our -service. My job is a man's job but at least I don't have to apologize for -our road. Fremont does. His road is rotten and he knows it. He knows when -he sells a man a ticket through to California or even down to New York -that the train is going to be a poor one, made up of old equipment, -probably late, and certainly overcrowded. And if it's a shipper Fremont -knows that there is a good chance that his car is going to get caught in -some one of their inadequate yards and perhaps be held a week on a back -siding. - -"It keeps Fremont guessing. His business is not more than half of mine and -he has to work three times as hard to get it. He catches it from every -corner and starves along on a bare eighty dollars a month. And they are -not even decent enough to give him anything like this." - -He delves into an inner pocket and pulls out a leather pass wallet. It is -a "system annual"--a magic card which permits his wife or himself to -travel over all the main lines and side lines of the big road, at their -will. He gives it a genuine look of affection before he replaces it. - -"When a man's been fifteen years in the station service of our road, he -gets one of these for himself; at twenty-five they make it include his -wife and dependent members of his family--which is quite as far as the -law allows." - -Blinks laughs. - -"They're generous--in almost every way--except in the pay envelope. And in -these days they're actually beginning to show some understanding of the -real difficulties of this job." There is an instance in his mind. He gives -it to you. For the station agent here at Brier Hill still recalls the -fearful lecture he got from the old superintendents of his -division--within a month after he was made station agent at the little -town. They had celebrated the centennial of the fine old town; there had -been a gay night parade in which all the merchants of the village were -represented. Some of them had sent elaborate floats into the line of -march, but Blinks had been content to have his two boys march, carrying -transparencies that did honor to the traffic facilities of the Great -Midland. The transparencies had cost $6.75 and Blinks had the temerity to -send the bill for them on to headquarters. If he had stolen a train and -given all his friends a free ride upon it he hardly could have caught -worse censure. - -But Blinks's road has begun to see a great light. It has begun to realize -Blinks and his fellows are the tentacles by which it is in contact with -its territory. As the traffic steadily grows heavier it has relieved him -of the routine of telegraphic train orders by establishing a block tower -up the line at the top of the hill, where regular operators make a sole -business of the management of the trains and so widen the margin of safety -upon that division. It has appointed supervising agents--men of long -experience in depot work, men who are appointed to give help rather than -criticism--who go up and down its lines giving Blinks and his fellows the -benefits of practical suggestions. - -It has done more than these things. Today it would not censure him for -spending $6.75 out of his cash drawers for giving it a representation on a -local fete-day. It would urge him to spend a few more dollars and make a -really good showing. It is giving him a little more help in the office and -insisting that he mix more with the citizens of the town. It will perhaps -pay his dues in the Chamber of Commerce and in one or two of the local -clubs, providing the dues are not too high. For the road is still feeling -its way. - -We think that it is finding a path in the right direction. It has long -maintained an expensive staff of traveling solicitors for both freight and -passenger traffic--expensive not so much in the matter of salaries as in -the constant flood of hotel and food bills. It has ignored Blinks and his -fellows--long-established tentacles in the smaller towns--and their -possibilities. Now it is turning toward them. - -Out in the Middle West they are trying still another experiment. Several -roads have begun letting their local agents pay small and obvious transit -claims right out of their cash drawers, instead of putting them through -the devious and time-taking routine of the claim departments. Under the -new plan the agent first pays the claim--if it does not exceed twenty-five -dollars, or thereabouts--and the claim department checks up the papers. -There may be cases where the road loses by such methods, but they are -hardly to be compared with the friends it gains. An express company has -adopted the plan, three or four railroads are giving it increasing use. -The idea is bound to spread and grow. And not the least of its good -effects will be the increased self-respect of the agents themselves. The -trust that the road places in them gives them new trust in themselves. - -Blinks has a little way of talking about courtesy--which in effect goes -something after the same fashion. He generally gives the little talk when -a new man comes upon his small staff. - -"The best exercise for the human body," he tells the man, "is the exercise -of courtesy. For it reflects not only upon the man who is its recipient, -but in unseen fashion upon the man who gives it." - -After all, railroading is not so much engineering, not so much discipline, -not so much organization, not so much financing, as it is the -understanding of men. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE LABOR PLIGHT OF THE RAILROAD - - -Some eighteen per cent of the 2,000,000 railroad employees of the land, -receiving a little over twenty-eight per cent of their total pay-roll, are -affiliated with the four great brotherhoods--of the engineers, the -firemen, the conductors, and the trainmen. In fairness it should be added -that the reason why this eighteen per cent in numerical proportion, -receives twenty-eight per cent in financial proportion, is that the -eighteen per cent includes the larger proportion of the skilled labor of -the steel highway. Offhand, one would hardly expect a track laborer to -receive the same wages as Freeman, whose skill and sense of responsibility -entitles him to run the limited. - -Yet how about this section-boss, this man whom we have just interviewed as -he stands beside his job, the man who enables Freeman's train to make her -fast run from terminal to terminal in safety? Remember that in summer and -in winter, in fair weather and in foul, this man must also measure to his -job. He must _know_ that his section--six or seven or eight or even ten -miles--is, every inch of it, fit for the pounding of the locomotive at -high speed. You do not have to preach eternal vigilance to him. It long -since became part of his day's work. And to do that day's work he must -work long hours and hard--as you have already seen--must be denied the -cheeriness and companionship of men of his kind. He frequently must locate -his family and himself far apart from the rest of the world. All of this, -and please remember that his average pay is about one-third of the average -pay of the engineer. It is plain to see that no powerful brotherhood -protects him. - -If space permitted we could consider the car-maintainer. His is an equally -responsible job. Yet he, too, is unorganized, submerged, underpaid. His -plight is worse than that of the station agent--and we have just seen how -Blinks of Brier Hill earns his pay. As a matter of fact Blinks is rather -well paid. There are more men at country depots to be compared with -Fremont--men who give the best of their energy and diplomacy and all-round -ability only to realize that their pay envelope is an appreciably slimmer -thing than those of the well-dressed trainmen who ride the passenger -trains up and down the line. The trainman gets a hundred dollars a month -already--and under the Adamson law he is promised more. - -This, however, may prove one thing quite as much as another. It may not -prove that the trainman is overpaid as much as it proves that the station -agent is underpaid. Personally, I do not hesitate to incline to the latter -theory. I have learned of many trainmasters and road foremen of engines -who have far less in their pay envelopes at the end of the month than the -men who are under their supervision and control. And there is not much -theory about the difficulty a road finds, under such conditions, to -"promote" a man from the engineer's cab to the road foreman's or the -trainmaster's office. In other days this was a natural step upward, in pay -and in authority. Today there is no advance in pay and the men in the cab -see only authority and responsibility and worry in such a job--with no -wage increase to justify it. - -Down in the Southwest this situation is true even of division -superintendents--men of long training, real executive ability, and -understanding who are actually paid less month by month than the -well-protected engineers and conductors of their divisions. There is no -brotherhood among station agents, none among the operating officers of the -railroads of America. And yet for loyalty and ability, taken man for man, -division for division, and road for road, there are no finer or more -intelligent workers in all of industrial America. Still the fact remains -that they are not well-paid workers. - -When is a man well paid? - -According to the public prints, Charlie Chaplin, that amusing young clown -of the movies, receives from a quarter to half a million dollars a -year--according to the ability of his most recent press agent. I happen to -know that a certain missionary bishop down in Oklahoma receives as his -compensation $1,200 a year--although he never is quite certain of his -salary. With due respect to the comedian of the screen-drama, does anyone -imagine that his influence in the upbuilding of the new America is to be -compared for a moment to that of the shepherd of the feeble flocks down -in the Southwest? - -Your economist will tell you, and use excellent arguments in support of -the telling, that the wage outgo of the land is fixed, in definite -proportion to its wealth. Granting then that this is so--one thinks twice -before he runs amuck of trained economists--is it still fair to infer that -the track foreman or the car-maintainer or the station agent is amply -paid? And is it equally fair to infer that the pay of these three classes -of railroad employees, so typical of unorganized transportation labor, -could be raised by lowering the pay of organized employees without leaving -these organized employees actually underpaid? And what assurance has the -average man, the man in the street, that any reduction in the pay of the -engineers, the conductors, the firemen, and the trainmen--if such a -miracle actually be brought to pass--would result in a corresponding -increase in the pay of the other eighty-two per cent of the labor of the -railroad? - -These are questions that must be answered sooner or later. In the present -situation it looks as if they would have to be answered sooner rather than -later. With them come others: Assuming still that our economist with his -belief that the wage outgo of the entire nation is correct, is it not -possible that the railroad as an institution is not getting its fair -proportion of the national total? I have just shown you how eighteen per -cent of the railroad's employees receives twenty-eight per cent of their -pay-roll. It would be equally interesting to know the percentage of -national wage which goes to all the employees of all the railroads. - -I cannot but feel when I realize the great annual total of wages which are -being paid in the automobile and the war-munitions industries, to make -striking instances, that the railroads are by no means receiving their -fair share of the national wage account. Even the salaries paid to -railroad executives, with the possible exception of a comparatively small -group of men at the very top of some of the largest properties, are not -generous. There has been much misstatement about these salaries. Because -of these misstatements it is unfortunate, to say the least, that the -railroads have not followed a policy of publishing their entire -pay-rolls--from the president down to office boy. - -But the fact remains--a fact that may easily be verified by consulting the -records of the Interstate Commerce Commission--that railroad salaries are -not high, as compared with other lines of industry in America. That is one -reason why the business has so few allurements to the educated young -men--the coming engineers of America. They come trooping out of the high -schools, the technical schools, the colleges, and the universities of our -land and struggle to find their way into the electrical workshops, the -mines, the steel-making industry, the automobile shops, the telephone, -even to the new, scientific, highly developed forms of agriculture. Few of -them find their way to the railroad. - -This is one of the most alarming symptoms of the great sick man of -American business--his apparent utter inability to draw fresh, red blood -to his veins.[6] A few of the roads--a very few indeed--have made distinct -efforts to build up a personnel for future years by intelligent -educational means. The Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific have made -interesting studies and permanent efforts along these lines. But most of -the railroads realize that it is the wage question--the long, hard road to -a decent pay envelope in their service, as compared with the much shorter -pathways in other lines of American industry--that is their chief obstacle -in this phase of their railroad problem. - -It has been suggested, and with wisdom, that the railroad should begin to -make a more careful study and analysis of its entire labor situation than -it has ever before attempted. Today it is giving careful, scientific, -detailed attention to every other phase of its great problems. One road -today has twenty-seven scientific observers--well trained and schooled to -their work--making a careful survey of its territory, with a view to -developing its largest traffic possibilities. And some day a railroad is -to begin making an audit of its labor--to discover for itself in exact -fact and figures, the cost of living for a workman in Richmond or South -Bend or Butte or San Bernardino. Upon that it will begin to plat its -minimum wage-increase. - -Suppose the railroad was to begin with this absolute cost of living as a -foundation factor. It would quickly add to it the hazard of the particular -form of labor in which its employee was engaged expressed in dollars and -cents--a factor easily figured out by any insurance actuary. To this again -would be added a certain definite sum which might best be expressed, -perhaps, as the employee's profit from his work; a sum which, in ordinary -cases at least, would or should represent the railroad's steady -contribution to his savings-bank account. To these three fundamental -factors there would probably have to be added a fourth--the bonus which -the railroad was compelled to offer in a competitive labor market for -either a man or a type of men which it felt that it very much needed in -its service. Only upon some such definite basis as this can a railroad's -pay-roll ever be made scientific and economic--and therefore permanent. - -An instant ago and I was speaking of bonuses. The very word had, until -recently, a strange sound in railroad ears. The best section foreman on a -line may receive a cash prize for his well-maintained stretch of track; I -should like to hear of a station agent like Blinks who knows that his -well-planned and persistent effort to build up the freight and passenger -business at his station, is to be rewarded by a definite contribution from -the pay-chest of the railroad which employs him. Up to very recently there -apparently has not been a single railroad which has taken up this question -of bonus payments for extra services given. To the abounding credit of the -Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and its president, Edward Payson -Ripley, let it be said that they have just agreed to pay the greater -proportion of their employees receiving less than $2,000 a year a bonus -of ten per cent of the year's salary for 1916--a payment amounting all -told to $2,750,000. The employees so benefited must have been employed by -the Santa Fe for at least two years and they must not be what is called -"contract labor." By that the railroad means chiefly the men of the four -great brotherhoods whose services are protected by very exact and definite -agreements or contracts. The men of the brotherhoods are hardly in a -position to expect or to demand a bonus of any sort. And it also is worthy -of record that practically every union man, big or little, has placed -himself on record against bonus plans of every sort. - -I hope that the example of the Santa Fe is to be followed by the other -railroads of the country.[7] It is stimulating and encouraging; it shows -that the big sick man of American business apparently is not beyond hope -of recovery. For, in my own mind, the bonus system is, beyond a doubt, the -eventual solution of the whole involved question of pay as it exists -today and will continue to exist in the minds of both employer and -employee. Our progressive and healthy forms of big industry of the United -States have long since come to this bonus plan of paying their employees. -The advances made by the steel companies and other forms of manufacturing -enterprise, by great merchandising concerns, both wholesale and retail, -and by many of the public utility companies, including certain traction -systems, are fairly well known. It is a step that, when once taken, is -never retraced. The bonus may be paid in various ways--in cash or in the -opportunity to subscribe either at par or at a preferred figure, to the -company's stock or bonds. But there is little variation as to the results. -And the workmen who benefit directly by these bonus plans become and -remain quite as enthusiastic over them as the men who employ them and -whose benefit, of necessity, is indirect. - - * * * * * - -In this connection some studies made recently by Harrington Emerson, the -distinguished efficiency engineer, are of particular interest. Mr. -Emerson, while attached to the president's office of the Baltimore and -Ohio Railroad, has had opportunity to study the railroad situation at -close range and in a very practical way. He has placed his carefully -developed theories in regard to the man in the shop and his wage into a -study of the railroader and his pay-envelope. He has gone back into -transportation history and found that at first employes were paid by the -day. But long hours either on the road or waiting on passing sidings -worked great hardships to them. As a more or less direct consequence the -men in train service formed unions and succeeded in establishing the -peculiar combination of pay upon the mile and the hour basis--which has -obtained ever since in general railroad practice. If a train or a -locomotive man was called for duty, even if he never left the station, he -received a full day's pay. This, in Mr. Emerson's opinion and in the -opinion of a good many others who have studied the situation, was as it -should be and the principle should have been adhered to. But to it was -tacked the piece rate of the mile. If a train or locomotive man made one -hundred miles it was considered a day's work, even if made in two hours. -In this way the piece-rate principle became firmly established alongside -of the hourly basis. - -"What was the result on railroad operation and costs?" asks Mr. Emerson -and then proceeds to answer his own question. He calls attention to the -cars weighing 120,000 pounds and having axle-loads of 50,000 pounds that -are being run upon our railroads today and expresses his belief that -because in our established methods of railroad accounting, operating costs -include train men's wages, but not interest on capital invested in -locomotives, cars, trains and terminals; railroad managers, driven by the -need to make a showing long since began to plan more revenue tons per -train-mile in order to keep down or lessen train-crew wage-costs per -ton-mile. This was very well as long as it led to better-filled cars and -trains, but the plan quickly expanded into heavier locomotives and heavier -cars which necessitated heavier rails, more ties, tie-plates, stronger -bridges, reduced grades, and a realignment until all that was gained in -tonnage-mile costs was lost in increased obsolescence, unremunerative -betterment, and other fixed charges. Even as good a railroader as Mr. -Harriman was once led to regret that railroads were not built upon a -six-foot gauge instead of the long-established one of four feet eight and -one-half inches, because he felt that this would enable him still further -to increase train load in proportion to train crew. - -A good many railroaders have said that we have reached and long since -passed the point of efficiency by increasing our standard of car and train -sizes. Mr. Emerson is not new in that deduction. But he puts the case so -clearly in regard to the confusing double basis in the pay of the -trainmen--the vexed point that is before the Supreme Court of the United -States as this book is being completed, because the Adamson so-called -eight-hour day omitted the mileage factor, to the eternal annoyance of -those same trainmen--that I cannot forbear quoting his exact words: - - Piece rates to trainmen should be abolished. The work of trainmen - should be classified. There should be short hours and correspondingly - high pay for men working under great strain. There should be heavy - penalties attached for overtime, although it does not follow that the - man who puts in the overtime should receive the penalty. Society wants - him to protest against overtime, because it may be both dangerous to - the public and detrimental to the worker. The worker should not be - bribed to encourage it. - - It is evident that pay by the hour with penalties for overtime would - encourage lighter and faster trains. Lighter and faster trains would - increase the roads' capacity as well as car and locomotive mileage. - Capital expenses would drop. The savings made would be available to - increase wages and to pay higher bills for material and to pay better - dividends. - -Beyond this there is little more to be said--at least pending the decision -of the highest court in the land. But no matter how the Supreme Court may -find in this vexatious matter, the fact remains that the union man in -railroad employ will continue to be paid upon this complicated and unfit -double method of reckoning--clumsy, totally inadequate (built up through -the years by men who preferred compromise) and complicate an intelligent -and definite solution of a real problem. - -Some day, some railroader is going to solve the question; and, in my own -humble opinion, a genuine solution, worked from the human as well as the -purely economic angle is going to rank with the bonus and other -indications of an advanced interest on the part of railroad executives in -the men as a step toward a betterment of the relations between them. - - * * * * * - -In my opinion such steps as these that I have just outlined not only would -go far toward solving the frequent "crises" that arise between the -railroads and their employees, but would tend greatly to prevent the -depreciation of the human equipment of the road. Remember that this labor -problem is one which presses hard not only upon the body politic, but upon -the whole human structure of our country. Its solution, as well as the -solution of the physical question, must be not only immediate, but -economic and financial. - -All this is bound to result soon in a very great increase in the -railroad's pay-roll. It is an added cost that must be met before the -railroad can come into its own once again. It is quickly obvious that the -great pay-roll must be equalized, that in these days of steadily mounting -cost of living, its unorganized labor--its trackmen, its carmen, its -shopmen, its clerks, its station agents--must be given a fairer chance in -the division of its wages. It needs to pay better salaries to its minor -officers, and it is today handicapped for lack of these. - -It is obvious also that it is going to be extremely difficult, to say the -least, for the railroad to reduce the wages of its organized labor. Put -this statement to the ones that have gone before and you can quickly see -the need for very great increases in the railroad's pay-roll in the -immediate future. It is going to be compelled to seek a larger share in -that great portion of the nation's outgo that goes to pay for its labor of -every sort. It can no longer postpone the pressing demands of its -unorganized workers. - -The failure to increase their portion of the pay-roll, with its consequent -tendency toward the depreciation, if you please, of much of the human -element in the operation of the railroad, may yet prove to be a problem, -larger and more serious than the failure not alone to increase but to -prevent the physical depreciation of the railroad. - -This physical question--the financial plight of the railroad, its great -and growing depreciation account, the consequent deterioration of its -lines, particularly its branch lines--we already have discussed. To that -plight now add the labor plight. No wonder that the great man of American -business lies sick upon his bed. Already we have learned that from a -purely material point of view, the railroad is nine years back of 1917 -instead of nine years ahead of this date. Its involved, delicate, -unsettled labor problem shows that nine years is a small lapse indeed -between the tardiness of its labor relations, together with the real -understanding of its human problem, and the general understanding of labor -and social conditions in other lines of American industry. - -Yet it is not too late to mend. And just to show that this is possible, -that it is worth while bringing the sick man of American business back to -health again, just for the opportunities of development that stand before -him, I am going to take your time to show you a few of the larger -possibilities of the railroads of the United States. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE RAILROAD - - -In the past decade the United States has progressed mightily. Have the -railroads of the land made equal progress? The past decade of American -progress will, in all probability, pale before the coming of the -next--particularly if we are cool-headed and smart-headed enough to take -critical reckoning of our weaknesses and to use such a reckoning as a -stepping-stone toward supplementing our great inherent and potential -strength. Will the railroad during the coming decade move forward to its -opportunity? And what is the opportunity of the railroad? - -These are pertinent questions. They come with added force upon a statement -of the present plight of our overland carriers and before one comes to -consider the measures of immediate relief that must be granted them. They -must be considered too--briefly, but with a due appreciation of their -importance. The railroaders of vision--and I have never believed that -there was a really big railroader who lacked vision--today are thinking of -them. - - * * * * * - -For a beginning take the possibility of the application of electricity as -a motive power in the operation of the railroad. Our overland carriers -have only begun to sound the vast possibilities of this great agent of -energy. To many of the roads, its present attainments both in Europe and -in America are still, in large measure, a closed book. They have little -realization of what was accomplished in suburban electrification in Paris -or in Berlin well before the beginning of the war; hardly greater -realization of the marvels wrought in the suburban zones of New York, -Philadelphia, Portland, and San Francisco. And the tremendous -accomplishment of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway in -transforming nearly 500 miles of its main line over the crest of the Rocky -Mountains is still so new and so dazzling as to have given railroad -managers in other sections of the land little opportunity to consider its -opportunities as applied to their own properties. - - * * * * * - -Within the past few years the folk of the East have seen several important -terminals--terminals really vast in their proportions and their -accommodations--developed in the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard. -There have been important passenger stations erected in other parts of the -land--the new Union Station in Kansas City, the Union Station at -Minneapolis, and the North Western Terminal at Chicago coming first to -mind among these. But the passenger terminal developments along the -Atlantic seaboard have differed from those of the Middle West chiefly in -the fact that into their planning and construction has been interwoven the -use of electricity as a motive power for the trains which are to use them. -Practically every one of these is so designed as to make its operation by -steam power impossible. - -The ambitious good taste of many of our cities growing into a real -metropolitanism has been gratified in this decade of our national progress -by the erection of monumental passenger stations. These structures -invariably are more than merely creditable--they are impressive, majestic, -beautiful. Yet the big railroaders do not always see them in this light. -They find themselves, by one means or another, compelled to gratify local -civic pride by the expenditure of hundreds of thousands and even millions -of dollars more than it would cost to build a plain, efficient terminal, -large enough to accommodate the traffic of both today and tomorrow. The -extra expenditure goes to produce a granite palace, generally ornate and -sometimes extravagant to the last degree. - -Yet in all this widespread development of the American terminal, one at -least has been evolved which is not merely monumental, but an economic -solution of its own great cost. I refer to the new Grand Central Terminal -in the city of New York. - -You may recall the old Grand Central Station. It was no mean terminal. -Commodore Vanderbilt built it himself soon after the close of the Civil -War. The passenger business of the railroads of the land was then -beginning to be a considerable thing. Americans were gaining the travel -habit. The genus commuter had been born. The first of the railroad -Vanderbilts saw all these things. And, because he had the fine gift of -vision, he turned his far-seeing toward action. On Forty-second -Street--then a struggling crossroad at the back of New York--he erected -the greatest railroad terminal in the world. It was indeed a giant -structure, and the biggest of our American towns had, in its Grand Central -depot, a toy over which it might brag for many and many a day. - -New York was in genuine ecstasy about it. Its ornate and graceful train -shed spanned thirteen tracks, and even if our fathers did wonder where all -the cars could come from to fill so spacious an apartment they had to -marvel at its beauty. And beyond this creation of the artist was the -creation of the engineer--the huge switching yard, black and interlaced -with steel tracks. It was a mightily congested railroad yard; upon its -tight-set edges the growing city pressed. Skyscrapers sprang up roundabout -and looked down upon the cars and locomotives. The value of that land, -given as a switching yard for a passenger terminal, eventually was -reckoned close to $100,000,000. And the yard itself became a black barrier -to the development of the heart of metropolitan New York. - - * * * * * - -In forty years from the day it was opened, the last vestige of the Grand -Central depot, a building which, to a considerable portion of the -population of this land, had been second in fame only to the Capitol at -Washington, was gone. Workmen had torn it stone from stone and brick from -brick and carted it off as waste to scrap yards. The majesty of that -lovely vaulted train shed had been reduced to a pile of rusty and useless -iron. It had been outgrown and discarded. - -In fact within a dozen years after its christening the wonderful depot was -overtaxed. Even Vanderbilt's vision could not grasp the growth that was -coming, not only to New York, but to the great territory his railroads -served. In a dozen years workmen were clearing a broad space to the east -of the main structure for an annex train shed of a half-dozen tracks, to -relieve the pressure upon the original station. Another twelve years and -the laborers were again upon the Grand Central, this time adding stories -to the original structure and trying to simplify its operation by new -baggage and waiting rooms. Within the third dozen years the workmen were -busy with air drill and steam shovel digging the great hole in the rock -that was the first notice to the old Grand Central that its short lease of -busy life was ending. And in the fortieth year of its life they were -tearing down the old station--old within the span of two generations--old -only because it had been outgrown. - - * * * * * - -The problem of the new Grand Central was both engineering and -architectural. It is the engineering side of the problem which interests -us here and now. It was that side which it was necessary to solve first. -To solve it meant that the passenger traffic into New York from the north -and east for another fifty or a hundred years must be discounted--not an -easy matter when in the case of a single famous trunk-line railroad it has -been found that the passenger traffic has doubled each ten years for the -past three decades. When the statisticians put down their pencils the -engineers whistled. To fashion a station for the traffic of 1960, even -for that of 1935, meant such a passenger station as no railroad head, no -engineer, no architect had ever before dreamed of building. At a low -estimate, it meant that there would have to be some forty or fifty -stub-tracks in the train shed. In the great train shed of the Union -Station of St. Louis, there are thirty-two of these stub-tracks and the -span of that shed is 606 feet. That would have meant in the case of the -new Grand Central a train house with a width of nearly a thousand feet. -The engineers shook their heads. They knew their limitations--with the -Grand Central hedged in by the most expensive real estate in the city of -New York. To buy any large quantity of adjoining land for the new station -was quite out of the question. - -Fortunately there was a way out. There generally is. The electric -locomotive had begun to come into its own. For the operation of this -station, including the congested four-track tunnel under Park Avenue, from -the very throat of the train-shed yard up to Harlem, four miles distant, -it represented an almost ideal form of traction, largely because of its -cleanliness and freedom from smoke. For the engineers who were giving -their wits to the planning of a new terminal it was the solution of their -hardest problem. - -They would cut their train shed of fifty tracks about in half--and then -place one of these halves directly above the other. This would make a -fairly logical division between the through and the suburban traffic of -the terminal. In that way the new Grand Central was planned. And that one -thing represented its first important demarkation from the other great -passenger stations of the land. It also is the thing that pointed the way -to the most wonderful development of America's most wonderful terminal, -the thing that is infinitely greater than the station itself. - -Recall once again, if you will, that dirty smoke-filled yard at the -portals of the old station. It was rather an impressive place; by night, -with its flashing signals of red and green and yellow, its glare of -dominant headlights and the constant unspoken orders of swinging lamps; by -day, a seeming chaos of locomotives and of cars, turning this way or that, -slipping into the dark cool train shed under grinding brakes, or else -starting from that giant cavern with gathering speed, to roll halfway -across the continent before the final halt. To the layman it was -fascinating, because he knew that the chaos was really ordered, on a -scientific and tremendous scale, that the alert little man who stood at -the levers of the inconspicuous tower mid-yard, was the clear-minded human -who was directing the working of a great terminal by the working of his -brain. But to the thinking railroader that railroad yard, like every -railroad yard in the heart of the great city, was a waste that was hardly -less than criminal. - -The coming of the electric locomotive has spelled the way by which that -waste in the hearts of our American cities may be ended. Concretely, in -the case of the new Grand Central, it made a splendid solution of one of -the greatest of the growth problems in the largest city of our continent. -For, while the new Grand Central, service and approach yards considered -even as a single level--some sixty acres all told--are larger than the -older yard, they apparently have disappeared. In that thing alone a great -obstacle to the constant uptown growth of New York has been removed. -Sixteen precious city blocks have been given back to the city for its -development. And already a group of buildings possessing rare -architectural unity and beauty have begun to rise upon this tract. - -There are other American cities where this experiment--no longer an -experiment, if you please--might well be effected today. Of these, more in -a moment. For, before we leave the question of the Grand Central consider -one other thing: the economic value of its design to the railroad company -which has erected it. It was only a moment ago that we were speaking of -the utter extravagance shown in the designing and building of the -monumental passenger stations in so many of our metropolitan cities. The -New York Central, for reasons of its own, has been reticent in stating -both the cost of the new Grand Central and the income which it derives not -only from the rentals of the privileges in the station itself--restaurants, -news stands, barber shops, checking stands, and the like--but also from -the ground rental of the great group of huge buildings which it has -permitted to spring up over its electrified station yards. It is known, -however, that this income is not only sufficient to pay the interest upon -the investment of the new terminal, to provide slowly but surely a sinking -fund for the retirement of the bonds which have been issued for the -building of the terminal, but also to go a considerable distance toward -the actual operating expenses of the terminal. - -Here, then, is the first of our giant opportunities for the railroader of -tomorrow. There is, of course, no novelty in rentals from ordinary station -privileges. The Pennsylvania Railroad, by the development of the electric -locomotive, was enabled to tunnel both the Hudson and the East rivers and -thus to realize its dream of long years--a terminal situated in the heart -of Manhattan Island; a passenger terminal so situated as to place the -great railroad of the red cars in a real competitive position with the -railroad of the Vanderbilts, which so long had held exclusive terminal -facilities within the congested island of Manhattan. The Pennsylvania did -not do the thing by halves--it rarely does; it built what is beyond the -shadow of a doubt the most beautiful railroad station in America, if not -in the entire world. The majesty of its waiting room is such as to make it -perhaps the loveliest apartment in all these United States. - -But even the Pennsylvania lacked the opportunity for economic return that -was gained out of the new Grand Central station, hardly a mile distant. -That it was not asleep to the possibilities is shown by the double row of -high-rental shops which line the arcade entrance to that waiting room. A -central post-office, a clearing house for the great mail of New York, was -erected spanning the maze of tracks at one end of the station. And -recently the railroad has begun the erection of a huge hotel spanning the -tracks at the other end In this it is following the example of the New -York Central, which some time ago devised a group of hotels as a part of -the development of the Grand Central property. One of these hotels is -completed and immensely popular; the other has just been begun. The New -York Central will not only derive a generous ground rent from these -taverns--it places itself in a splendid strategic position to receive the -traffic of their patrons. It is a somewhat singular thing--an instance -perhaps, of the lack of vision of railroaders of an earlier -generation--that modern hotels were not long ago made an integral part of -our larger passenger terminals at least. Our English cousins have not -overlooked this opportunity. The great hotels builded into their terminals -have long since enjoyed a world-wide reputation for their excellence. Upon -our own continent both the Canadian Pacific and the Grand Trunk railroads -have not been slow to take advantage of similar opportunities. And to a -considerable degree, at least, their example has been followed by certain -roads right in the United States--the Santa Fe and the Delaware and Hudson -are the first to come to my mind. The hotels of these railroads may not -be, in themselves, directly profitable. But there is no question but that -they are distinct factors in the development of passenger traffic, and so, -in the long run, distinctly profitable. - - * * * * * - -Consider for an instant, if you will, the possibilities of the electrified -passenger terminal as applied to some others of our metropolitan American -cities. Take Boston, for instance. In that fine old town the -electrification of its two great passenger terminals some time ago -approached the dignity of becoming a real issue. Oddly enough the two -railroads which would develop the situation in the larger of its two -terminals--the South Station--are the New Haven and the New York Central, -the lessee of the Boston and Albany. Though both of these systems -participate in the joint operation of the new Grand Central Terminal of -New York, neither of them has leaped at the possibility in Boston. The -tremendous financial difficulties through which the New Haven property has -been struggling for the last six or eight years and from which it has not -yet emerged, are undoubtedly the cause of this. The Boston and Maine -Railroad, which owns and operates the North Station, is in even worse -financial plight. And it is hard for an outsider to see any immediate -possibility of the application of electric power to the great North -Station and the vast network of through and suburban lines which radiate -from it. Nor is the North Station so situated as to render it possible -today to give it an economic development even approximating that of the -Grand Central. - - -[Illustration: THE P. R. R.'S ELECTRIC SUBURBAN ZONE - -The block system operated automatically by electricity. The signal over -the right hand track reads, "Stop." Picture taken near Bryn Mawr, Pa.] - - -[Illustration: ELECTRICITY INTO ITS OWN - -Electric suburban train on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad -between Philadelphia and Paoli.] - - -The Boston and Albany is a co-tenant with the New Haven in the huge and -murky South Station. It has always been a rich railroad. Twenty-five years -ago it was building superb stone bridges and stations, structures of real -architectural worth--a full quarter of a century it was in advance of -almost every other railroad in America. In those days the Boston and -Albany probably did not dream that the time would come when its chief -asset would be the value of its right of way across the newer and the -finer portion of Boston. "The Albany Road," as the older Bostonians like -to term the B. and A., has the extreme possibilities of cost for the -electric transformation of its lines all the way from Worcester east, not -only met but many times multiplied in the development possibilities of the -Back Bay district which it now traverses with its through track and -interrupts with its somewhat ungainly storage yards. These yards, now used -for the holding of empty passengers coaches, occupy tremendously valuable -acres on Boylston Street within a block of Copley Square--the artistic and -literary center of the Hub. They are essential, perhaps, to the economical -operation of the road's terminal, but when you come to consider the growth -of the city, a tremendous waste. They have stood--a noisy, dirty, open -space--stretching squarely across the path of Boston's finest possible -development. If these were marshlands, like those that used to abound -along the Charles River, Boston long ago would have filled them in and -added many valuable building sites to its taxable area. For remember that -the development of the Grand Central Terminal has proceeded far enough -already to show that in these days of heavy steel and concrete -construction, and with the absolute cleanliness of electric railroad -operation, it is possible to build a hotel over a big railroad yard -without one guest in a thousand ever knowing that a train is being handled -underneath his feet every thirty seconds or thereabouts. Indeed, in the -Grand Central scheme provision is being made already for the construction -of an opera house right over the station approach tracks; the -congregation of St. Bartholomew's is building over the same railroad yards -one of the finest church structures in America. - -Here, then, is a golden opportunity for the Boston and Albany--by the -substitution of electric power for steam and the roofing of its yards--to -develop those tremendously valuable vacant acres back of Copley Square; -and the man who goes to Boston ten years hence probably will not see a -smoky gash cut diagonally through the heart of one of the handsomest -cities in America in order to permit a busy railroad to deliver its -passenger and freight at a convenient downtown point. It is hard to -estimate the financial benefits which eventually will result to the Boston -and Albany of cellarless city squares over its Boylston Street yards. The -benefit to Boston, like the benefit to New York through the development of -the Grand Central and Pennsylvania terminals, is hardly to be expressed in -dollars and cents. - - * * * * * - -In Chicago the question of terminal electrification has taken a less -definite form than in Boston, although the Chicagoans are making fearful -outcry against the filth that is poured out over their city from thousands -of soft-coal locomotives. The Illinois Central has been ranked as the -chief offender because of its commanding location--blocking as it does the -lovely lake front for so many miles. Chicago has ambitious plans for that -lake front. You may see them, hanging upon the walls of her Art Institute. -These plans, of necessity, embrace the transformation not only of the -terminal but of the railroad tracks within her heart from steam to -electric operation. - -Perhaps Chicago's plans are more definite than those of the railroads that -serve her. It is significant that the great North Western Terminal, still -very new, was builded with a slotted train-shed roof in order to release -the smoke and foul gases from the many steam locomotives which are -constantly using it. It is equally significant that the new Union Station, -which is being built to accommodate four others of her largest railroads -is also being equipped with a slotted train-shed roof, and for the same -reason. On the other hand, it is gratifying to notice that the tentative -plans for the new Illinois Central terminal contemplate the erection of a -double-decked station, very similar in type to the new Grand Central--a -station which, from the very nature of its design, must, of necessity, use -electric traction. Doubly gratifying this is to Chicagoans: for as we have -already said, the Illinois Central, which, through its occupation of the -lake front by its maze of steam-operated tracks, has so long hampered the -really artistic development of Chicago's greatest natural asset--the edge -of its lovely lake. For some years past the Illinois Central has been -particularly slow to make the best uses of its great suburban zone south -of Chicago; slow to realize its even larger opportunities of a development -even greater than that of today. This has come home with peculiar force to -the many, many thousands of commuters who use its suburban trains each -day. Now they know why the road has been so loath to retire its antique -cars and locomotives in this service. The filing of the primary plans for -its new terminal on the lake front at Twelfth Street and Michigan Avenue -shows that the road is at last planning to do the big thing in a really -big way. And it is not fair to suppose that it has overlooked a single -economic possibility of the electric development of its immensely valuable -terminal. The result of this development upon the other railroads with -their steam-operated terminals in the heart of Chicago, will be awaited -with interest.[8] - - * * * * * - -Philadelphia stands next to New York among eastern cities in the electric -development of its terminals, although it is interesting to note here and -now that for twenty years past the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has handled -both freight and passenger trains with electric power through its double -terminal and long tunnel in the heart of that city and has handled them -both economically and efficiently. The wonder only is that its chief -competitors should have retained steam power so long as a motive power in -their long tunnels underneath Baltimore. Yet it is one of these -competitors which is making the real progress in the Philadelphia -situation. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which owns and operates Broad Street -Station, probably one of the best-located passenger terminals in any of -the very large cities of America, has already begun to use electricity to -bring a large number of its suburban trains in and out of that station. -After much patient experimentation it has evolved a comparatively -inexpensive method of carrying the current to the overhead trolleys of -these suburban trains. And the system has already proved itself so -economical and so successful as to render its extension to other portions -of the system a question of only a comparatively short time. - -Electricity should spell opportunity to steam railroads. Yet until -recently it seemingly has failed to do this very thing. It has looked as -if the steam railroaders of a past generation were not thoroughly awakened -to the opportunities it offered; were not willing, at any rate, to strive -to find a way toward taking advantage of it. To understand this better let -us go back for a moment and consider the one-time but short-lived rivalry -between the trolley and the steam locomotive. As soon as the electric -railroads--which were, for the most part, developments of the -old-fashioned horse-car lines in city streets--began to reach out into the -country from the sharp confines of the towns the smarter of the steam -railroad men began to show interest in the new motive power. It would have -been far better for some of them if they had taken a sharper interest at -the beginning; if at that time they had begun to consider earnestly the -practical adaptation of electricity to the service of the long-established -steam railroad. - -In many cases the short suburban railroads, just outside of the larger -cities, which had been operated by small dummy locomotives, were the first -to be electrified; in some of these cases they became extensions of city -trolley lines. People no longer were obliged to come into town upon a poky -little dummy train of uncertain schedule and decidedly uncertain habits -and then transfer at the edge of the crowded portion of the city to horse -cars. They could come flying from the outer country to the heart of the -town in half an hour--and, as you know, the business of building and -booming suburbs was born. After these suburban lines had been developed -the steam railroad men of some of the so-called standard lines, began to -study the situation. As far back as 1895 the Nantasket branch of the -present New Haven system was made into an electric line. A little steam -road, which wandered off into the hills of Columbia County from Hudson, -New York, and led a precarious existence, extended its rails a few miles -and became the third-rail electric line from Hudson to Albany and a -powerful competitor for passenger traffic with a large trunk-line -railroad. The New Haven system found the electric third rail a good agent -between Hartford and New Britain and the overhead trolley a good -substitute for the locomotive on a small branch that ran for a few miles -north from its main line at Stamford, Connecticut. - -The problems of electric traction for regular railroads were complicated, -however, and the big steam roads avoided them until they were forced upon -their attention. The interurban roads spread their rails--rather too -rapidly in many cases--making themselves frequently the opportunities for -such precarious financing as once distinguished the history of steam -roads, and also frequently making havoc with thickly settled branch lines -and main stems of the steam railroads. In a good many cases the steam -roads have had to dig deep into their pockets and buy at good stiff prices -interurban roads--a situation that they might have anticipated with just a -little forethought. - -Such a condition was reached in a populous state along the Atlantic -seaboard just a few years ago. A big steam road, plethoric in wealth and -importance, had a branch line about 100 miles in length, which tapped a -dozen towns, each ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 in population. The branch -line carried no through business, nor was its local freight traffic of -importance, but it was able to operate profitably eleven local passenger -trains in each direction daily. These trains were well filled, as a rule, -and the branch returned at least its equitable share toward the dividend -account of the entire property. As long as it did that no one at -headquarters paid any particular attention to it. - -There was no physical reason why that branch should not have been made -into an interurban electric railroad a dozen years ago--the road that -owned it has never found it difficult to sell bonds for the improvement of -its property. Though no one paid particular attention to it at -headquarters, a roving young engineer with a genius for making money, -looked at it enviously--at the dozen prosperous towns it aimed to serve. A -fortnight's visit to the locality convinced him. He went down to a big -city where capital was just hungry to be invested profitably and organized -an electric railroad to thread each of those towns. Before the -headquarters of the steam road was really awake to the situation cars were -running on its electric competitor. And the people of the dozen towns -seemed to enjoy riding in the electric cars mightily--they were big and -fast and clean. The steam road made a brave show of maintaining its -service. It hauled long strings of empty coaches rather than surrender its -pride; but such pride was almost as empty as the coaches. - -Sooner or later any business organization must swallow false pride; and -so it came to pass that an emissary of the steam road met the roving young -engineer and asked him to put a price on his property. He smiled, totaled -his construction and equipment costs, added a quarter of a million dollars -to the total, and tossed the figures across the table. The emissary did -not smile. He reported to his headquarters and the steam railroad began to -fight--it was going to starve out the resources of its trolley competitor -by cutting passenger rates to a cent a mile. When the trolley company met -that, the railroad would cut the rate in two again--it could afford to pay -people to ride on its cars rather than suffer defeat; but they would not -ride on its cars, even at a lower rate. And once again the steam road's -emissary went up the branch. He sought out the trolley engineer. The -trolley man was indifferent. - -"Well," said the steam-road man, "we're seeing you." And at that he threw -down a certified check for the exact amount that had been agreed upon at -their previous conference. - -The trolley man did not touch the paper. He smiled what lady novelists are -sometimes pleased to call an inscrutable smile, then shook his head -slowly. - -"What!" gasped the emissary from the steam road. "Wasn't that your -figure?" - -"It was--but isn't now!" said the engineer. "It's up a quarter of a -million now." - -"Why?" - -"Just to teach you folks politeness and a little common decency," was the -reply. And the lesson must have taken hold--for the steam railroad paid -the price. The result was that it again held the territory and could -regulate the transportation tolls, but what a price had been paid! Two -railroads occupied the territory that was a good living for but one. The -trolley line, now that it has begun to depreciate and to require constant -maintenance repairs, vies with the desolate branch of the steam road, -which runs but two half-filled passenger trains a day upon its rails. A -tax is laid upon the steam-road property--a greater tax upon the residents -of the valley--for operating man after operating man is going to "skin" -the service in a desperate attempt to make an extravagant excess of -facilities pay its way. The trolley line has already raised many of its -five-cent fares to an inconvenient six cents--the steam branch is held -fast by the provisions of its charter and the watchfulness of a state -regulating commission. - -And in the beginning the entire situation could have been solved easily -and efficiently by the comparatively modest expenditures required to -electrify the steam railroad's branch. - -A good many railroads have taken forethought. The New York Central found -some of its profitable lines in western New York undergoing just such -electric interurban competition and a few years ago it installed the -electric third rail on its West Shore property from Utica to Syracuse, -forty-four miles. - -The West Shore is one of the great tragedies in American railroading. -Built in the early eighties from Weehawken, opposite the city of New York, -to Buffalo, it had apparently no greater object than to parallel closely -the New York Central and to attempt to take away from the older road some -of the fine business it had held for many years. After a bitter rate war -the New York Central, with all the resources and the abilities of the -Vanderbilts behind it, won decisively and bought its new rival for a song; -but a property so closely paralleling its own tracks has been practically -useless to it all the way from Albany to Buffalo, save as a relief line -for the overflow of through freight. - -So the West Shore tracks, adapted for high-class, high-speed through -electric service from Utica to Syracuse, represented a happy thought. -Under steam conditions only two passenger trains were run over that -somewhat moribund property in each direction daily, while the two trains -of sleeping cars passing over the tracks at night were of practically no -use to the residents of those two cities. Under electric conditions there -is a fast limited service of third-rail cars or trains leaving each -terminal hourly, making but a few stops and the run of over forty-four -miles in an hour and twenty minutes. There is also high-speed local -service and the line has become immensely popular. By laying stretches of -third and fourth tracks at various points the movement of the New York -Central's overflow through freight has not been seriously incommoded. The -electric passenger service is not operated by the New York Central but by -the Oneida Railways Company, in which the controlling interests of the -steam road have large blocks of stock. - -Similarly the Erie Railroad disposed of a decaying branch of its system, -running from North Tonawanda to Lockport, to the Buffalo street-railroad -system, though reserving for itself the freight traffic in and out of -Lockport. The Buffalo road installed the overhead trolley system and now -operates an efficient and profitable trolley service upon that branch. -Perhaps it was because the Erie saw the application of these ideas and -decided that it was better to take its own profits from electric passenger -service than to rent again its branches to outside companies--and perhaps -because it also foresaw the coming electrification of its network of -suburban lines in the metropolitan district around New York and wished to -test electric traction to its own satisfaction--but ten years ago it -changed the suburban service lines from the south up into Rochester from -steam to electric. More recently it has tried a third method--by -organizing an entirely separate trolley company to build an overhead -trolley road paralleling its main line from Waverly, New York, to Corning, -New York. In some stretches this new trolley road is built on the right of -way of the Erie's main line. - -The Erie people have preferred to conduct their electrification -experiments in outlying lines of comparatively slight traffic rather than -to commit themselves to a great electrification problem in their congested -territory round New York and make some blunder that could be rectified -only at a cost of many millions of dollars. That seems good sense, and the -Pennsylvania followed the same plan. While its great new station in New -York was still a matter of engineer's blueprints, it began practical -experiments with electric traction in the flat southern portion of New -Jersey. It owned a section of line ideally situated in every respect for -such experiments--its original and rather indirect route from Camden to -Atlantic City, which had since been more or less superseded by a shorter -"air-line" route. The third rail was installed and the new line became at -once popular for suburban traffic in and out of Philadelphia and for the -great press of local traffic between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Of -the success of that move on the part of the Pennsylvania there has never -been the slightest question. Regular trains have been operated for several -years over this route at a high rate of speed, and not the slightest -difficulty has been found in maintaining the schedules. - -In the Far West the Southern Pacific has made notable progress in the -application of electricity as a motive power for branch-line traffic. -Practically all of its many suburban lines in and around Portland and -Oakland (just across the bay from San Francisco) are today being operated -in this way--which enables modern steel passenger trains of two or three -coaches to be operated at very frequent intervals, thus providing a -branch-line service practically impossible to obtain in any other way. -When, in the next chapter, we come to consider the automobile as a factor -in railroad transportation, we shall consider this entire question of -branch-line operation in far greater detail. I always have considered it -one of the great neglected opportunities of the average American railroad. -But to take advantage of it means a more intense study of its details and -its problems. Our railroads, as you know already, have been woefully under -officered. It is chiefly because of this serious defect in their -organization that the branch lines, their problems and their -possibilities, have so long been neglected. - - * * * * * - -One thing more before we are entirely away from this entire question of -the electric operation of the standard railroad: The use of this silent, -all-powerful motive force is by no means to be confined to suburban or to -branch lines. The New Haven management is steadily engaged in lengthening -and extending its New York suburban zone. In the beginning, while it still -was in a decidedly experimental state, this zone extended only from the -Grand Central Terminal to Stamford, Connecticut--some thirty-four miles -all told. Now it has been extended and completed through to New Haven, -practically twice the original distance. In a little while it is probable -that the New Haven will have completed another link in this great electric -chain which slowly but surely it is weaving for itself. And there are -traffic experts in New England who do not hesitate to express their belief -that in another ten years, perhaps in half that time, all through traffic -between New York and Boston--235 miles--will move behind electric -locomotives. - -There is nothing particularly visionary in this. Last year I rode a longer -distance than that on a standard express train--the Olympian, one of the -finest trains upon the North American continent, which means, of course, -in the whole world. And the electrification of the main line of the -Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, whose boast it is that it owns -and operates the Olympian, was then but half complete. To be even more -exact, only one-half of the first unit of installation, from Harlowton, -Montana, to Avery, Idaho, had been installed. Workmen were still busy west -of Deer Lodge, rigging, stretching the wires, finishing the substations -and making the busy line ready for electric locomotives all the way -through to Avery. And it was announced that when Avery was reached and the -first contract-section completed--440 miles, about equal to the distance -between New York and Buffalo--work would be started on another great link -to the west; this one to reach the heart of Spokane itself. And in a -little longer time electric locomotives would be hauling the yellow trains -of the Milwaukee right down to tidewater at Seattle--a span of trollified -line equaling roughly about one-half the entire run from Chicago to Puget -Sound.[9] - - -[Illustration: THE OLYMPIAN - -The crack train of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, drawn by an -Electric Motor.] - - -[Illustration: ORE TRAINS HAULED BY ELECTRICITY - -Where the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul and the Butte, Anaconda, & -Pacific Railways cross near Butte, Montana.] - - -Now here is an undertaking--the harnessing of the mountain streams of -Montana and Idaho and Washington toward the pulling of the freight and the -passenger traffic of the newest and best constructed of our -transcontinentals for half their run. Translated into the comfort of the -passenger, it means that for a long night and two days that are all too -short, the trail of the Olympian is dustless, smokeless, odorless; it -means that the abrupt stops and jerking starts of even the best of -passenger engineers are entirely eliminated. The electric locomotive -starts and stops imperceptibly. It is one of the very strongest points in -its favor. - -And when you come to freight traffic--the earning backbone of the greater -part of our railroad mileage in the United States--the operating -advantages of the electric locomotive over its older brother of the steam -persuasion are but multiplied. The electric locomotives of the Milwaukee, -being the newest and the largest yet constructed, have missed none of -these advantages. As the greatest of all these, take the single tremendous -question of regenerative braking. - -Up to this time no one has ever thought of transforming the gravity pull -of a heavy train going downgrade into motive energy for another train -coming uphill. Talk about visions! How is this for one? Yet this is the -very thing that the Milwaukee is doing today--upon each of its heavily -laden trains as they cross and recross the backbone of the continent. Its -great new locomotives take all the power they need for the steady pull as -they climb the long hills; but when they descend those selfsame hills -they return the greater part of that power--sixty-eight per cent, if you -insist upon the exact figure. - -Perhaps you drive an automobile. If so you probably have learned to come -down the steeper hills by use of compression--by a reversal of the -energies of your motor, until it is actually working against the -compelling force of gravity. Your brakes are held only for emergency. That -is the only part which the brakes on a Milwaukee electric train play -today. The electric locomotive in a large sense is its own brake. In other -words, a turn of the engineer's hand transforms its great motors into -dynamos; gravity pulls the trains and forces the dynamos to turn--back -goes the sixty-eight per cent of current into the copper trolley-wire -overhead; over on the other side of the mountain somewhere a train -ascending toward the summit feels instantly the influx of new energy and -quickens its speed. - -Here is the railroading of tomorrow thrusting itself into the very door of -today. You certainly cannot accuse the management of the Milwaukee of any -lack of vision. And perhaps it is only the highest form of tribute to it -to mention the fact that the Great Northern, the strongest of the -competitors in the Northwest, has been watching with keen interest the -tremendous operating economies that electricity has brought to the road of -the yellow cars and has already announced its intention of transforming at -once its main line between Seattle and Spokane--200 miles--from a steam -into an electrically operated line. The Great Northern, as everyone -should know by this time, is the first and the largest of the great group -of Hill roads. And no one has ever accused James J. Hill, or the men who -followed after him, of any lack of real transportation vision. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE IRON HORSE AND THE GAS BUGGY - - -The other day the convention of an important Episcopalian diocese was held -in a large town in one of our eastern states. The general passenger agent -of a certain good-sized railroad which radiates from that town in every -direction saw a newspaper clipping in relation to the convention and -promptly dictated a letter to his assistant there asking about how many -passengers they had had as a result of the gathering. The reply was -prompt. - -"None," it read. - -The G.P.A. reached for his ready-packed grip and took the next train up -there. He wanted to find out the trouble. It was not hard to locate. It -was a pretty poor shepherd of a pretty poor flock who did not possess some -lamb who commanded a touring car of some sort. And it was a part of the -lamb's duty, nay, his privilege, to drive the rector to the convention. -They came from all that end of the state in automobiles. And what had in -past years been a source of decent revenue to the railroad which covered -that state ceased to be any revenue whatsoever. - -This is only one of many such cases. Any county or state or interstate -gathering held in a part of the country where road conditions are even -ordinarily good may count on folk coming to it by automobile up to a -150-mile radius, ofttimes from much greater distances. It is not argued -that the trip is less expensive; the contrary is probably invariably true. -Only today folks have the cars, and a meeting in an adjoining county gives -a welcome excuse for a little trip. Need more be said? - -Only this. Those same folk might otherwise have gone upon the cars. And -the railroad's assistant general passenger agent could have sat down -beside his typewriter and written a neat little letter to his chief -calling attention to the increased business resulting from the meeting of -the Grand Lodge of the X.Y.G.C. this year as compared with that of -last--the inference being nearly as clear to the chief as to the man who -had created the aforesaid increased business. Multiply these lodge -meetings, these conventions, these convocations; add to them high-school -excursions and picnics and fraternity field-days almost without number; -picture to yourself, if you will, the highways leading to these high spots -of American life crowded with private and public motor cars of all -descriptions and you can begin to realize a serious situation which -confronts the passenger traffic men of the big steam railroads. Upon the -eastern and western edges of the land, where highway conditions have -attained their highest development, the situation is all but critical; in -the central and southern portions of the country it is already serious. - -Here is one of the big hard-coal roads up in the northeastern corner of -the U.S.A. Its president lays much stress upon the value to the property -of its anthracite holdings and carryings. Yet he is far too good a -railroader to ignore the value of its passenger traffic. Because of this -last his road has builded huge hotels and connecting steamboats. In past -years its passenger revenues have even rivaled the tremendous earnings of -its coal business. Because, however, of the competition of the automobile -these have slipped backward for the past few years. And the president of -the road has reasoned it out in an ingenious fashion. - -"There are 4,339 motor cars licensed in Albany, Troy, and their -intermediate towns alone," he says. "If each of these carried three -passengers twenty-five miles a day for a year their passenger-miles would -equal those of our entire system for the same time." - -A passenger-mile, as we know already, is one of the units in estimating -the traffic revenue of a railroad. It is passenger-miles, by the hundreds -and the thousands, that the railroads of New England are losing today. -When one stands beside one of the well-traveled pathways of the Ideal -Tour, the Real Tour, or the Mohawk Trail and sees touring cars loaded to -the gunwales with luggage go whizzing by him, ten, twenty to the hour, he -begins to realize this.[10] More than 50,000 visiting automobiles were -registered in Massachusetts this last summer. There were last year in the -United States, 2,445,664 automobiles. With a carrying capacity averaging -five persons to a car--12,000,000 persons all told--they can seat three -times as many persons as all our railroad cars in the country combined. -Not all of these folk would travel by train if there were no motor cars. -Some of them are riding for the pure joy of automobile touring. But many -of them would go to the mountains or the coast anyway and so make a large -addition to railroad passenger revenues. The vast increase in trunks -handled over reasonably long distances by the express companies in these -last few years is, in itself, something of an index of the volume of this -through business, which is today traveling by motor. - -Now cross the country and take a quick glimpse at the situation in the -Northwest. The president of an important steam road at Portland--which in -turn controls both city and interurban lines extending out from Portland -and Spokane--is peculiarly qualified to speak of the situation there. - -"Our road has suffered severely from this new form of automobile -competition," he says. "We lost last summer quite a proportion of our -passenger business moving from Portland to the beaches because of the -completion of a hard-surface wagon road between it and them. We were -compelled to withdraw several local trains, to lay off a number of -trainmen because of this new competitor. With us the question is vital. It -is still more vital with our electric interurban properties. Throughout -California, Oregon, and Washington this class of railroad has suffered -most severely from motor competition, and with the decreased cost and -increased effectiveness of the automobile I expect such losses to increase -rather than to diminish. In all these states there have been large -expenditures for improved highroads during the past five years; many times -under the guise of providing easy and inexpensive transportation for farm -products to markets. But these highroads instead of being built from the -transportation centers out into the producing region, so as to serve the -farms, have almost invariably paralleled steam and electric lines. As a -result the transportation companies have been heavily taxed to construct -and maintain highways for the benefit of competitors who are carrying both -passengers and freight in direct competition with them." - -The Southern Pacific, whose lines cover California like a fine mesh, has -been hard hit by this new form of competition. The fine new highways and -the even climate of the Golden State, which brought the jitney to its -highest strength there, are giving stimulus to its bigger brother--the -long-distance motor bus. These have multiplied in every direction until -today there are central stations in the larger cities, providing waiting, -smoking, and reading rooms in charge of a joint employee, who usually -acts as starter and information clerk and is liberally supplied with large -printed schedules advertising automobile service to various points. From -these stations the routes radiate in almost every direction; one may ride -from San Francisco to Stockton, 80 miles; or to Fresno, 200 miles; -connecting there with a public automobile for Los Angeles, some 250 miles -farther. From Los Angeles there are still more routes: to Bakersfield, 124 -miles over the new Tejon Pass route; to Santa Barbara, about 100 miles; to -San Diego, about 125 miles, and from San Diego on to El Centro in the -Imperial Valley, another 116 miles. - -These routes are generally covered with touring cars--generally -second-hand but tried and capable of efficient and reliable service. But -there is a tendency toward larger cars, where the volume of travel -warrants; several companies operating large busses, seating from twenty to -twenty-five persons each. A very good example of this is the Peninsular -Rapid Transit Company, which operates between San Francisco and San Mateo -and between San Mateo and Palo Alto. - -Fares by automobile in California are generally somewhat lower than the -railroad fares. There are instances, however, where the fares are equal -and yet the motor cars enjoy the bulk of the business, perhaps from their -ability to pick up or discharge passengers anywhere along the route--in -town or in country, perhaps from their frequency and flexibility of -service. Several attempts made by the railroads to regain their traffic by -reducing rates have shown these things to be real factors in the -situation. - -As far as the Southern Pacific is concerned, it finds today that the -automobile has taken the bulk of its one-way and round-trip short-haul -business, leaving it the long-haul and commutation traffic. In some -instances the gasoline buggy has helped itself to long-haul traffic as -well; as between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, where the distance by motor -car over the wonderful new Tejon Pass highroad--to which the Southern -Pacific, as chief taxpayer in California, has contributed most -generously--is but 124 miles, against 170 miles, the shortest rail -distance. The gasoline buggy can climb grades and round curves that the -iron horse may not even attempt. - -There is genuine feeling among many of the railroad companies of the land -that the new competition is unjust. They make a good case for themselves. -Complaints are coming in from the rail carriers all the way across the -land. New York has appropriated and expended nearly $100,000,000 in -building a system of improved highways over the entire state. Like the -highways of California, they, too, are superb roads. Not only do they link -all the big cities and the big towns but they sometimes stretch for many -miles through the fastnesses of the forest--you may drive for twenty miles -through the Adirondacks on as perfect a bit of pavement as any city park -may boast and yet not pass more than one or two human habitations in all -that distance. All of which is glorious for the motorist and his friends, -to say nothing of the hotel keepers and the garage owners on the route. -But how about the New York Central Railroad, which covers the greater -part of New York State like a web and which, because of the fact that it -is its chief taxpayer, becomes automatically the heaviest contributor to -these highways? It knows that every mile of improved road that is -completed is going to mean a lessening of its revenues from local -passenger traffic. And it can have, from that point of view, small comfort -from seeing the increasing list of motor-car owners in the New York State -towns. - -For the moment leave the purely pleasure uses of the motor car. Consider a -commercial possibility that is increasing almost overnight. The auditing -departments of concerns that have from 50 to 500 salesmen out in the field -are beginning to acquaint themselves with gasoline and tire performances. -They soon will have need of such special knowledge. A single case will -illustrate: - -Two drummers working out of Syracuse--the one for a typewriter concern and -the other for a wholesale grocery--decided to cooperate. Together and out -of their own funds they purchased an inexpensive car--had its body so -adjusted that back of the driving seat there was a compartment large -enough for a goodly quantity of samples and the valises that held their -personal effects. They had figured that upon many of the local lines of -railroad, operating but two or three trains a day in each direction at the -most, they could not under the most favorable conditions "make" more than -four towns a day. From twenty to thirty per cent of their time was spent -in the lobbies of hotels or country stations waiting for the up local or -the down. With their automobile they now can get out of a town as soon as -their business is done there. And during the past three months they have -averaged six towns a day. - -Here is a possibility of the automobile that the railroad can hardly -afford to ignore. One big New England road noted in a recent month that -its sale of mileage books--a form of railroad ticket designed particularly -for the use of commercial travelers--had declined nearly twenty-nine per -cent since the high-water mark three years before. Investigation on its -part showed that the drummers all through its territory were beginning to -get automobiles. The houses that employed them were encouraging them, -either helping in the part purchase of the cars or, in some cases, buying -them entirely. They, too, had discovered that their salesmen, no longer -dependent on the infrequent train service of branch lines, could "make" -more towns in a day. - -Here is our ubiquitous branch line bobbing up once again. It is a problem -which seemingly will not down. For branch-line passenger service is -closely related to this last phase of automobile competition. It is the -opinion of a good many shrewd railroaders--as well as our own--that the -big roads have not always given proper attention to the full development -of this phase of their traffic. Some of the big roads--some of the smaller -ones too--have given this traffic, oftentimes valuable in itself and never -to be ignored as feeding possibility of main-line and competitive traffic, -little or no attention. Other roads ignore it. - -"It is unprofitable," they tell you, with exceeding frankness. "If there -is any money at all in the passenger end of the railroad it is in the long -haul. We have our branch lines and of course we shall have to continue to -operate them, as best we can. But they are the lean of our business. And -we have to get a lot of fat on the long-haul traffic to even up with this -discouraging lean." - -It is because of this theory--very popular in some transportation -circles--that so many branch-line railroads have today no more, in many -instances even less, trains than they had twenty or thirty or forty years -ago. The constant tendency has been to cut down service upon the branches. -Such cuts generally come in the recurrent seasons of railroad -retrenchment. But the trains cut off are rarely restored. For one thing, -the branch-line railroad does not often run in a genuinely competitive -territory. For another, there is apt to be less protest from a string of -small towns and large villages than from one or two large cities with -boards of trade, whose secretaries are eternally nagging the railroads. - -Yet these small towns and villages--ofttimes the nucleus and the -birthplace of our best Americanism--and even the isolated crossroads have -some rights.[11] One of the largest of these is the right of -communication. Some of them, under the shrinkage of the train service of -the single branch-line railroad that has served them, have found -themselves in turn shrinking and hardening. The popular-priced automobile -may yet prove the salvation of these towns. The tavern at the crossroads -has been repainted and is serving "chicken and waffle" dinners, the -general store thrives anew on its sale of gasoline and oil. But best of -all, the folks in adjoining villages visit back and forth. They mix and -broaden. The intercourse that they were denied by the railroad has been -given them through the agency of the automobile. - -Come now to the public use of the automobile. And, although many -railroaders profess to scout at the automobile carrying passengers for pay -and state their belief that the increasing number of privately owned and -operated cars represents their real problem, yet the motor bus operating -'cross country begins to bear, in its relation to the steam railroad, a -strong resemblance to the effect of the jitney upon the traction road. In -this last case the opposition quickly reached a high and dangerous volume -and then subsided. The reasons why the jitney, after being hailed with -high acclaim all the way across the land, has disappeared from the streets -of more than half our American cities and towns, are not to be told here. -It is sufficient here and now to say that, save in the South and the -extreme West, it has ceased to be a formidable competitor of the trolley. -But as the jitney of the city has diminished, its brother of the country -roads has grown. And the various regulating boards, city and county, while -generally looking upon the city boy with a forbidding look, have given -nothing but encouraging glances to his country brother. - -On a certain day last summer, I rode with Henry Sewall from Frederick, -Maryland, to Baltimore. Henry is a coffee-colored Negro of unusually -prepossessing dress and manner. He owns a seven-passenger motor car of -1916 model and a fairly popular-priced make. He keeps his car tuned up and -clean. - -I found the two of them in the main street of Frederick--just in front of -one of the town's most popular hostelries. The car bore a placard stating -that it would leave for Baltimore, forty-six miles distant, at five -o'clock and that the one-way fare for the journey would be $1.50. I asked -Henry Sewall the time that I might reasonably expect to be at my hotel in -Baltimore. He showed his even white teeth as he replied: - -"'Fore seven 'clock, suh. Ah've been known to do it in less." - -I glanced at the time card of the railroad that connects Frederick with -Baltimore. It is a particularly good railroad, yet the afternoon train -that it runs over the "old main line," as it calls that branch, left -Frederick at 4:50 P.M. and did not arrive at a station, some ten -"squares"--one never says "blocks" in Baltimore--from my hotel, until -7:30. Mileage and fare were practically the same as Henry Sewall's, but -the train made numerous intermediate stops. And Henry announced, with the -Negro's love of pomp and regulation, that the laws of the state of -Maryland would not permit him to stop and pick up passengers between -Frederick and Baltimore--his license with the imposing state seal in its -corner especially forbade that. - -I rode with Henry. The softness and the sunshine of a perfect day in early -summer, the knowledge that the old National Pike over which we were to -travel was in the pink of condition, that we were to pass across the Stone -Jug bridge and through the fascinating towns of Newmarket and Ellicott -City was too much to be forsworn. And we had a glorious ride--the car -filled and but one stop of ten minutes at the delightful Ellicott City, -where Henry changed tires. But even with this detention I was at my hotel -promptly at seven o'clock. - -Henry makes the round trip from Baltimore to Frederick each day of the -week, excepting Sundays, when his car is for general charter. Even on -rainy days Henry's car is almost invariably filled--he manages to carry -eight passengers besides himself. With a maximum earning capacity of -twenty-four dollars a day and an average of only a very little less, Henry -is earning a very good living for himself, even when he figures on the -cost, the wear and tear, and the depreciation of an automobile which is -being driven about 100 miles a day. - -There are many Henry Sewalls in and around Baltimore. Maryland today -claims to have the finest highroads of any state in the Union. The -cross-country jitney busses have not been slow to take advantage of this. -They start at regularly appointed hours from a popular-priced hotel in the -heart of the city and the hours of their arrival and departure are as -carefully advertised and as carefully followed as those of a steam -railroad. When they are all starting out in the morning, the scene is as -brisk and gay as it must have been at Barnum's Hotel in the Baltimore of -nearly a century ago, when, with much ado and gay confusion, the coaches -set out upon the post roads--for Frederick, for York, for Harrisburg, for -Philadelphia, and for Washington. - -Yet the railroads that radiate from Baltimore have not seen fit to fight -these newcomers for the traffic of from ten to fifty miles outside the -city. They have made particularly serious inroads upon the earnings of one -of the smaller of these steam lines, which ordinarily derives a very good -share of its earnings from its suburban traffic. There are good and -sufficient reasons for the big railroads to hold their peace. Take Henry -Sewall's opposition. The direct rail route to Frederick from Baltimore is -a line exempted from through passenger trains and very largely given over -to a vast tonnage of through freight. The officers of the road have from -time to time given thought to the possibilities of increasing the local -passenger service on that very line. To do so, however, on the generous -plans that they had outlined among themselves would have meant either one -of two things--either they would seriously have incommoded the movement of -the through freight--which is a railroad's largest source of profit--or -else they would have been compelled to add a third track to that -particular line. The income from the increased local passenger service -would not justify the expense in either of these cases. Therefore this -railroad can afford to be indifferent to Henry Sewall and his gasoline -coach. - -Yet there is a broader way of looking at it. Out from my old home town in -northern New York there radiates today nearly as complete a system of -motor-bus routes as that from Baltimore. We have almost 300 miles of -superb new state highways in Jefferson County. And Watertown--our county -seat--is a hub of no small traffic wheel. These busses, despite the -arduous winters of the North Country--Watertown is reputed to have but -three seasons: winter and July and August--keep going nearly the entire -year round. They are of course patronized all that time. And the railroad -which serves almost the entire North Country loses much local passenger -traffic as a result of them. It is the same system that I have just quoted -as being the largest taxpayer in the state of New York--the chief -contributor to its $100,000,000 system of highways. Yet it, too, is not -fighting these jitney busses. On the contrary, one of its high traffic -officers said to me just the other day: - -"We realize that the automobile is hardly apt to be a permanent -competitive factor in any long distance passenger traffic--and that is the -only passenger traffic in which we see any real profit. And there is a -still bigger way of looking at it. Every automobile that goes into the -sections of New York which we serve means a movement of high-grade -freight--the tires, the gasoline, the oils, the innumerable accessories -that it constantly demands, mean more freight. Besides this, if the -automobile is developing the man on the farm or in the little village we -shall, in the long run, profit. The development of the entire state of New -York means the development of our railroad." - -And that is a platform on which no business--no matter how large or how -small it is--can ever lose. - - * * * * * - -But is there not a possibility that the railroad can regain some of the -traffic that it has lost, temporarily at least, to the motor car? Is it -not possible that the derided branch line may not be changed from a -withered arm into a growing one? Amputation has sometimes proved -effective. There is many and many a branch-line railroad, which probably -should never have been built in the first place, whose owners have been -wise enough to abandon it and to pull up the rails. Old iron has a genuine -market value. Go back with me once again to the time when the trolley -began to be a long-distance affair. We have seen already how a good many -steam railroad men looked with apprehension upon their branch lines--and -with good cause. - -For a time it did look as if the electric railroad might become a genuine -competitor of the steam railroad. A good many interesting fantasies of -that sort got into print. An enterprising interurban trolley company over -in Illinois put on trolley-sleeping cars between St. Louis and Springfield -and St. Louis and Peoria. It was said that the day was coming when a man -would ride in a trolley limited all the way from Chicago to New York--a -real train, with sleeping cars and dining cars and Negro porters and -manicures and an observation platform. The Utica (New York) Chamber of -Commerce got tremendously excited over the matter and went all the way out -to St. Louis and back in a chartered car taken right out of the press of -traffic in Genesee Street. - -But the trolley, as we have seen, has not proved a competitor of the steam -railroad. It has become in almost every instance a feeder and as such is a -valuable economic factor in the transportation situation. There have been -no more sleeping cars placed on trolley routes, but a little time ago I -found a Canadian Pacific box car on the shores of Keuka Lake, more than -ten miles distant from the nearest steam railroad. A trolley road had -placed it there, on a farmer's private siding. And he was packing it full -of grapes--grapes to go overseas from some big Canadian port upon the -Atlantic. - -Such possibilities of the trolley line to the steam railroad point to -similar feeding possibilities of the automobile--but of these very much -more in their proper time and places. Let us still continue to study the -possibilities of the branch line. - -The other day I chanced to travel upon a certain small brisk railroad that -runs across a middle western state. In my lap was a time card of that line -and I was idly following it as we went upon our way. Halfway down the long -column of town-names, I saw a change. In other days a passenger for the -enterprising county shiretown of Caliph had been compelled to alight at -the small junction point known as East Caliph and there take a very small -and very dirty little train for three miles, which finally left him at a -clump of willows by a brookside--a full dozen hot and dusty blocks from -the courthouse square which marks the geographical and commercial center -of Caliph. - -That branch-line train has disappeared. In its place a line on a time card -reads "automobile service to Caliph," and at the junction I saw a -seven-passenger touring car with the initials of the railroad upon its -tonneau doors. The motor bus takes you to the door of Caliph's chief -hotel, which faces that same courthouse square. The branch is unused, -except for occasional switching. There is no expense of keeping it up to -the requirements of passenger traffic, nor of maintaining a passenger -station. The hotel serves as this last and at far less expense. And the -cost of running the automobile over three miles of excellent highway is -far cheaper than that of running a railroad train. The chauffeur is an -entirely competent conductor and ticket-taker. And between passenger runs -he can be used to carry the express and baggage on a motor truck. His own -opportunities for development are fairly generous. - - * * * * * - -Recently the automobile has been placed upon the railroad rails--with -astonishing results as to both efficiency and economy. I saw one of these, -not long ago, working on a small railroad running from the Columbia River -up to the base of Mount Hood. The superintendent of that railroad--he -likewise was its agent, conductor, dispatcher, engineering expert, and -chief traffic solicitor--had purchased a large "rubberneck" automobile, -had substituted railroad flange wheels for the rubber-tired highway -wheels, and was not only saving money for his property but also giving -much pleasure to his patrons. A ride in a dirty, antiquated, second-hand -coach behind a smoky, cindery locomotive is hardly to be compared with one -in a clean, swift automobile, riding in the smooth ease of steel rails. So -successful had the experiment proven that he was having a closed -automobile made for winter service upon his railroad--with a tiny -compartment for the baggage, the mail, and the express. - -A series of interesting experiments conducted by the army along the -Mexican border recently showed another way in which the motor truck could -well be made an active ally and agent of the railroad. Special T-rail -wheel flanges were designed to fit outside of the heavy rubber tires that -carry the cars over highways. It is the work of a very few minutes to slip -these steel flanges on or off the wheels. Which means that the motor truck -may follow the lines of the railroad as far as it leads, giving many more -miles of performance for each gallon of gasoline consumed; and then, when -the rails end in the sand and sagebrush, may strike off for itself across -the country in any direction. - - -[Illustration: THE MOTOR-CAR UPON THE STEEL HIGHWAY - -How much better this than the smoky, dirty cars of yester-year!] - - -[Illustration: THE ADAPTABLE MOTOR-TRACTOR - -Equipped with flange wheels and hitched to a flat-car train on a logging -railroad, it makes a bully motor-truck of real hauling capacity.] - - -These ideas may seem visionary--advanced, perhaps. They are nothing of the -kind. They are new, but they do represent the practical working of the -great opportunity in branch-line railroading. And the gasoline-propelled -unit railroad coach is no longer visionary, no longer even to be -classed as a mere novelty. This adaptation of the automobile idea in the -form of a single gasoline-propelled car, which combines baggage and -express and smoking and day-coach compartments in an efficient -compactness, has been a tremendous help to many railroads on their -branch-line problems. These cars require a crew of but three men against a -minimum crew of five men on the old-style steam train for branch-line -service. They are clean and they are fast. And they have aided many -railroads to increase their branch-line operation without increasing their -operating cost--in many cases making actual savings. It is well for the -big men who own and operate the steam railroad to remember that no matter -how rapid may be the spread of the automobile or how permanent its -extensive use, there will always be a large class of travel-hungry folk -who must ride upon some form of railroad. There are people who, if -financially capable of owning a car, are incapable of running it, and -cannot afford a chauffeur. And the difficulties of owning an automobile -increase greatly when one comes to live in the larger cities. The local -line situation is not nearly as bad as it looks at first glimpse. There is -a business for it if the railroader will devote himself carefully to its -cultivation. Remember that in many cases he has sought so long for the -larger profits of long-distance business between the big cities that he -has rather overlooked the smaller, sure profits of the local lines. And it -is interesting to know that the railroad of the Middle West which -concededly maintains the finest local service is the one road that made no -active appearance in a recent hearing in which the roads of its territory -sought increased passenger rates. Despite the fact that many of its -competitors have said that its local service is expensive and generous to -an unwarranted degree, it found that its net profits on its passenger -earnings were proportionately higher than those on its freight! - -This road runs parlor cars upon almost all of its local trains, sleeping -cars where there is even a possibility of their getting traffic. A big -eastern road has just begun to follow this parlor-car practice. It builds -and maintains its own cars. There are no expensive patent rights to be -secured in the making of a parlor car. A double row of comfortable wicker -or upholstered chairs, a carpet, lavatory facilities, and a good-humored -porter will do the trick. And the train and the road upon which such a -simple, cleanly car travels at once gains a new prestige. In an age when -travel demands a private bath with every hotel room, a manicure with the -haircut, and a taxicab to and from the station, a parlor car is more of a -necessity than a luxury. And it is surprising to notice its earning -possibilities upon even the simplest of branch lines or on one local -train. - - * * * * * - -One thing more--a rather intimately related thing, if you please. We have -spoken of the railroad automobile which runs up the public highway from -East Caliph to Caliph and return. Let us consider that particular form of -transportation service of the automobile in still another light. A man who -went up into one of the great national parks on the very backbone of the -United States this last summer was tremendously impressed with both the -beauty and the accessibility of the place. The one thing was supplemental -to the other. This man was impressed by still another thing, however. - -The railroad which had brought him to a certain fine and growing city at -the base of the mountains--a most excellent and well-operated railroad it -chanced to be--had a branch line which ran much closer to the national -park, upon which it was spending many thousands of dollars in advertising, -both generously and intelligently. In other days park visitors took this -branch--four-in-hands or carriages from its terminal for the thirty-mile -run up through the canyon and into the heart of the park. With the coming -of the automobile all this was changed. The motor car quickly supplanted -the old-time carriages, even the four-in-hands themselves. In a short time -it was running from the big city below the base of the mountains and the -railroad was taking off one of its two daily trains upon the branch in -each direction. Then, after only a little longer time, it was making a -truce with its new competitor--so that its through tickets might be used, -in one direction at least, upon the motor cars. - -An excellent idea, you say. Perhaps. But I know a better one. - -This same man rode last summer upon one of those motor vehicles all the -way from the big city up into the heart of the park--some seventy miles -all told. He is a man who owns an excellent touring car at his home--back -East. Perhaps that is the reason why he did not enjoy this run out in the -West. For the car on which he rode was a truck-chassis upon which had -been builded a cross-seat body, with accommodations for some fifteen or -sixteen passengers. It was the only practical way in which a motor vehicle -could be built in order to compete with the railroad at its established -rates of fare. Yet he did not enjoy the run, at least not until they were -across the long forty-mile stretch of plains and up into the foothills of -the Rockies. And then he and his were a little too tired by the slow, if -steady, progress of the low-geared truck-chassis, to really have the -keenest enjoyment of the glorious park entrance. - -The point of all this is that the railroad which owns and operates that -branch line ought also to own those excellently managed motor routes that -radiate from its terminals through one of the loveliest and most rapidly -growing playgrounds in all western America--perhaps own and operate a -chain of its own hotels as well. It would gain not only prestige by so -doing, but traffic as well. For back of its own advertising of the charms -of that superior place it would set the guaranty of its name, of its -long-established reputation for handling passengers well. - -There are plenty of places in the United States where this may be -done--and done today. The Southern Pacific is widely advertising a motor -route through the Apache country and the Salt River valley of Arizona and -in connection with its southern main stem between El Paso and Los Angeles. -The success of its radical traffic step on its part may yet lead it to a -correlation with its service of many wonderful motor runs over those -superb roads of California, as well. Similar opportunities are open to the -Burlington, the Milwaukee, the Union Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande, -the Great Northern--all of them railroads not ordinarily blind to traffic -opportunities of any sort whatsoever. - -In the East, the Boston and Maine, the Maine Central, and the Central -Vermont railroads are confronted with dozens of such possibilities of -developing through supplemental motor routes in the White Mountains and -the Green Mountains; the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Alleghenies -should be filled with opportunities for the Delaware and Hudson, the New -York Central, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Chesapeake -and Ohio railroads. To establish such routes only needs a few things--the -detailed and detached attention of an alert young traffic man, with his -nose well above conventions and precedents, working with a man schooled in -the operation of motor vehicles upon a large scale. To this partnership -add a competent advertising man, give a little money at the outset--and -the trick will be turned. And I am confident that if it be well turned, -the railroad will never wish to turn back again. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -MORE RAILROAD OPPORTUNITY - - -Let us now bring the motor truck into consideration. So far we have not -taken it into our plans. And yet it is the phase of automobile competition -that some railroad men frankly confess puzzles them the most. For it hits -close to the source of their largest revenue--the earnings from the -freight. It is a transport of things rather than of men. But that is no -fundamental reason why it should not become as much an ally and a feeder -of the railroad--as the passenger automobile, for instance. - -The possibilities of the motor truck, under the development of good roads, -which already has grid-ironed the two coastal fronts of the United States -with improved highways and placed them here and there and everywhere -throughout the interior, are large. A wholesale meat vendor in -Philadelphia has used motor trucks with specially designed refrigerator -bodies to distribute his wares not only through the immediate suburban -territory in southeastern Pennsylvania and in adjacent New Jersey, but -right up to the very doors of New York City, itself. Florists, whose -greenhouses dot the Illinois prairies for fifty miles roundabout Chicago, -today are using fleets of these vehicles to bring their wares at top speed -either to suburban railroad stations or down into the heart of the -city itself--although this last is somewhat unsatisfactory owing to the -crowded streets of downtown Chicago. The motor truck is coming into -increasing use in Oregon and in Washington and in California. It is -proving a disturbing competitor to the small railroads upon the larger -islands of the Hawaiian group. And a company has just been formed to -introduce a motor-truck freight service to certain railroadless parts of -China--which are supplied with ancient but very passable highroads. - - -[Illustration: WHEN FREIGHT IS ON THE MOVE - -The past two winters have seen the great black-breasted yards of all our -American railroads congested with traffic almost to the breaking point. -Executives, high and low, have lived in the yards for days and weeks and -months at a time trying to relieve the congestion. This terminal yard of -the West Shore Railroad at Weehawken, N. J., opposite New York City, is -typical of many, many others.] - - -Come back to the United States. Last winter, when the railroads of the -East struggled under a perfect flood tide of freight, due to the rush of -war munitions toward the seaboard for transshipment, they were compelled -to issue embargoes. That means, plainly speaking, that for days and -sometimes weeks at a time they were compelled to refuse to accept or -deliver many classes of freight. They gave their first efforts to moving -coal and milk and the other vital necessities for the towns which they -served with the rigors of an unusually hard winter to combat. It was a -long time before the embargoes were all raised--even with all the big -operating men in the East working from eighteen to twenty hours out of -twenty-four--in many cases living in their private cars set in the heart -of the most congested yards. - -Bridgeport was one of the towns that was hardest hit by these embargoes. -While it is served by a single railroad, it is upon the main stem of that -road--a system that is reputed to be well equipped for the handling of -high-grade freight. But the conditions were unusual, to say the least. -Bridgeport found herself transformed almost overnight from a brisk and -average Connecticut manufacturing town into one of the world's greatest -munition centers. Prosperity hit her between the eyes. For a time people -slept all night in the railroad station because they had nowhere else to -go. And the fine new county almshouse was hurriedly transformed into a -huge hotel. Bridgeport swarmed with people. A single munition factory -there employed close to 20,000 people. - -The railroad, long since hemmed in by the growing factory town, could not -rebuild its yards overnight. Neither could it look for relief toward the -other Connecticut towns. They, too, were making munitions and were in turn -congested. But by far the worst congestion of all was at Bridgeport. The -railroad people worked unceasingly, but for a time to apparently no -purpose. And for a time it was almost impossible for a package to reach -Bridgeport from New York or the West. - -In this emergency the motor truck proved its worth. It so happens that -there is a factory in Bridgeport which manufactures a very heavy type of -motor truck. It put one of these in service between its plant and New -York--fifty-six miles distant over the well-paved historic Boston Post -Road. It brought emergency supplies of every sort to the factory doors. So -efficient did it prove itself in everyday service that a group of -Bridgeport manufacturers and merchants formed themselves into a -transportation company and placed other trucks in daily service between -their town and New York. And a little later when the New York terminals -became glutted with freight and hedged about with embargoes, the -manufacturers of Bridgeport began having freight billed to them at the -local freight houses in Newark. They extended their motor-truck service to -that busy Jersey town and so saved themselves many dollars. When, in the -course of a few months, the congestion was removed and freight conditions -at Bridgeport were normal once again, the motor-truck service along the -Post Road disappeared. It could not compete with the freight rates of the -railroad.[12] - -But its possibilities as a feeder are enormous. Only a few days ago I -stood beside the desk of the traffic vice-president of a big trunk line -and looked over his shoulder at a huge map spread there. It showed the -main line and the branches of his railroad--from all these, stretching, -like a fine moss upon an old oak, the improved highroads. The mapmaker had -done more. By use of colors he had shown the automobile stage routes upon -these roads--those that carried freight and those that combined two or -three of these classes of traffic. The vice-president frankly confessed -that he was studying to see what practical use he could make of these -feeding motor routes. - -It was significant that the railroad should be making so careful a study -of its new competitor, that it should be taking the first beginning steps -to recognize it not as a competitor but rather as a friend and an ally, a -feeder which eventually may be the means of bringing much traffic to its -cars. The motor truck running over a well-paved highway can easily reach a -farm or factory situated far from the steel rails.[13] It may save the -construction of expensive and eventually unprofitable branch-line -railroads just as the passenger automobile or motor bus has begun to save -the building of unprofitable street-car lines. If the farm fails or the -factory burns down, never to be rebuilt, the railroad does not find itself -with an expensive and utterly useless branch line of track upon its hands. - -There is still another great freight-traffic opportunity for the sick man -of American business. It lies in the perfection and development of a -standard unit container. The idea is not, in itself, entirely new. A good -many men have been studying for a long time to develop a practical -receptacle that will obviate the necessity of constantly handling and -rehandling freight--always a great expense both at terminals and at -transfer yards. The remarkable development of the automobile truck during -the past five years has only emphasized the vital need of some such -universal container. - -An ideal receptacle of this sort would be built of fiber or of -steel--better still, a combination of the two. Such a container would -roughly approximate in size the body of a small motor truck. Two of them -would fit comfortably upon the chassis of a large truck--three or four, -upon the frame of an electric car--for either city or interurban use. The -regulation freight car of the steam railroad would then consist of trucks -and frame--builded to receive from five to seven of the standard -containers. These containers would also be able to fit in the low hold -decks of a steamship with a great economy of room and therefore with a -great efficiency of service. - -The manufacturer then would load the containers in his shipping room. Some -of them destined through under seal to large cities, such as New York or -Chicago or Philadelphia; others, carrying a variety of products to small -places, would be addressed to recognized transfer or assorting points. -This last method would be exactly similar to that employed by the -post-office department or the express companies in handling their daily -flood tides of small parcel traffic. The use of the universal container -would be directed more particularly, however, to heavier freight, both in -individual packages and in bulk. Coal or grain or lumber would hardly be -sent in a container. It might be possible, however, to ship flour and -sugar in the universal container, and entirely without the expense of -wrappings. - -From the manufacturer's door--whether it were at street level, or in a -community industrial building fifteen floors above the street--the -container would go to the railroad frame car. By use of small-wheeled -trucks or overhead tractors it would be carried first to the waiting -chassis of the motor truck--in case the manufacturer was not able to -command railroad siding facilities for himself. The motor truck would -carry it to the freight terminal--overhead crane would make short shift of -loading the container and its fellows upon the frame car. - -The rest of the journey would be that of ordinary freight, save that at -the destination the shipping process would be exactly reversed--the motor -truck performing its part of the work again, if necessary, and the -container going direct to the merchant or manufacturer with the least -possible delay and with no expensive intermediate handlings, with their -consequent labor expense as well as the possible danger from breakage. - -This idea is not chimerical. Also, it is not inexpensive. It requires much -study to work out the details and when these have been brought into -practicability it would require much money for the initial investment in -containers. They would have to be built in large quantities, in order to -justify the large immediate expense to adapt any number of freight cars, -terminals, and warehouses to their use. But as to their efficiency and -their ultimate economy, few transportation men who have given much real -thought to the subject, are in doubt. - -Such schemes quickly ally themselves with the entire problem of terminals. - -"Terminals?" you say, and immediately think of what we were discussing a -few minutes ago--the Grand Central station and other monumental structures -of its sort. But those were passenger terminals. And now we have come to -the great opportunities to be found in the handling and the development of -the freight. - -Perhaps you are not impressed with the importance of freight terminals. -They are not the impressive gateways of large cities; but in many, many -senses they are the most important. Through them pour the foodstuffs--the -meats, the fish, the vegetables, the fruits, the milk, the clothing, the -fuel, the thousand and one things, necessary for the comfort of man and -his luxury. Bar those gateways but for a single day and then see the panic -that would overcome your city. - - * * * * * - -While we were speaking of the new Grand Central station and the important -step it typified in the economic and efficient progress of our country, we -called attention to the allied facilities that were springing up -roundabout it--hotels, clubs, office buildings, auditorium, all of them -more or less closely affiliated with the business of the great north gate -of a metropolitan city. Is there any reason why the freight gateways -should not be the housing places of affiliated industries--industries, -if you please, more or less dependent upon the rapid movement of either -their raw material or their finished products? Suppose that the railroads -were ever to seek out and solve that fascinating problem of the universal -unit container. Would not the most fortunate manufacturer be he whose -shipping room, his entire modern and concentrated factory as well, was so -close to a comprehensive freight terminal as to permit the handling of his -containers, his other freight too, by means of chutes or elevators--with -even the motor truck, to say nothing of less modern forms of city -truckage, entirely eliminated? - - -[Illustration: THE BUSH TERMINAL - -South Brooklyn, New York City.] - - -[Illustration: NEW FREIGHT TERMINAL WAREHOUSE AT ROCHESTER - -Built by the Buffalo, Rochester, & Pittsburgh Railway. A modern -combination of freight house and storage warehouse.] - - -There is, on one of the harbor-shores of metropolitan New York, a city -within a city. It is located in Brooklyn, to be exact, and it occupies -somewhat more than a half-mile of waterfront--a waterfront cut into long -deep-water piers, of the most modern type and running far out into the -harbor. Back of these piers and connected with them by means of an -intricate, but extremely well-planned system of industrial railroad, rise -many buildings of steel and stone and concrete, almost all of them built -to a single type and differing only in the minor details of their -construction. On the many floors of this group of buildings are myriad -separate industries, widely diverse as to character and product but all of -them capable of concentrated location. Together they employ many thousands -of men and women and the high-grade freight which they send out each day -would pay a king's ransom. - -In other days the greater number of these industries were scattered about -both Brooklyn and the Manhattan boroughs of New York. As a rule they were -remote from both freight houses and sidings. The freight-terminal -situation of New York, owing to the peculiar physical formation of the -city and its segregation from the mainland by several great navigable -rivers, the upper harbor, and the Sound, is most difficult of operation. -All the railroads find it necessary to lighter their freight over these -navigable streams, either upon car-floats or in other forms of vessels. -And, even under the most favorable operating conditions of light freight -traffic, there is constant danger of congestion. - -But to a manufacturer situated on one of the narrow sidestreets of either -Manhattan or Brooklyn, the situation was infinitely worse. His problem was -to even reach the freight houses along the watersides of the town--a -problem to be imperfectly solved by the use of trucks. Fifty trucks in a -narrow street, crowding and jostling, mean infinite congestion and loss of -time. Add to this the prima-donna-like temperament of the average -truck-driver, showing itself in constant and protracted strikes, and you -can see why the manufacturers have flocked not only to that great -industrial city in South Brooklyn, but to others like it which have begun -to spring up in and around metropolitan New York. Not only is the trucking -expense entirely eliminated--the freight cars are waiting in the great -community shipping rooms in the ground floor of the very factory--but heat -and light and power are alike brought to a fixed and reasonable cost. And -the newest of these manufacturing buildings are fabricated so strongly -that it is both possible and practicable to raise a loaded box car to any -of their floors--to the manufacturer's individual shipping room, if you -please. - -Here is an idea instantly adaptable to the freight terminal of any -railroad. A remarkably progressive small railroad--the Buffalo, Rochester, -and Pittsburgh--has recently built a freight terminal of this very sort at -Rochester. And there is hardly an important city reached by an important -railroad that does not offer many opportunities for the development of -freight terminals of this sort, terminals which, like the Grand Central -station, would bring direct revenue to the railroad which built them. In -this hour when the cost of foodstuffs is occupying so large a portion of -public attention, when a large part of the problem lies in the marketing -and storage facilities, or the lack of them, it might be possible to -develop the freight terminal as both a cold-storage plant and a market. -And all of this would tend to bring additional revenue to the railroad, as -well as to simplify greatly, if not to solve entirely, some of the great -transportation and terminal problems which are today troubling our cities -and our larger towns and which are making their food costs mount rapidly -to heights which the imagination has heretofore failed to grasp. - -Already the residents of these communities are taking definite steps -toward relief. In the city of New York, Commissioner John J. Dillon of the -state Department of Food and Markets has proposed that the state erect a -public wholesale market house for the private sale or auctions of -foodstuffs of every sort and in every quantity. This market would be open, -on equal terms and without favor or prejudice to buyers of every sort. It -is believed that it would, in every way, tend to simplify the terminal -handling of foodstuffs and in just such measure help to reduce food costs -to the ultimate consumer. - -Commissioner Dillon estimates the cost of such a market house at from -$3,000,000 to $4,000,000. Owing to a recent wave of stringent economy, -upon certain lines, at Albany, this suggestion of his has not been looked -upon with great favor by the executive branch of the state government. Yet -it is probable that in the long run a state which has not turned a hair at -a recently voted appropriation of $10,000,000 for a necessary addition to -its park lands will halt at a necessary appropriation of $4,000,000 to -reduce food costs in its largest city, even more to provide similar food -stations in its other large communities. We soon shall see how it has -voted $150,000,000 for a canal of little or no practical value. The -suggested expenditure for market houses is as nothing compared with that. - -But before such market houses can be planned and erected comes the -opportunity of the railroads whose lines reach New York. If they can build -such terminals, or even adapt, temporarily at least, their present plants -to meet such a public and general need they will be proving themselves, in -truth, public servants. - -If I may be permitted here and now to enter a _sotto-voce_ remark, it -would be that an absence of some such definite, modern, constructive -methods as these--not alone in regard to food transportation, terminal -handling, storage, and marketing, but as to speculation itself--is going -to bring the United States closer to a practical and nation-wide -experiment in socialism than the disturbed railroad situation has ever -brought it. It seems as if the Railroad's older brother, the steward and -purveyor of our great estate, was about to fall ill. I think that I can -see that tremulous, but stern nurse, Regulation, turning her attention -toward him. And I am quite sure that if he does break down at this time he -is going to know Regulation as the Railroad never has known her. - -All these things are more or less intimately related to the question of -terminals--more rather than less. And they are all most intimately related -to the question of the freight-traffic development of the railroad. - -"Get the terminals," were James J. Hill's repeated orders to his -lieutenants in the creative period of his railroads. Hill knew the value -of terminals, freight terminals in particular; he knew that it took a -freight car bound from east to west or west to east as long to go through -the city of Chicago as from Chicago to St. Paul--400 miles--and that is -why he set out to get his terminals in growing cities while the land was -cheap and the getting was good. Hill had vision. He was also tremendously -practical. It was the combination of these qualities that made him the -master railroader of his generation. - - * * * * * - -There is another form of transportation whose development always has been -and always will be directly connected with the development of the -railroads. I am referring to the use of the inland waterways of the -country--not merely the Great Lakes which today bear the most highly -developed commerce of any fresh-waterways in the world, but our rivers and -our canals. With the notable exception of the Great Lakes, which we have -just cited, we are decades behind Europe in the use of these waterways. -And to make a bad matter worse Federal legislation has sought to penalize -the enterprise of the railroads in any attempts to develop the use of the -waterways in their own interest. Just how this came about is a matter of -plainly recorded history; a story of the attempts of certain ill-advised -carriers to purchase and to strangle water lines, because of the -competition which they offered. But the railroads which operated the huge -grain and coal fleets on the Great Lakes were not throttling--they were -developing. And the success of their example was slowly but surely having -its effect on their fellows elsewhere across the land. - -Fortunately the same hands that make a law may repeal it. And the odious -anti-railroad provisions of the navigation law that accompanied the -opening of the Panama Canal should be revoked at once. The railroads -should be aided and encouraged in the development, through their capital -and the use of their connecting land lines as well as their advantageous -waterfront terminals in almost all our cities, in developing a waterborne -traffic. Such a traffic, devoting itself chiefly, if not exclusively, to -the lower, coarser, and slower moving grades of freight would be a -tremendous relief to their rails; in the long run probably saving them -huge capital expenditures for the construction of third and fourth tracks -to relieve their overburdened double-tracks. Congestion on our railroads -is not always a question of overcrowded terminals. - -Take that great, elaborate, and all but economically useless ditch which -the state of New York is just completing from the Hudson River at Troy to -the foot of Lake Erie at Buffalo--the outgrowth of the once-famous Erie -Canal. As a piece of engineering the new Barge Canal is a marvel. Its -locks are comparatively few, roomy, marvels of operating mechanism, its -fairway is generous--together these give a water pathway large enough for -a barge of 2,000 tons burden. Two thousand tons is roughly equal to forty -modern freight cars--a fair length train. Two of these barges would have -the tonnage equivalent of a full-length modern freight train. Fifty of -them would be a genuine relief to the crowded rails of the New York -Central's six tracks from Albany to Buffalo. - -But the New York Central is not permitted to operate barges through the -new Erie Canal from Troy to Buffalo. Oh, no! and for that matter, not from -New York up the waters of the Hudson to Troy. The Federal regulation takes -care of the waters of the Hudson--and keeps them freight-desolate--the -sovereign state of New York prevents their passing through the sacred -portals of its new $150,000,000 canal. For, truth to tell, the new canal -was designed for but two or three real purposes; to keep the port of -Buffalo from falling into decay, to find jobs for numerous deserving -feeders at the public trough and keep down the local freight rates of the -New York Central, which it parallels for its entire length. If it -succeeds in these things--and it probably will--the men who control the -present destinies of the state government will probably lose no time in -worrying over the fact that the canal is practically completed, yet no -boats of the modern type for which it was builded have been launched--or -even planned. For a traffic not one one-thousandth of that at Panama, a -canal of half the size and half the cost has been constructed. - -Seneca Falls has been made a port, and so has Rome and so has Holley--and -if the citizens of these sleepy towns doubt this they may go down and see -the wharves and warehouses, the docks and levees which a benevolent state -has wished upon them. And even if there are no boats to patronize these -wonderful establishments they are kept atrim, and throughout all the -watches of the night brilliantly alight. Perhaps the argosy is yet to plow -the waters of the Erie! One thing I know. I traveled on a night train on -the Delaware and Hudson not so long ago and chanced to see the great locks -of the Champlain Canal--twin sister to the new Erie--all the distance -ablaze with clusters of arc lamps. Traffic? Not a bit of it. There is no -traffic upon the Champlain Canal. And the gods in the high heavens must -laugh aloud as they read of "America Efficient" and night after night gaze -down upon the brilliancy of those glaring lights upon the unused lengths -of the canals of the state of New York. - -"One hundred and fifty millions of dollars," groans the practical -engineer, "and the state of New York might have had instead of 350 miles -of canals, 1,000 miles of railroads, every mile of the needed improved -highways she has been building, many more beside. The overhead that the -freight will have to pay going through the expensive and extravagant new -canal is far greater than that of the best of railroads." - -All of which is perfectly true. But, in the words of an economist of -another generation, it is a condition and not a theory which confronts us. -The canals have been built--but no vessels have been builded for them. The -waterways cannot remain unused. The state has two ways by which it may -force their use. It may build, equip, and operate its own barges and so -bring at once a widespread experiment in government transportation that -seems almost foredoomed to complete failure, or it may take steps to -induce, not only the New York Central, but the other railroads which link -New York and Buffalo, to build and operate barges upon the canals. -Remember that these railroads are more than merely links; local -freight-carriers between New York and Buffalo. And Buffalo, as you -probably know, is one of the larger of the terminals at the base of the -Great Lakes. - -Each year millions of bushels of grain--other coarse freight as well--find -their way to its docks for rail transshipment to New York or Boston, where -in turn they may go into the holds of vessels for transportation overseas. -The Erie Canal is as much a link as any of these railroads. And, despite -the fact that the state of New York has been foolish enough to build and -maintain it exclusively from its own treasury, the fact remains that it is -a water avenue of national communication. A glance at your atlas will -satisfy you as to that. - -Of one thing the state of New York may be certain. Private capital is not -going to build traffic upon the Erie and the Champlain canals--particularly -in view of the legislation which tends to discourage, if not actually to -prevent, a company of any real size or influence operating upon the canal. -The tendency of today is entirely toward centralization and consolidation. -And the small independent transportation company, deprived of feeding -traffic and adequate joint or independent terminals has a hard shift for -existence. - -I have dilated upon the New York canals because they are typical of the -river opportunities that await the railroad throughout the rest of the -country. You think of the old-time river boat--you still can see a few of -them rubbing their blunt noses against the levees at New Orleans or -Memphis or St. Louis or Pittsburgh--and you laugh at me. I might reply by -calling your attention to the fact that the tonnage of the port of -Pittsburgh, which moves entirely on the muddy rivers that serve it, is in -excess of the tonnage of many of the greatest and most famous seaports in -the world--Liverpool to make a shining comparison. And as for the river -steamboat--it is capable of infinite development, of transformation from -the gaudy and inefficient carrier of ante-bellum days into a mighty -freight-hauler of today. The Great Lakes have witnessed a complete -transformation of the type of freight vessel upon their waters. The genius -that effected the revolution of their naval architecture is available for -the development of the river craft of the United States. - -Need more be said? The opportunity awaits. Preceded by the necessary -repeal legislation, to which I have already referred, it is, at the least, -among the very largest of the opportunities that today await the sick man -of American business. - -Perhaps by this time you are beginning to be genuinely interested in the -opportunity for the development of the freight traffic of the railroad. It -is not entirely an opportunity of the operating or the engineering -departments. Indeed, at the present time the greatest activities of the -traffic-soliciting forces of the railroad are given to its larger -customers--patrons whose shipments run in carload, if not in trainload -lots. The undeveloped field of freight opportunity for the railroad is the -smaller patron--the man who ships "less than carload," but whose traffic -fostered and increased would mean trainloads by the dozens, by the -hundreds, by the thousands. The railroads, through their industrial -departments already have begun to accomplish much along these lines. One -big road--the Baltimore and Ohio--has begun, on a very large scale, to -make an intensive study of the resources of the territory which it -occupies. It sends a corps of its investigators--college-trained men, all -of them, into a single small city and keeps them there for one or two or -three weeks. When they are done with both this field work and the review -of it back at headquarters, the road has in its archives at Baltimore a -book of 100 pages or more which is a complete record of that city, not -alone industrially, but socially and historically as well. And if the -town is clamorous for a new depot--most towns are--a study of this book -will do much toward giving the answer. It may show that it finally is -entitled to a new passenger gateway; and it may show also that it is -careless about its pavements and its lawns, about the upkeep of the public -buildings which it already has--in which case the railroad has a fairly -good reason for refusing a new station. - -Other railroads are following these methods--most of our roads are quickly -imitative at least, even when they are unwilling to break precedent and -take a definite lead. Yet, in my own humble opinion, they have not begun -to even scratch the surface possibilities of traffic development. - -The experience of the express companies is illuminating in this regard. -Confronted with the establishment of the parcel post and threatened for a -season at least with the loss of much of their small-parcel traffic to it, -they began to look about to find where they might develop a tonnage with -which to fill their cars and wagons. At that moment the cost of living was -making one of its periodic ascents. The express companies took advantage -of the situation and began the development of a food-products service -direct to the consumer. The idea was popular. It met with instant approval -and tided the express companies over the hardest period of their history. - - * * * * * - -These things are interesting in the abstract. In the concrete they may yet -spell the very salvation of the railroad. Two things are necessary, -however, to transform them from the abstract to the concrete--brains and -money. - -I think that I have shown you enough already to convince you that brains -is not lacking in the conduct of the railroad, despite the extreme -difficulty which it is having today in gaining recruits from the best type -of young men who come trooping out from the preparatory schools, the -technical schools, and the colleges of the land. True it is that we have -not yet raised master railroaders to take the places of James J. Hill or -E. H. Harriman. Yet it is by no means certain that such master railroaders -may not be in the making today on our great overland carriers. Take such -men as Daniel Willard, the hard-headed, far-seeing president of the -Baltimore and Ohio, Hale Holden, the diplomatic and statesmanlike head of -the historic Burlington, Charles H. Markham of the Illinois Central, James -H. Hustis of the Boston and Maine, Howard Elliott of the New Haven, -William T. Noonan of the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh, or Carl R. -Gray of the Western Maryland--these are men to whom the future development -of our railroads may safely be trusted. - -Bricks cannot be made without straw. And these men cannot bring the great -sick man of American business back to health without our help--without the -help and cooperation of every thinking man and woman in the United States. -That cooperation must come without delay, not only to relieve the plight -of the railroad with which we already are familiar, but also to make it -possible for him to take advantage of the great opportunities which await -him. The average railroader--feeling that the cards were all against him, -that his credit at the bank was nearly nil, and that he must spend the -greater part of his time on the defensive, fighting legislation that he -believed to be grossly unfair--has not given much attention to these great -new ideas, vastly radical in their conception and requiring in their -execution much overturning of well-established methods and precedents. Yet -this is not to be interpreted as showing that he lacks vision. - -For remember that the sick man of American business is not too ill to -realize his opportunity. But he knows that first he must regain his feet -once more before he can begin important creative work. He knows that the -lines along which he has been working for a long time have been cramped -and restricted--conservative, to put it mildly. But he also knows that -before he can begin on extensive creative work he must have several -things--money and, more than money, public aid and sympathy. - -And of these things--the present necessity of our railroads--we shall soon -treat. But before we come to them we shall come to a consideration of a -railroad problem of recent compelling attention--a problem that is both -opportunity and necessity, and so deserves to be considered between them. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE RAILROAD AND NATIONAL DEFENSE - - -The Secretary of the Navy met a high officer of the telephone company in -Washington some months ago. - -"I have noticed a great deal about your new transcontinental telephone -line," said he. "I wonder if you could tell me how long it would take us, -in a national crisis, to get in telephone communication with each navy -yard in the United States and what the cost would be." - -The telephone man stepped to the nearest of his contraptions. In a moment -he was back. - -"Not more than five minutes," he said quietly, "and in such a crisis there -would be no charge to the government." - - * * * * * - -The telephone, the telegraph, and the railroad are the three great avenues -of national communication. In time of peace they throb with its traffic -and beat in consonance with the heartbeats of its commerce. In time of war -their value to the nation multiplies, almost incredibly. It is then of -vital necessity that they be preserved in their entirety. It is of almost -equal military necessity that they be kept close to the armies that are -afield. - -Of the telephone we have just spoken. The services of the telephone at the -time of the Civil War are too well remembered today for it to be ignored -in any future national crisis. But it is of the railroad that we are -talking in this book--the railroad that brings the food to your larder, -even the milk to your doorstep; that keeps the coal upon your hearthstone -and the clothing upon the backs of you and yours; that carries you to and -fro over the face of the land. It is the railroad, that living, breathing -thing that girdles the whole land and sends its tentacles into even the -smallest town, that, as you already know, is your servant in times of -peace. How can it be made to serve you in time of war? - - * * * * * - -When the last great war was fought in the United States, our railroads had -barely attained their majority. In the days of the Civil War there were no -railroad systems, as we know them today. Instead there was a motley of -small individualistic railroads, poorly coordinated. They were, for the -most part, poorly built and insufficiently equipped. Nothing was -standardized. Even the track-gauges varied and passengers or freight going -a considerable distance found it necessary to change cars at intersecting -points. - -Nevertheless, the railroad played a tremendous part in the War of the -Rebellion. Because of it Sherman made his conquering march from Atlanta to -the sea. He was something of a railroader himself, that doughty general. -And upon his immediate staff were expert railroaders. Over the crude -railroads of the Georgia of that day, with the aid of their war-racked -cars and locomotives, they supplied the commissary of the Sherman army as -it made its way across a devastated land. - - -[Illustration: THE RAILROAD IN THE CIVIL WAR - -This picture of a section of Alexandria, Virginia, was taken in 1864 and -shows the cars and engines of the United States Military Railroad of that -day.] - - -In the North the military railroad, reaching down from the very portal of -the Long Bridge at Washington, its railheads almost always touching the -Union lines, was an almost indispensable factor to the Army of the -Potomac. The Baltimore and Ohio was hardly a less important factor. It -paid a high price for the accident of location. One of Stonewall Jackson's -earliest and most brilliant achievements was the seizure of eight -locomotives from its roundhouse at Martinsburg and their movement, some -forty miles, over a dirt road to Winchester, Virginia, where they found -the tracks of a part of the railroad system of the Confederacy. Later on -Jackson returned to Martinsburg and helped himself to twelve more B. and -O. locomotives, also moving these over the turnpike to Winchester. He knew -and Lee knew that even a clumsy balloon-topped, wood-burning locomotive -was worth 500 horses in transport service. And the South was none too -plentifully supplied with locomotives even before the war began. - -The most of the work of the railroads in the Civil War was not dramatic. -But it was thorough--the carrying of men between the cities of the Middle -West and the Army of the Cumberland. At first it was chaotic, but it -became well systematized. The direct line between New York and -Washington--although then composed of four separate railroads--was -recognized as a route of vast strategic value. The men who handled troops -and supplies over it, in doing so qualified themselves to assume the -mastery of the great railroad systems that were to spring into being at -the close of the war--as a result of both construction and consolidation. - - * * * * * - -In 1898, when the country was again plunged into war, preparation of the -railroad lines of the land had grown to maturity. Unfortunately, however, -the theater of the war was close to the corner of the land which was then -most poorly equipped with railroads. But the standardization of the -operating conditions had been largely accomplished. One could run a car or -locomotive upon practically every important line in the land without -changing the gauge of its wheels. This last, of itself, was important. It -meant that the equipment of larger and stronger roads to the North could -be sent down to the Plant System and the Florida Central and -Peninsular--barely equipped for ordinary purposes--which were suddenly -called upon to handle an extraordinary traffic. This, of itself, was a -mixed blessing. For the borrowed locomotives were often too heavy for the -light rails and long bridges over the Florida marshes. Derailments were -frequent and the delays they entailed, protracted. - -The men who went to Tampa in that hot summer of 1898 have not forgotten -the Florida Central and Peninsular nor the Plant System, even though those -two railroads have now passed into history. Nor has the War Department -forgotten them. On one memorable occasion, the Quartermaster started a -special trainload of emergency army supplies south from Philadelphia to -Tampa. In order to make sure that the train should go through promptly, he -placed one of his own representatives upon it, with orders to push it -through. The train disappeared. After three weeks, the Quartermaster's -Department found it on a siding at a place called Turkey Creek, a good -eighteen miles from Tampa--held there because of the hopelessly congested -terminal at the waterside. And they never yet have found the special -representative who was to put it through. - -These abominable conditions, the conditions that made it necessary to take -from four to six days from the great mobilization camp at Chattanooga to -Port Tampa, a journey which should have been done in from one-half to -one-third of this time, were not to be charged to the poor men who were -struggling to operate those inadequate railroads. They were doing the best -they could, without plan and without facilities. And it is interesting to -note in this connection, that in that same memorable summer, an appeal -came to Washington not to put more than 500 troops a day through the -Jersey City gateway for fear of congesting the terminals there! - - * * * * * - -More recently the railroads of the South have been called upon again to -handle troops and munitions and commissary. Of course the problems that -have confronted them upon the Mexican border are hardly comparable with -those of the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. Yet on the very -morning that the entire country was shocked by Villa's audacious raid -upon Columbus, New Mexico, the heads of the great railroad systems that -come together at El Paso were alert and ready for any orders that the War -Department might give. At 6:45 P.M. that evening a telegraphic request for -trains came from Washington to the general headquarters of the Southern -Pacific lines at Houston. Five thousand troops were to be moved from the -camps at Galveston and near-by Texas City, and as quickly as possible. -Early in the morning the trains began moving. The railroad had made a full -night of it. Throughout the night they had brought their extra equipment -into Galveston from San Antonio, from New Orleans, from Shreveport--every -important operating center within twelve hours' run. The trains were ready -as quickly as the troops. And they made the long run of 881 miles up over -the long single-track to El Paso in an average of thirty-six hours--under -the conditions, a really remarkable performance. - - -[Illustration: THE RAILROAD "DOING ITS BIT" - -Hauling a trainload of army trucks and supplies from Chicago to Gen. -Pershing's expedition "somewhere in Mexico."] - - -The Santa Fe and the Rock Island operate direct lines from Chicago to El -Paso. They were called upon during many months of the past year to carry -munitions south to the border--particularly motor trucks--and were not -found wanting. The Rock Island with its complementary line, the El Paso -and Southwestern, carried 170 motor trucks and water wagons from Chicago -to El Paso, 1,446 miles, on a fifty-hour schedule. The "limited" with all -of its reputation for fast running and its high-speed equipment only makes -this distance in forty-three hours and a half, while the ordinary -schedule for freight--which is the equipment upon which it was necessary -to handle the motor trucks and the water wagons--is 129 hours and 50 -minutes from one city to the other. But Pershing needed the automobiles. -They were vital for his expedition. And it was a part of the day's work -for the railroad to carry them down to the border in record time.[14] - - * * * * * - -The job of handling the troops on the Texas line has hardly been more than -part of the day's work. The railroaders down there will tell you that. The -real job of the railroad recently has been laid overseas in the nations -that are fighting so bitterly for mastery. The German military use of -railroads is most interesting because it is the best. American travelers -for years past have noticed upon the trucks of each separate piece of -rolling stock in the Empire, its military destination, as well as -cabalistic figures to denote its carrying capacity in men and horses and -pounds of freight. Yet these were but the surface indications of a great -plan--whose formulas had been worked out and rested on the shelves of the -war headquarters in Berlin. How well the plan has worked we all know now. -For the first time in its history the railroad has become an active -fighting factor--not merely to be content with the bringing of powder and -shell and food and equipment up to the bases of the fighting lines; not -merely to assemble troops, in a comparatively leisurely fashion, or to -take tired and sick and wounded men back to their homes; but to be a -striking arm, if you please, moving whole brigades and even armies with -all the tensity and speed and resource at its command. In other days you -might laugh at the peaceful little German passenger train, making its -leisurely way in all the pomp and circumstance that only an Empire may -show. But you cannot laugh at the German military train, black with -troopers, darting its way across the Kaiserland with a speed and -definiteness that is all but human. - -It has been stated that the real reason why the Germans failed to reach -Paris in their memorable drive of September, 1914, was that even their -remarkable system of military railroads failed in this supreme crisis. If -this be so, it must be that the task placed upon them was superhuman. For -it was just such military trains as we have just seen, multiplied in -dozens and in hundreds, that moved whole brigades to southern Galicia -during the first two weeks of April, 1915--a distance, roughly speaking, -equal to that from Boston to Detroit. It was the military plan for the -railroads of Germany that brought the regiments out of the trenches in -Arras in the last week in June of that same year and on the Fourth of July -had them hammering at the might of Warsaw. And Warsaw is 800 miles from -the low fields of Arras. Not until the war is over will the whole military -workings of the German railroads be known. But examples such as these show -that they did work. And it may be remembered that when the German army -began flowing in a tidal fashion up over the Russian steppes they came to -von Hindenburg and reminded him of Napoleon and the retreat from Moscow. -And von Hindenburg showed his great teeth and remarked that Napoleon had -had no railroads. - -"The bread which our soldiers eat today in Windau was baked yesterday in -Breslau," he added. And it takes only a single glance at the map to see -that Windau is approximately 500 miles distant from Breslau. "We drink -German mineral water and we eat fresh meat direct from Berlin. If -necessary, we can build fifty miles of railroad in two days. Therefore it -is nonsense to speak now of the times and the strategy of Napoleon." - - * * * * * - -Here, then, is another of the great practical lessons that these three -fateful years are teaching America. Consider now how she may avail herself -of this particular lesson--the coordination of her great systems of more -than a quarter of a million miles of standard steam railroads with an -orderly and intelligent military plan, against any invasion. Other nations -have had to build railroads with a particular relation to military -strategy. Keen-minded Belgians and Frenchmen long ago noted the tendency -of Germany to build double-track railroads to comparatively unimportant -points upon her western front--since then they have had the opportunity to -see the wartime efficiency of these lines, suddenly turned in an August -from practical stagnation into busy, flowing currents of military traffic. -Of the strategic value of double-track routes, much more in a moment. For -this moment consider the location of the principal rail lines of the -United States--particularly in their reference to the defense of the -nation. - -The "vital area" of the country, so called, is the coast territory between -Portland, Maine, and Washington, District of Columbia, and resting east of -the sharp ridges of the Alleghenies. Here is a great part of the wealth, -the population, and the banking of the United States. Fortunately, -however, this is the district best supplied with efficient railroads, -double-tracked, triple-tracked, quadruple-tracked. And a reference to the -map will quickly show that these lines are particularly well adapted to -coast defense. From the extreme northeastern tip of Maine down to Key West -and around the white and curving shore of the Gulf to Brownsville and the -mouth of the Rio Grande there is hardly a strategical point that is not -well served by existing railroads. North of Boston, the Boston and Maine -and the Maine Central systems run, not alone parallel to the coast, but by -means of a network of other lines intersecting their coast lines, are -prepared to serve them from the inland country every few miles. The -importance of this last fact comes to mind when one realizes the -possibility of an invading force eluding our naval patrols and cutting our -coast line railroads. With a network of adequate line behind the one -actually closest to the shore, important communication would not be -interrupted for any considerable time. - -Boston is linked with New York by three distinct routes of the New Haven -system; with Chicago by the Boston and Albany, in practical effect a -branch stem of the New York Central system. Nor are these three stems the -only protection that the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad -extends to New England. The exposed and bended arm of Cape Cod is a weak -point in the nation's "vital area." The New Haven holds and controls the -one-time Old Colony Railroad which reaches the old whaling ports of -Plymouth, New Bedford, and Provincetown--a railroad which might at any -time become of vast strategic importance and which should be at once -double-tracked, by the Federal government, if necessary, for the same -reason that Germany double-tracked her lines leading to her French and -Belgian border. And only second in importance to the Old Colony in case of -an attempted invasion from across the Atlantic is the Long Island -Railroad, stretching straight out of the city of New York to the very tip -of the island. Between the Rockaways and Montauk there are many points on -the south edge of Long Island that offer possibilities to landing parties. -And it is essential that the railroad that serves this peculiarly barren -bit of coast within two hours' rail run of the largest city upon the -American continent be prepared to serve it well in the case of military -necessity. Fortunately the Long Island Railroad has been vastly -improved--its double-track increased--within the past ten years. It is no -longer barred by the East River from actual track connections with the -other railroads of the country. The great Pennsylvania tunnels already -make it possible in a military emergency to pour filled train and empty, -on short headway, into Long Island. The strategic value to the nation of -these tunnels will soon be supplemented by the Hell Gate Bridge over the -East River which will bind the Pennsylvania and the Long Island railroads -with the main lines of the New Haven and the New York Central. This bridge -cannot be completed too quickly. It is of immediate strategic necessity. - - * * * * * - -From New York south the same main-stem railroad that served the North so -well in the days of the Civil War still stands. It has, however, ceased to -be a chain of railroads, with ferriage at Havre de Grace and heartrending -transfers by horse cars across Philadelphia and Baltimore, as it was in -the days when New England and the York State and the Jersey regiments went -down to Washington and over across the Potomac. From Baltimore north, this -ancient stem is now the Pennsylvania Railroad, four-tracked or -double-tracked the entire distance, rich in surplus locomotives and cars, -and halted no longer by either the Delaware or the Susquehanna rivers. -Since the close of the Civil War the Pennsylvania has builded its own line -from Baltimore to Washington, while the Baltimore and Ohio, which owned -that section of the ancient stem, has thrust its own line up into -Philadelphia, coming from that point to Jersey City over the main-line -rails of the Philadelphia and Reading and the Central Railroad of New -Jersey systems. This means that there are today between these parallel -railroad systems eight main-line tracks from New York to Philadelphia and -from four to six from Philadelphia through Baltimore to Washington. It is -a combined railroad trunk of which a nation might well be proud. And this -nation may yet be profoundly grateful that it has such a railroad trunk, -through the heart of its "vital area." - -Consider again this "vital area"--the great metropolitan districts of -Boston, of New York, of Philadelphia, of Baltimore--almost a continuous -city, in fact, all the way along the Atlantic coast from the south tip of -Maine to the Potomac. It stretches west to the Alleghenies, in fact we may -say a little beyond them, to include such vigorous communities as -Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Buffalo. Here in this "vital area" of the -nation are more than eighty per cent of its munition-making plants, its -largest hard coal and soft coal deposits, its steel-making plants, its -greatest shipyards and its three most important navy yards. Major General -Leonard Wood has said that 1,500,000 men would be necessary to properly -defend the coast-line from Portland, Maine, to Washington. Therefore the -railroad main stem that connects these cities and the many larger cities -between them is the most important military base line upon this continent. -It needs all the resources of two- and four- and even six-tracked -railroads, for General Wood has gone on record as saying that in a -national crisis it might be necessary to move half a million men on this -great base line within the course of ten short hours. On a conservative -estimate these would require 500 trains--trains which, stood end to end, -would reach all the way from New York to Washington or to Utica. Such a -train movement would stagger even the imagination of a passenger-traffic -manager accustomed to figure the "business" in and out of a national -inauguration or a big football game at Princeton or New Haven or -Cambridge. - -A railroader whose pencil has a quick aptitude for figures has estimated -that Germany has seven and a half locomotives for every ten miles of -track. We have one-third that proportion. Yet the preponderance of what -our railroad men like to call "motive power" lies east of the Mississippi -River and north of the Ohio. The same thing is true of cars--cars of every -sort and variety. That is not the problem. Here it is. - -Suppose, if you will, that an enemy finding an entrance to America on the -sandy south shore of Long Island--to choose the spot most in the favor of -the writers of the lurid fiction of an imaginary war between some European -nation and the United States--has actually succeeded in capturing the city -of New York. The great military base line of America is broken at its most -important point. How are Major General Wood and the rest of the men who -are puzzling the great problem out with him, going to move a half-million -men--a half or a quarter of that number from New England over into -Pennsylvania or down toward the defense lines around the national capital? - -Take a look at your railroad map. Look sharply! You will need to look -sharply to see the second line of communication between New England and -the rest of the nation. There it is--a thin and wavering railroad line, -stretching from New Haven up through the Connecticut hills, spanning the -Hudson on the slender tracery of the Poughkeepsie bridge and threading -still more hills until it reaches Trenton, New Jersey, and the main base -line once again. The nation may yet thank a gentleman named Charles S. -Mellen for that second line of communication. For while the much -discussed ex-president of the New Haven did not build the Poughkeepsie -bridge or the New England lines leading to it, he at least caused both of -them to be double-tracked, curves and grades ironed out until one heavily -laden coal train could follow close upon the heels of another. - - -[Illustration: AMERICA'S "VITAL AREA" - -The workshops and the coalbins of the United States, together with the -principal railroads which must protect them. This bird's-eye map made as -though viewed from an aeroplane at a point five hundred miles off of Cape -Cod.] - - -That was Mellen's motive in making a large part of this second line of -communication into first-class railroad--the perfecting of New England's -long, lean arm down into the Pennsylvania coal bin. But no matter what his -motive--he has never pretended to be altruistic--his coal line is of great -strategic value. Not alone does it circle around metropolitan New York at -a reasonably safe distance, but it intersects the great trunk lines -running west from the seaboard--routes that would be of unspeakable -strategic value in the case of the seizure of our largest city. For these -would be the lines that would have to feed our army--not with mere food, -but with men and guns and shells and all that with these go. At -Poughkeepsie this second line of communication intersects the main stem of -the New York Central, in turn the main stem of the Vanderbilt system -reaching almost every important city west of the Alleghenies and east of -the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. At Goshen it intersects the Erie -Railroad, come in these recent years from being a reproach and a byword -into one of the most efficiently operated railroads in the entire land. -Farther south it intersects the Lackawanna and the Lehigh Valley--roads -rich in money and in resources. - -Suppose now the second line of communication is gone--the graceful span -of the Poughkeepsie bridge a mass of twisted steel in the channel of the -Hudson. What is the third line of communication? It consists of the -aristocratic old Boston and Albany leading due west out of Boston, and -threading Worcester and Springfield and Pittsfield--each of these a -manufacturing center of no mean importance--and finally coming to Albany, -and of the Delaware and Hudson, which, bending southwest from Albany, -finds its way through the anthracite hills of Pennsylvania and eventually -by way of Harrisburg to the main base at Philadelphia or Baltimore. This -line also intersects the east and west trunk lines. - -The fourth line of communication? Alas, we must believe that the capture -of these three widely separated lines is almost humanly impossible. When -they are gone the New England head is fastened to the body of the nation -only by a thin artery indeed. For the fourth line of communication is a -wavering, roundabout railroad, practically all single-track, which follows -close to the Canadian border. It is of conceivable military importance -only in the unthinkable event of a quarrel with our cousins to the north. -In such a catastrophe this line, of potential military value, could be -made of actual value only by double-tracking and by almost complete -reconstruction. - - * * * * * - -Enough now of the possibilities of the cutting of the main military base -of the nation. Go south with me for a moment from Washington and see the -strategic position of our railroads along the more southerly portions of -the Atlantic coast. Cross the Potomac on the nameless steel structure that -superseded the historic Long Bridge more than a decade ago and yet is of -hardly less military importance. For the trains of every railroad running -south from Washington must cross upon its tracks. Of these railroads, -three are the trunk stems that, while running many miles back from the -actual coast, still serve it. They are the Southern Railway, the Seaboard -Air Line, and the Atlantic Coast Line. These three railroads and their -direct connections reach from Washington to Norfolk, to Charleston, to -Savannah, to Mobile, and to New Orleans--the most important of the -southeasterly ports. One of their most interesting connections crosses the -keys of Florida and does not stop on its overseas trip until it reaches -the last of them--Key West, which is almost within scent of the cigar -fumes of Havana. If we ever had to send another army into Cuba, Tampa -would be completely out of it. - -There is hardly any comparison between these trunk railroads of the -Southeast and the lines that struggled so hard to handle the armies at the -time of the Spanish-American War. They have been double-tracked for long -distances, more generously supplied with locomotives and cars, although -they are still quite a way behind their northern brethren in this regard. -Still it would not be a very difficult matter in a national crisis to move -great fleets of rolling stock from one corner of the land to another. By -careful advance planning and a study of rail weights and bridges this -would become a comparatively simple matter. - -Ignore, for the moment, the strategic value of the many railroads in the -center of the land; forget the possibility of an army striking us upon our -Atlantic coast. Let us turn our faces toward the west coast, toward the -great stretch of barren and unprotected Pacific shore from British -Columbia down to San Diego. And before we begin tracing strategic routes -upon the map let us close our eyes and go back into history. - -Do you recall that inspiring picture in the old geographies of the -completion of the Union Pacific Railroad--the two doughty locomotives, one -facing west, the other east, with their cowcatchers gently touching, while -a motley of distinguished guests are indulging in oratory and other -things? Do you happen to recall why the Union Pacific was builded, why the -national credit was placed behind its construction? - -Military necessity is the answer. The men who went before the Congress of -the fifties and the sixties and who argued ably and well for the building -of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States laid great -stress upon this question of military necessity. - -"Only by the building of such a railroad as this," they argued, "can the -Union be held absolutely indissoluble." - -So came the name of the road. - -Today one looks at the military necessity of the Union Pacific Railroad -from another point of view. Now open your eyes. Look at your map and see -that military value of this first great transcontinental railroad. Its -chief eastern terminal is at Council Bluffs, on the bank of the Missouri -River and but an overnight ride from Chicago, with which it is connected -by six excellent railroads--most of them double-tracked. Its northerly -main stem is double-tracked practically the entire distance to Ogden, -Utah, an even thousand miles distant from the Missouri. A twin main stem -runs from Cheyenne down to Denver and east to Kansas City, where it enjoys -direct connections to St. Louis, Memphis, and the entire South. The North -and East feed the road chiefly through its Council Bluffs gateway. - -At Ogden the Union Pacific divides into three great feeding lines--the -main one extending due west to Sacramento and San Francisco, with one to -the north reaching Portland and Seattle and another to the south running -direct to Los Angeles. While these three lines are nominally separate -railroads, they are, in effect, component parts of the Union Pacific -System. In any military crisis requiring the rapid transcontinental -movement of troops they would become extremely important parts. - -The Union Pacific is, of course, supplemented by other transcontinentals. -To the south rests the long main stem of the Santa Fe, which boasts not -only that it is the only railroad with its own rails direct from Chicago -to California, but that it already has more than fifty per cent of its -main line double-tracked. Farther south still is the Southern Pacific, -which, although its real eastern terminal is at New Orleans, enjoys a -practical Chicago terminal over the lines of the Rock Island. In the north -are three American transcontinentals--the Milwaukee, the Northern -Pacific, and the Great Northern. While the Milwaukee is the only one of -these with its own rails from Chicago to Seattle, its two rivals maintain -a brisk competition by the use of the Burlington and the North Western -systems between Chicago and St. Paul. - -By the use of these roads it would be possible to throw a great number of -troops and munitions across to almost any section of the Pacific coast and -in a very short time. And for more than twenty years there has existed a -north and south trunk line, that would make it possible to obtain a -flexible use of troops between San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, -Portland, and Seattle. There are lines close to the coast all the way from -Eureka past Coos Bay to Astoria and the Puget Sound country. The main -north and south trunk lies anywhere from fifty to a hundred miles inland -from the coast all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle. Perhaps it is well -that this is so. It is unfortunate only that no more than a comparatively -small portion of it is double-tracked and that a large part of it through -northern California and Oregon is so threaded through the high mountains -as to be very difficult to operate. Military strategy demands that this -important trunk line be made possible to operate at highest efficiency. -That can only come through grade correction and a completion of -double-track. - - * * * * * - -I have laid stress and constant repetition upon this question of -double-track, simply because a double-track railroad is almost ten times -as efficient as a single-track railroad. That should be apparent to a -layman even upon the very face of things. - -The other day I sat in the Southern Pacific offices at Houston, Texas, and -talked with a genius of a railroad operator in regard to this very thing. -He was telling of the remarkable record made by his road in getting the -troops across from Galveston to El Paso. I asked what was the best he -could do in a real emergency--an emergency calling for perhaps the -movement of 50,000 troops, instead of 5,000. - -"Under normal conditions we can put five trainloads a day of troops across -Texas, in addition to our regular traffic and keep them moving at a rate -of from seventeen to eighteen miles an hour, including stops. We could put -on more trains, but this would not accomplish much except to tie up all of -them. We have to figure the capacity of our main line very largely by the -frequency of the passing sidings." - -"Suppose a crisis should arise--a crisis which demanded an even quicker -movement of troops?" I asked. - -He did not hesitate in his reply. - -"In such a crisis we would pull all our other traffic off the line and -move from ten to twelve trains a day." - -Which, translated, would mean at the most from five to six regiments of -2,000 men and their accouterments. And this on a railroad with a -tremendously high reputation for efficient operation. Here is the case for -single-track. - -Now consider double-track. The Union Pacific moves in summertime eight -through passenger trains west-bound out of its ancient transfer station at -Council Bluffs, an equal number east-bound. Frequently there are extra -sections of these trains, to say nothing of a pretty steady schedule of -freights. Yet even this by no means represents the capacity of its low -grades and double-track to Ogden. The Pennsylvania Railroad in twenty-four -hours has handled 121 trains bound in a single direction out of its great -yards at Altoona, which means a train every eleven minutes and a half. -While the main line of the Pennsylvania is four-tracked, that traffic was -freight and handled almost entirely upon one of a pair of freight tracks. -If such a performance was possible in the steep hills of the Keystone -state, it would hardly be exaggeration to suggest that the Union Pacific -could handle a military train bound west from the Missouri at least every -thirty minutes. Taking 1,000 men to the train as a moderate estimate, this -great road could dispatch nearly 50,000 men a day without in any degree -congesting itself. And while its central connecting stem at Ogden--that -portion of the Southern Pacific once known as the Central Pacific--is by -no means completely double-tracked, in a military necessity it could be -made so at once by the simple expedient of using for a one-way movement of -the trains, the newly built Western Pacific which parallels it all the way -from Ogden to San Francisco. - -Here, then, is the answer, here the way that in a military crisis we may -also gain a double-track transcontinental route across the north edge of -the country. We simply need to take two out of the three single-track -lines there--the Milwaukee, the Northern Pacific, and the Great -Northern--and by keeping the traffic moving in a single direction, we -gain at once a practical and effective double-track railroad. This method -can be repeated in the South from Chicago to El Paso and thence across to -Los Angeles, by a similar operating combination of the Santa Fe, the Rock -Island, the El Paso and Southwestern, and the Southern Pacific. The map -itself will suggest numerous other combinations of the same sort. - -Physically, the railroads of the United States are today wonderfully well -adapted to any military crisis that they might be asked to meet. And the -constant raising of their efficiency during the past decade, because of -the growing tendency of expenses to overlap income, has done nothing to -impair their military value. Potentially, they are fit and ready. Ready, -they are actually; fit and ready is an entirely different matter. Let us -come to it, here and now. - - * * * * * - -Suppose that tomorrow the "cry of war" were to resound from one end of -this country to the other, that an army of at least 1,000,000 men were to -spring into being as quickly and as easily as all these pacificists aver. -Immediately the railroads would be called to their superhuman tasks of -transporting men and horses, and motor trucks, munitions, and materials of -every sort. And somewhere this great problem of military rail transport -would have to center. Today, in times of peace, it centers in the -Quartermaster's Department of the War Department, which contracts with the -railroads for the carrying of troops and supplies just as any private -organization might arrange. The existing study of the War Department -provides that in the declaration of war the railroads shall be operated by -the Board of Engineers. Yet to a large extent this earlier study has been -superseded by President Wilson in the appointment of a Council of National -Defense to take over the industrial, commercial, and social mobilization -of the United States in case of a great crisis. As a member of this -council Mr. Wilson has appointed Daniel Willard, of the Baltimore and Ohio -Railroad, in direct charge of the transportation and communication, in -such a crisis. Of this, much more will be said in a moment. - -It is conceded that in any great national crisis the government would -immediately take over the operation of the railroads. The advocates of -government ownership point to this as a clinching argument for their -proposition. As a matter of fact it argues nothing of the sort. The United -States government, by act of Congress early in the Civil War, took over -the operation of all the railroads, although it actually took control of -those roads only in the theater of the war. It also took over Thomas A. -Scott, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a remarkable -railroader, and placed him in charge of the military roads--which, in -itself, is significant. Under Scott's brilliant leadership were such men -as David Craig McCallum and Herman Haupt, the last of these a man whose -combined knowledge of army organization and railroad operation made him -almost invaluable to the government. And the real success of the Federal -military railroads in the Civil War was due to the fact that the -government officers who operated them were expert railroaders borrowed for -the nonce from civil life. - - -[Illustration: ROCK ISLAND GOVERNMENT BRIDGE - -Built and owned jointly by the United States Government and the Rock -Island Railroad, it crosses the Mississippi, connects Rock Island and -Davenport, and is a point of military importance.] - - -It would be hardly less than a calamity for the army to attempt to operate -the railroads of the United States or any considerable part of them. The -army officers know that. Leonard Wood knows it. The War College down at -Washington knows it and has prepared a new study of the new problem -recognizing the necessity of keeping the railroads in any crisis operated -by railroad men. An army man is no more competent to operate a railroad -than a railroader is to command a brigade upon the field of battle. - -There is a railroad executive up in New England who well remembers the -days of the Spanish war. At that time he was trainmaster of the Southern -Railway at Asheville, North Carolina. His division ran from Knoxville, -Tennessee, down to the main line at Salisbury--242 miles. It threaded the -Blue Ridge Mountains and did it with difficulty. It was a hard road to -operate at the best. And in 1898 Fate called upon it to handle a -considerable number of troops from the concentration camp at Chattanooga -down toward the embarkation stations at Norfolk and Newport News. That was -the difficult problem, with the high grades, the many curves, and the few -passing sidings. To accomplish it meant careful planning. The division -staff made such a plan. Each meeting point for the regular trains and the -extra was carefully designated and a time allowance for meals at Asheville -was arranged; forty minutes, no more, no less. - -Being well planned, the operation went along smoothly--that is, until the -road was forced to break away from its own scheme. The trainmaster was -about to dispatch one of the troop trains from Asheville, its forty-minute -meal period having nearly expired, when an assistant informed him that the -officers of the regiment it carried were not aboard. The trainmaster -hurried downstairs. The officers were having their after-dinner coffee and -their cigars and showed no disposition whatsoever to hurry out to the -cars. He made up his mind quickly. He knew that if this train was delayed -ten minutes the whole operating plan would go to pieces and the entire -division become almost hopelessly congested. He went to the commanding -officer and quickly explained this to him. - -The colonel of the volunteers quickly waved him to one side. - -"This train'll start when I'm good and ready to have it start," he said -huskily. - -The trainmaster stood his ground. - -"I'll have to send it on in three minutes," he said politely, "and you -gentlemen will have to take your chance in getting on another section." - -The army man (volunteer) swore a great big oath, and added: - -"You make a move to start this train before I give the word and I will -make you a military prisoner." - -The railroader capitulated, although today he is sorry that he did not -stick it out and go to prison. And the operating schedule of his division -went to pot. Stalled trains piled up for miles along its main line and its -sidings. Incredible delays were the immediate result of one man's -tinkering with the delicate operating structure of the railroad. - - * * * * * - -But given even a fairly free hand, a measure of authority, and some -opportunity for preparation, the railroader will be able to give a good -account of himself in the military handling of troops. He has shown that -during the past year when he has been called upon to hurriedly move our -army toward the south border of the nation. I have told already of the -records made on that occasion--how long trains, filled with troops and -provisions and munitions of war, were sent down to the border in -double-quick time. One thing I have not yet told--the provisions for -housing and feeding these troops while they are on the road. - -It now is definitely understood that troop movements of the regular army, -volunteers and militia as well, are to be made with sleeping equipment, -particularly on long-distance runs. The practice is to use the so-called -standard Pullmans for the officers, the tourist-sleepers for the -men--three to the section. Obviously it is out of the question to feed a -regiment, or even a portion of it, in dining cars. Sometimes it is -difficult to make last-minute arrangements at eating-houses along the -line, even if the regiment wished to spare the time to detrain for a meal. -The Pullman Company has solved the problem for at least the ordinary -movements of the army by the construction of kitchen-cars. These are long, -fourteen-section tourist-sleepers, with an unusually capacious kitchen at -one end. This kitchen can easily feed not only the car in which it is -located, but the occupants of an entire train of average length. It is -not difficult for it to give three square meals a day to 300 hungry men. -Here is a bit of practical efficiency that is worthy of passing notice. - -Of course no one expects that in a time of great military urgency the -troops would ride in Pullmans. They would be lucky to get day coaches, and -in the final stress of things, it would probably be found necessary to -quickly cut windows in the sides of freight cars and hurriedly equip them -with seats. A Yankee box car so equipped would be a good deal better than -a good many of the small cars in which the German army has been so quickly -and so efficiently transferred from one side of that kingdom to the other. - -It is the flexibility of the standard equipment of the American railroads -that today offers perhaps the largest opportunity for its successful -military use. A single instance will prove this. A man--his name is L. W. -Luellen--has devised a scheme for mounting heavy rapid-fire ordnance upon -steel flat cars. Obviously it would be quite impossible to fire even a -miniature "big Bertha" from anything so unstable as a railroad car. But -Mr. Luellen has met this difficulty by arranging to have built at -intervals not exceeding thirty miles along the entire Atlantic coast, -short sidings flanked by heavy concrete bases. - -He, too, has studied his railroad map, as a little while ago we were -studying it. He has found that a comparatively small number of guns with a -fifteen-mile shooting radius, could by means of these permanent bases at -thirty-mile intervals protect the entire Atlantic coast, a good portion -of the Pacific as well. The method of their operation is simple. The guns -would be sent to any section they were needed on fast passenger schedule. -It would be a matter of minutes rather than hours, for the flat cars to be -run in between the permanent concrete bases and by jacks transferred to -them from the cars. - -The scheme is so simple that it seems absurd. But the War Department -experts say that it is remarkably practical. And Mr. Luellen, who seems to -know what he is talking about, says that it would not cost more than -$10,000,000 to install it--guns, cars, and permanent bases, along the -North Atlantic seaboard. Here is a form of railroad preparedness that -would seem worth the careful attention of the national legislature. - - * * * * * - -Already the American army has what is known as the Medical Reserve Corps, -made up of physicians and surgeons all the way across the land. The great -national organizations of civil engineers are beginning to plan a similar -reserve in the ranks of their own profession. In the American Railway -Association, the railroads of this country have a common meeting ground -and an organization that can quickly take definite steps toward meeting -the Federal authorities in planning the military use of the transportation -routes of the country. There is no mistaking the patriotism of the -railroaders. Some of them have smarted in recent years under what they -have believed to be an unwarranted intrusion by the Federal authorities -into the affairs of their properties, but at heart every man of them is -loyally American. And every man of them is not merely loyal in a passive -sense, but is both willing and able to aid the government with all the -resources at his command. - -Take the critical situation which broke upon the country early in the -present year when diplomatic relations with Germany suddenly were broken -and the possibility of war loomed high. President Wilson, acting under the -authority which Congress had vested in him immediately appointed a -committee of seven prominent Americans--a Council of National Defense. As -a member of this Council and in immediate charge of the nation's -transportation and communication in case of emergency Mr. Wilson chose -Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He chose -wisely. Of the dominant quality of Mr. Willard's Americanism as well as of -his great railroad ability and executive fitness for so important a post -there can be no question. - -Within seven days after he had accepted this billet, Willard was at work -for the government. He bespoke for it at once the interest and cooperation -of the heads of the other great railroads of America. He knew that in any -national crisis the interest and the patriotism of these men was never to -be doubted. And so he sought their cooperation and not in vain. A full -dozen of the biggest railroad executives in the United States closed their -desks and at Willard's suggestion came hurrying to Washington. When their -conference was done, a definite plan for the service of the railroads in -a time of great national stress had been begun--a program which the -railroad executives then returned to study in detail. At the conference -they were told of the great defense and offense plans of the War College -for the part which the railroad must play in a national emergency. Some of -the railroad presidents learned for the first time the designated -mobilization centers all the way across the land, the equipment necessary -for each, the movement and direction of troop and munition trains, from -every one of them. - -It is gratifying to know that these railroad executives already are giving -much time and thought to the use of our railroads in national defense. So -is Major Charles Hine, who, like Herman Haupt, came out of West Point, -perfected himself in military training and organization and gave his time -after leaving the army to railroad training and organization. Hine started -as a brakeman on the Erie Railroad, in order that he might study railroad -operation from the bottom up--that he might eventually bring to the -railroad some of the really good points of the army. He has since held -high executive positions in many of the great railroad systems of the -land--studying the problems of each until he knows the railroad map of -this country as you and I know the fingers of our hands. The value of such -a man to America in an emergency is not to be figured in dollars and -cents. - -But to my own mind, the value of such a military reserve corps among the -railroaders will be comparatively slight if its membership be confined -merely to railroad executives. The qualities of patriotism and good -Americanism are by no means confined to the higher-paid railroad men. Take -a purely suppositious case--yet an entirely typical one: - -Down in the offices of the old Cumberland Valley Railroad at Chambersburg, -we will say, there is a boy who is assistant trainmaster or assistant -superintendent. He is a smart boy, who has climbed rapidly in railroad -ranks because of his abilities. He reads the papers. He is keenly -interested in this whole idea of national defense. He reads the newspapers -and the magazines and he wonders what his own part would be if Washington -were taken by an enemy invader. Being a good railroader he does not have -to spend much time in doubts. He knows that his little railroad--ever an -important cross-country traffic link from Harrisburg down to Martinsburg -and Winchester, will suddenly become part of the military base line north -and south along the Atlantic coast. Over its stout rails will come the -tidal overflow that ordinarily moves over the four busy tracks of the two -railroad systems between Baltimore and Philadelphia. That means that his -railroad, his own division, himself, if you please, will be called upon to -handle a great traffic from Harrisburg south to the upreached arms of the -Norfolk and Western and the Baltimore and Ohio lines. - -That young man in the Chambersburg railroad office should be under a -course of instruction today, as to the emergency use of his railroad, his -division. The division is the operating unit of the railroad in America. -Therefore a scheme for the military use of the railroad should begin with -its head, the superintendent. In the superintendent's office of every -railroad division that may have possible military value, there should be a -member of the army reserve corps, making the plan for the possible -military use of his division. In the general superintendent's office there -should be another reserve officer studying the schemes of the several -divisions that center there. Similarly the process should be repeated in -the general manager's and the president's offices, where authority -converges still further. This is important work, vital training, if you -please. It is hardly the sort of detail work to be placed upon the -shoulders of a railroad executive, already burdened with a vast amount of -other detail. - - * * * * * - -The best army training is that which simulates, as far as possible, the -actual conditions that might arise in the case of real war. That is why -the maneuvers that were held in the East at various times during the past -decade have been of tremendous value. They should be repeated and the -railroads should be asked to play their part at a moment's notice. To play -that part well at so short a notice means planning in advance. The New -Haven railroad recently, on the occasion of the Harvard-Yale game and the -inauguration of Yale Bowl, brought sixty-five trains carrying 33,409 -passengers into New Haven between 9:26 A.M. and 2:00 P.M.--the record -passenger movement in the history of American railroading. Not one of -those trains was late, not even to the fraction of a minute. In the very -first hour of the afternoon, 22 trains, 221 passenger coaches all told, -arrived at an interval of slightly over two minutes--226 passengers to the -minute. And the detraining and entraining of these passengers was -accomplished with military precision. - -But the New Haven's remarkable performance was the result of -planning--planning to the last detail. No wonder that John A. Droege, its -general superintendent, is qualified to speak of the military -possibilities of the railroad. But Droege knows that advance plans are of -vital necessity. Of course, our railroads have met difficult situations -when it has become absolutely necessary. The Ohio floods of three years -ago proved their ability to meet a great emergency in a great manner. In a -few hours many miles of their tracks were completely washed away, hundreds -of bridges destroyed, their lines thrown into apparently hopeless -confusion. Yet the railroaders never lost their heads. They arranged to -reroute their through trains. Then and there it was that the Lake Shore -railroad--running from Buffalo to Chicago--showed its resources. For it -took upon its broad shoulders the trains from all these completely blocked -lines--the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Erie--and for -long days tripled its ordinary traffic without apparently feeling the -great overload. - -Yet this traffic was in some sense routine and it was moving over one of -the most generously equipped railroads in America. The military plan, as -we have already seen, may have to make large strategic use of railroad -lines of comparatively unimportant strength. It is here that the definite -plan--from the superintendent's office upward--counts. It is gratifying -to know that the military bill provides an opportunity for the -construction of such a plan, gratifying to know that the War College at -Washington has succeeded in its detailed study of the use of our railroads -in time of war. - - -[Illustration: _An outline map of the United States showing the railroad -routes of greatest strategic military importance._] - - -It is upon such a study that Mr. Willard was enabled to give the railroad -presidents whom he summoned to the Federal Capital such a lucid statement -of the parts that each of them and their railroads would be expected to -fulfill. Further than this, they are yet to evolve recommendations for -terminal yards and double trackings which in an emergency would probably -prove of tremendous military value but for which there is no commercial -justification whatsoever. It is expected that the United States government -will pay for construction work of this sort. It is entirely fit that it -should. There hardly can be two sides to this question. The only question -comes as to how rapidly these needed improvements can be made, -particularly the emergency terminals. It will be unfortunate, to say the -least, to attempt to move an army of any real size into a seaport -important in a military or naval sense, but inadequately equipped with -terminal sidings. It takes, roughly speaking, one mile of railroad train -to handle one thousand troops and their accoutrements. To bring an army of -fifty thousand men--a very moderate army, indeed--into a smaller city -would require the prompt handling and unloading of fifty miles of train. -These are the military railroad necessities which must be planned and -built by the Federal government--without delay. - -All these things are going to cost time and thought--and money. And it is -because of this last factor that I have placed this entire question of the -military development of our railroads at the end of opportunity and at the -beginning of necessity--the immediate needs of the railroad, which we are -now going to consider. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE NECESSITY OF THE RAILROAD - - -In the entire history of the railroads they have never witnessed an -outpouring of freight traffic such as came to their rails this winter and -last, and congested their yards and lines in every direction. In addition -to the high tide of traffic arising from a return of general prosperity -the tremendous rush of munitions of war, destined overseas to the Allies -from the North Atlantic ports, found the greater part of the roads -suffering from the results of a decade of lean years and improperly -prepared to handle any press of business. The causes that led to this lack -of preparation, I have reviewed. Because of them the railroads were not -ready even for a normal volume of traffic, to say nothing of the flood -tides that came upon them. It was not possible to remedy the neglect -before the tides began. And upon these traffic tides there also came at -the close of 1915, one of the hardest winters that the East has known in -many a long year. Days and nights and even weeks, the great freight yards -of metropolitan New York, of Philadelphia, of Baltimore, of Boston, of -Buffalo, and of Pittsburgh were swept by wind and snow, while the mercury -hovered around the zero mark. - -The record of their operating departments against these fearful conditions -is a record of which the American railroads long may be proud. -Superintendents, trainmasters, general superintendents, and general -managers moved into their biggest yards and lived there for weeks and -months at a time--in private cars, bunk cars, and cabooses--right on the -job. But the odds against them were overwhelming. It was not until the -warm days of early summer that the congestion was relieved and the -railroads able to lift the embargoes that, in self-defense, they had been -forced to place upon the freight. - -It is already known that the congested conditions are being repeated in -the winter that ushers in 1917--probably in even worse measure. And the -railroads even after a comparatively dull summer are not much better -prepared physically to meet the situation. To have made themselves ready -for any such flood tides of traffic as were visited upon them last winter -would have meant the radical reconstruction of many great terminal and -interchange yards as well as the building of cars and locomotives by the -thousands--involving, as we now know, the expenditure of great sums of -money. And this seemed out of possibility, although the orders for new -rolling stock in the first ten months of 1916 exceeded the entire orders -for 1915. You must remember that it is one thing to order rolling stock in -these piping times of prosperity--quite another thing to obtain it from -manufacturers far behind their orders and greatly hampered by shortages of -fuel, of labor, and of raw material. Here once again the railroads are -greatly hampered by their lack of fresh capital. - -A little while ago--until the unprecedented floods of traffic began to -descend upon them--the railroaders, big and little, all the way across the -land saw their only relief in a granting of further increases in their -rates, both freight and passenger. Even today the best-informed of them -will tell you that the necessity still exists--must sooner or later be -met--when the war tides have ceased and business in America returns to its -normal levels once again. For while traffic may return to normal levels, -the prices of both the railroad's raw material and its labor will not -descend so rapidly, if, indeed, they descend at all. - -Before the great wave of war prosperity came upon us, the railroaders were -showing their pressing need of immediate relief in the form of rate -increases and were making a very good case for their necessities. They -showed with unimpeachable exactness the steadily mounting cost of labor -and of materials. Instance after instance they showed where the many -regulating bodies had aided and abetted in raising costs of operation but -had not granted any income increases with which to meet these costs. No -matter how much the Federal board and the various state boards might -conflict in other matters, they always have seemed to be in general and -complete harmony as to laying increased burdens upon the back of the -carriers. Under the whip of labor, Congress passed the sixteen-hour -measure, a good bill for the railroaders but mighty expensive to the -roads. The Full-Crew Bill, as we shall soon see, swept across the various -states like a windborne conflagration across an open prairie. And after -these the Eight-Hour Day! And all this while many of the states were also -passing bills reducing the price of passenger transportation to two cents -a mile. A most unfair type of bill this, considered from any reasonable -angle. For if it were profitable to carry a passenger at this -figure--which I very much doubt--this type of measure still would remain -arbitrary, unscientific, illogical--reasons which, of themselves, should -utterly condemn it. Yet here is a sort of railroad bill to which state -legislatures are most prone--of which very much more in a moment. - -It was hopeless to expect this sort of a legislature to increase railroad -rates--any more than the state regulating boards, which are the creatures -of the various legislatures. The Federal commission down at Washington, -did far better. With its usual breadth of judgment, it did not refuse to -grant relief. After a careful survey by it of the entire subject, -interstate freight rates were increased slightly; passenger rates much -more generously. In fact it was the first time in years that many of the -passenger fares had been given any very general increase. An old -adage--which had become almost a fetish in the minds of the -railroaders--was that the passenger rates were absolutely sacred; that any -increases in the incomes of the roads must be borne by the freight. -Increases in passenger tariffs probably would be greeted by roars of -protest from the public, rioting was not out of the possibility.[15] - -As a matter of fact the interstate passenger rates were raised, and there -was hardly a protest on the part of the public. The railroaders who had -clung superstitiously to their fetish had overlooked one big bet--the -American public will pay for service. For super-service it will pay most -generously. - -Perhaps you do not believe this? - -If so, consider this: When you travel you probably pick out the newest and -the finest hotels in the towns you visit; you are considerably provoked if -they do not give you a room with private bath each time. You scorn the -old-time omnibus from the station--nothing but a taxi will do for you. And -when it comes to picking trains.... - -Do you know what are the most popular trains in America today? The most -expensive. The most popular and crowded trains between New York and -Chicago today are the twenty-hour overnight flyers which, for their -superior accommodations and their shortened running time, charge eight -dollars excess over the regular fare. Night after night these trains run -in two, sometimes in three and even four sections, while the differential -lines--so called because of their slightly inferior running time and -accommodations--almost starve to death for lack of through traffic. The -same thing is true between New York and Boston, where the excess-fare -trains are the most popular and hence the most crowded. The rule seems to -hold good wherever excess-fare trains are operated. - -There is a great deal of hard sense to prompt the operation of these -excess-fare trains. For instance, take two men--one rich, one poor--and -imagine them going, say from Boston to San Francisco. They make several -stops on the trip. The rich man, after the way of his kind, tarries in the -fine hotels of two or three cities along the route. He pays five dollars a -day for his rooms in these taverns, and from two to four dollars apiece -for each of his meals. The poor man stops in those same cities. He pays -from fifty cents to a dollar for his lodging each night and his meals will -cost him nearer twenty-five than seventy-five cents each. Each of these -men suits the necessities of his pocketbook and each finds suitable -accommodations at the prices he wishes to pay. - -Yet the rich man and the poor man pay practically the same long-distance -through fare--a trifle over two cents a mile--for the journey. Of course -the rich man may have his drawing-room in a smart train that is formed -almost exclusively of Pullman cars and the poor man may ride in day -coaches and free reclining chair cars all the way; but the railroad's -revenue is practically the same from each of them. - -Here, then, is the rub! - -Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief--until comparatively recently, and -then in only a few cases, have they represented any difference in the -railroad's income account. For our railroads, with a few exceptions, long -ago bartered away one of the large functions of their passenger business. -I am referring to the building and operation of the sleeping and the -parlor cars--a business carried forth today almost exclusively by the -Pullman Company. Great reticence is shown by the railroads in speaking of -their contracts with the Pullman Company, yet it is generally known that, -save in a few notable cases, that company pockets the entire -seat-and-berth revenue of its cars. The railroad derives no income from -hauling them. And it is not so long ago that most of our railroads paid -the Pullman Company an additional toll of from three to five cents a mile -for hauling each of its cars over their rails. - -It is hardly fair to scold the Pullman corporation for having driven a -shrewd bargain years ago, when it was far-sighted, with a generation of -railroaders, now almost past and gone, who were very near-sighted about -the steadily growing taste of Americans for luxury in travel. It is only -fair, in addition, to state that it has been generally progressive in the -maintenance of its service and equipment; it has been in the front rank in -the substitution of the steel car--which the modern traveler demands and -which has been a definite factor in creating the definite plight of our -great sick man today--for the wooden coach. - -If the Pullman Company has moved slowly in the retirement of the barbaric -scheme of upper and lower berths giving into a common center aisle, that -is not to be charged against it either. This is not the time nor the place -to discuss these cars in detail. But it is pertinent to make a brief -comparison of them and the compartment cars of England and the Continent. - -"Are you willing to pay the price for them--all of you travelers, I mean?" -says the big railroad traffic-man blandly when you go to him about the -matter. "It costs you almost twice as much for a stateroom from Paris to -Marseilles as from New York to Buffalo--two journeys of approximately the -same length. Are you willing to stand for an increase in railroad rates -instead of paying the European charges for sleeping-car staterooms?" - -You say, quite frankly, that you do not object to paying six dollars for a -compartment from New York to Buffalo, or even seven dollars for the -slightly more luxurious drawing-room--a feature, by the way, which is -existent in practically every Pullman sleeping car and ready for the use -of the exquisite traveler. You recall that it was not so many years ago -that the railroads themselves answered this very question--by demanding -that there be at least one and one-half standard passage money presented -for the use of a compartment; two full fares for the use of a -drawing-room. Up to that time those few roads that were progressive enough -to use solid compartment cars in regular service paid for their -generosity. There are but nine compartments or drawing-rooms in the -standard Pullman all-compartment car. And if it happened, as frequently it -did happen, that these compartments were all occupied singly, the railroad -derived but nine passenger fares for hauling one of the very heaviest -types of coaches. A day coach of similar weight would carry from 80 to 100 -passengers. The new ruling, however, has helped to equalize the -situation. - -To return to the excess-fare trains. It now looks as if they were the only -way through for a majority of the trunk-line railroads. Gradually railroad -heads have been warming to them; and the rush of traffic to their cars has -been almost as astonishing as the lack of protest to accompany the sturdy -raises in interstate passenger fares. - -It is a little more than twenty years ago that the fast-running Empire -State Express was placed in service between New York and Buffalo. It was a -railroad sensation. The fastest mile ever made by a locomotive, to which -we referred when we were speaking of the men in the engine cab, was made -on a fall day in 1893, by the Empire State speeding west from Rochester. -The train in that day, and for a long time afterward, was composed of -day-coaches--save for a single parlor-car; and barring passes, about every -form of railroad transportation was accepted upon it, without excess -charge. It quickly became the most patronized railroad train in the world -and a tremendous advertisement for the New York Central, which operated -it. - -Yet this tremendously historic and popular train is regarded by the expert -railroaders of today as a mistake. It is a mistake that probably would not -be repeated today. If the Empire State was to be added to the time card -tomorrow, it would, in all probability, be an excess-fare train--a little -bit more luxurious perhaps, but certainly more expensive. And travelers -would continue to flock to it as they do to those staunch extra-fare -trains between New York and Boston--the Knickerbocker, the Bay State, and -the Merchants' Limited. - - * * * * * - -The railroads of the West were, for a long time, seemingly barred from -establishing "excess-speed-for-excess-fare" trains by physical limitations -which seemed to make long-distance high-speed trains impracticable. For -you must remember that in the case of the New York-Chicago excess-fare -trains the extra charge is based exactly on shortened time. For each hour -saved from the fixed minimum of twenty-eight hours for standard lines -between the two cities one dollar is added to the standard fare. So it is -that the Twentieth Century Limited and its counterpart on the -Pennsylvania, each making the run in twenty hours, add eight dollars to -the regular fare of $21.10. But, if these trains are delayed--for any -cause whatsoever--they will pay back one dollar for each hour of the -delay, until the standard minimum fare is again reached. - -Yet the western railroads have taken hold of the situation with a bold -hand. - -"We shall put a winter train from Chicago to Los Angeles and San Francisco -that will be _de luxe_ in every sense of the word," said the Santa Fe four -or five winters ago. "We shall have the very best of train -comforts--library, barber shop, ladies' maids, compartments a-plenty--and -we shall charge twenty-five dollars excess fare for the use of this -train." - -Railroad men around Chicago received this news with astonishment. - -"You don't mean to say," they gasped, "that you are going to guarantee to -cut twenty-five hours off the running time between Chicago and the Pacific -coast?" - -"We are going to run the new train through in five hours less time than -our fastest train today." - -"Five dollars an hour! That's going some!" whistled railroad Chicago. - -"Five dollars an hour--nothing!" replied the Santa Fe. "We are going to -charge for luxury--not for speed. We are going to charge folks eighty-five -dollars for the ride between Chicago and San Francisco instead of the -standard price of sixty dollars; and we are going to have them standing in -line for the privilege of doing it! They will come home and boast of -having ridden on that train just as folks come home from across the -Atlantic and boast of the great hotels that have housed them in Europe. -You never hear a man brag of having ridden in a tourist-sleeper." - -The Santa Fe was right. It gauged human nature successfully. Its _de luxe_ -train at twenty-five dollars excess fare has become a weekly feature -between Chicago and the Pacific coast the entire winter long. Its chief -rival has also installed an excess-fare train--in connection with its -feeding lines, the North Western and the Southern Pacific. This train runs -daily the year round and so charges but ten dollars excess fare between -Chicago and San Francisco. But in the case of neither of these trains do -they refund fare-excess in case of delay. They feel that the two big -passenger roads of the East made a distinct mistake when they established -that basic principle. - -Truth to tell, America these days is bathed in luxury. America stands -ready to pay the price; but America demands the service.[16] And the -lesson of the excess-fare trains is one that the railroader who thinks as -he reads may well take to heart. Some of them are giving it consideration -already. One big road has had for some time past under advisement a scheme -by which it would make a ticket charge of one-half cent a mile extra for -those of its passengers who chose to ride in sleeping or parlor cars. In -this way it would compensate itself for the lack of any portion of the -Pullman Company's direct revenue. - - * * * * * - -A certain big railroader out in the Middle West has very determined -opinions in regard to the possibility of the passenger end of the railroad -receipts being increased. Like many of the big operating men he affects a -small regard for the passenger service. And this despite the fact that if -you touch the average railroader, big or little, upon his tenderest spot, -his pride in his property, he will talk to you in glowing terms of the -"Limited," the road's biggest and fastest show train--showy from the -barber shop and the bath in her buffet car, to the big brass-railed -observation platform at the rear. He will not talk to you at length of his -freight trains, but he will prate unceasingly of Nineteen's "record"--how -she ran ninety-eight per cent on time last month, a good showing for a -train scheduled to make her thousand miles or so well inside of -twenty-four hours. - -This big railroader of the Middle West does not, however, take your time -in mere boasting of his operating record. He comes to cases, and comes -quickly--to the question of increased passenger rates when our present -flood tide of traffic has descended to the normal. - -"See here," he tells you when you are seated in his big, comfortable -office, "here are the figures. They speak for themselves. Take New York, -for instance. There were 120,750 commuters entering and leaving that big -town each business day last year. With an average ride of fourteen miles -for each commuter, we have a total passenger mileage of 1,014,300,000 -miles in that metropolitan district. The passenger traffic from New York -westward to Chicago and beyond in the same time was 234,482 passengers. -Multiply these by the average rail distance between the two cities, 960 -miles, and you have another 225,083,520 passenger-miles. Now to this add -163,620 commercial travelers, each riding an estimated average of fifty -miles a day--2,454,300,000 miles for these--and you have a total of -3,693,683,520 miles--or approximately ten and a half per cent of the -passenger miles on our steam railroads last year. This ten and a half per -cent of the passenger travel was participated in by 518,832 persons--a -little bit more than one-half of one per cent of the total population of -the country. If this rule holds good it follows that five and three-tenths -per cent of the population of the United States, or 5,194,000, received in -an average year all the benefits of the passenger-carrying establishment -of the railroads. - -"The average journey upon our railroads last year was thirty-four miles; -therefore, a round trip between New York and Chicago represented -twenty-eight average trips; a round trip between New York and San -Francisco ninety-two average trips. We can agree that the bulk of the -passenger travel consists of commuters, commercial travelers, men on -business trips, and persons traveling for pleasure; in proportion about in -the order I have given them. If these figures show anything, they show -that the great bulk of our passenger mileage is used by a class which we -may call constant travelers. I believe that it is a reasonably safe -assumption that at least four-fifths of the 35,000,000,000 passenger-miles -made last year were used by this class of travel, probably representing -less than 10,000,000 of the population of the country. This same -35,000,000,000 of passenger-miles distributed equally among our entire -population produces 357 passenger-miles per individual. - -"It is a simple matter for the artisan, the farmer, or the man in the -street, without _Wanderlust_ in his blood, to figure out for himself that -if he and each member of his family do not travel their 357 miles in a -single year then he is helping to pay for the passenger service of the -railroads in the form of increased freight charges. - -"I myself have always maintained that the passenger revenues of our -railroads do not render their proportion of the cost of operation. The -Interstate Commerce Commission has upheld the same contention, as anyone -can see by its recent decision granting increases in passenger rates -proportionately much higher than the increases in freight rates. These -figures of mine show how a privileged class, representing ten per cent, -or, at the widest calculation, not more than twenty per cent of the -population, have been receiving transportation at far less than the actual -cost; while the remaining ninety per cent of the citizens of the United -States have paid the freight--literally." - -The railroader's figures are interesting--to say the least. And we must -assume that he has not forgotten the fact that there is one great economic -difference between the freight and the passenger traffic. The one must -move, and, save in the few cases where waterborne traffic competes, move -by rail; a large part of the other is shy and must be induced. If this -were not true the big railroads would be advertising for freight business -as steadily and as strongly as they advertise for passengers. Of course a -large proportion of folk travel because necessity so compels, yet there is -a goodly proportion, a proportion to be translated into many thousands of -dollars, who travel upon the railroad because the price is low enough to -appeal to their bargain-sense. In this great class must always be included -the excursionists of every class. These folk must be lured by attractive -rates. And as a class they are particularly susceptible just now to the -charms of the railroad's great new competitor--the automobile. - -It was only two or three years ago that the round-trip ticket at -considerably less than the cost of two single-trip tickets and the -twenty-dollar mileage book, entitling the bearer to 1,000 miles of -transportation, prevailed in the eastern and more closely populated -portion of the United States. The price of the mileage book was raised to -$22.50. Within a short time it is likely to go to $25. And there are -shrewd traffic men among the railroad executives of the country who today -say that within twenty years it will cost five cents a mile to ride upon -the railroad--as against an average fare of two and a half cents today. -And I do not think that, in view of the advances in cost--as well as that -great necessity in making good that loss in both physical and human -equipment, to which I have already referred--the public will make any -large protest. The average man does not wish to ride upon a railroad that -is neglecting either its property or its employees. He is willing to pay a -larger price for his transportation if only he is assured that this larger -price is going to make his travel more safe and more comfortable in every -way. - -Therefore I do not think that it is going to be very hard for the -railroads to gain necessary advances in fares--particularly if they will -not forget one big thing. The success of the Twentieth Century Limited and -the other trains of its class ought not to be lost upon the railroader. -With service he can trade for increased rates. There are many large -opportunities for the railroad along these lines, in both freight and -passenger service. A progressive desire to enter into these opportunities -will probably bring the railroad many of the advances that it so sorely -needs. And I am not sure but that such a spirit would also do much toward -securing for it the very necessary unification of regulation--not alone of -its income but also of its outgo--that it so earnestly seeks at the -present time. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -REGULATION - - -At the time that these lines are being written the railroads of the United -States are entering a veritable no man's land. The ponderous Newlands -committee of Congress has begun its hearing and accomplished little; so -little that it has asked and received an extension of time of nearly -eleven months in which to go into the entire question more thoroughly. We -all hope it does. The Adamson bill, establishing the so-called eight-hour -day for certain favored classes of railroad employees, is statute, but its -constitutionality is yet to be established. And the railroads are -preparing to fight it, in its present form, and to the bitter end. General -sympathy seems to be with them; it is quite probable that even the four -brotherhoods that fought for the measure--unlike the Pears Soap boy--are -not quite happy now that they have received it. - -In the midst of all this confusion President Wilson, assured of a second -term of office and so of a reasonable opportunity to try to put a concrete -plan into effect, has emerged with his definite program, not radically -different from that which he evolved last August at the time of the -biggest of all crises between the railroads and their labor, but which was -warped and disfigured until its own father might not know it. His plan, as -now is generally known, provides not alone for the eight-hour day for all -classes of railroad employees, but includes the most important feature of -compulsory arbitration referred to in an earlier chapter.[17] - -It now looks as if the United States was upon the threshold of the -eight-hour day--in many, many forms of its industrial life. I believe -that, in his heart, the average railroader--executive or employee--favors -it, fairly and honestly and efficiently applied. It has been charged as -the first large step forward toward the government operation of our -railroads, yet I cannot see it as nearly as large a step as the extension -of the maximum weight of packages entrusted to the parcel post, a system -which if further extended--and apparently both legally and logically -extended--might enable a man to go up to Scranton and place enough postage -stamps upon the sides of a carload of coal to send it to his factory -siding at tidewater. Compared with this the eight-hour day is as nothing -as a step toward government operation or ownership. A genuine eight-hour -day is, of course, a long step toward the nationalization of our -railroads--quite a different matter, if you please. - -President Wilson's entire plan, as it has already been briefly outlined, -forms a very definite step toward such nationalization. It at once -supersedes the indefinite quality of the Newlands committee hearings--no -more indefinite at that than the average hearing of a legislative -committee. When the Wilson plan has been adopted, fully and squarely and -honestly, either by this Congress or by the next, it will then be the -order of the day to take up some of the next steps, not so much, perhaps, -toward the nationalization of our railroads as toward the further -bettering of their efficiency and their broadening to take advantage of -some of their great latent opportunities as carriers of men and of goods. - - * * * * * - -The men who control our railroads today look forward to such a definite -program with hope, but not without some misgivings. For, after all, we are -by no means nationally efficient, and there seems to be a wide gulf -between the making of our economic plans and their execution. No wonder, -then, that the railroads are dubious. They are uncertain. They have been -advised and threatened and legislated and regulated until they are in a -sea of confusion, with apparently no port ahead. The extent of the -confusion is indicated not alone by their failure to handle the traffic -that has come pouring in upon them in the last days of the most active -industrial period that America ever has known, but by the failure of their -securities to appeal to the average investor--a statement which is easily -corroborated by a study of recent Wall Street reports. And what would be a -bad enough situation at the best has been, of course, vastly complicated -by the labor situation. - -We already have reviewed some of the salient features of that situation; -we have seen, of organized labor, the engineer and the conductor at work; -and of unorganized labor, the section-boss and the station agent. We have -seen the equality of their work and the inequality of their wage. It is -futile now to attempt to discuss what might have happened if the pay -envelopes of all these four typical classes of railroad employees had been -kept nearer parity. As a matter of fact the disagreeable and threatening -situation between the railroads and the employees of their four -brotherhoods is largely of their own making. If, in the past, the -railroads had done either one of two things there probably would be no -strike threats today, no Adamson legislation, no president of the United -States placed even temporarily in an embarrassing and somewhat humiliating -position. The railroads, in the succession of "crises," as we have already -studied them, must have foreseen the inevitable coming of the present -situation. They could have fought a strike--and perhaps won it--at any -time better in the past than at the present. The brotherhoods have gained -strength and the efficiency of unison more rapidly than the railroads. And -even if the railroads at some time in the past had fought the issue and -lost it, they at least would have had the satisfaction of having fought a -good fight and an honest one. Institutions are builded quite as frequently -on defeats as upon successes. - -Or the railroads might have sedulously recognized the nonunion worker in -their ranks and by a careful devotion to his position and his pay envelope -kept his progress equal to that of his unionized brother. True, that would -have cost more in the first place, but it now looks as if the railroad -would have to pay the amount in the last place--and the accrued interest -is going to be sizable. - -It is not yet too late to do this last thing; it is a principle for which -the railroaders should fight, into the last ditch. The greatest of the -many fundamental weaknesses of the Adamson bill is the bland way in which -it ignores this principle--the way in which, as we already have seen, it -singles out the four great brotherhoods for the generous protection of the -so-called "eight-hour day," and leaves all the other railroad workers out -in the cold. Or is it a method of proselyting by which the four -brotherhoods hope to force the other branches of railroad workers into -organization? - -It is not too late for the men who control our railroads to offset such -brutal forms of proselyting by raising the status of their unorganized -labor--voluntarily and in advance of possible legislation, if you please; -with a generosity of heart that cannot fail to make a warm appeal to -public sentiment. It is not too late for our railroads, on their own part, -to consider labor from as scientific and as modern a viewpoint as they do -their physical and financial problems. It is not too late for them to -raise up high executives who shall make labor, its emoluments and its -privileges, its possibilities of evolution their whole study. In an -earlier chapter of this book we discussed this matter in detail; called -attention to the lack of new blood of the right sort coming to the ranks -of the railroad, to the opportunity of fixing wages upon a purely -scientific as well as a cost-of-living basis; suggested even the broad -possibilities of the bonus system as well as the abandonment of the -complicated double basis of payment to trainmen which has crept into -effect. - -Upon these foundations the pay envelopes of the railroad worker in the -future must be figured. If the railroads themselves are incapable of so -establishing it--and in full fairness to them it must be stated that the -time may have passed when they were capable of accomplishing this, unaided -at least--then the national government must step in and do it. The -Interstate Commerce Commission may be asked to establish, with compulsory -arbitration, not only a minimum but a maximum rate which the railroad may -pay its various classes of employees--and so still another great step will -be taken in the nationalization of our system of transportation. Call it -socialism, if you like; I do not, but I do feel that it is another large -step toward nationalization. - -Moreover, the very consideration of the topic brings us at once to the -greatest immediate necessity of the railroad--unified regulation. - - * * * * * - -Unified regulation is the crux of the railroad situation today, from the -railroad executive's, the investor's, and the patron's point of view. Your -wiser executive is holding the question of increased rates in abeyance for -the moment. He is devoting his best thought and his best energy toward -simplifying and bettering railroad control. He has a frank, honest motive -in so doing. Not only will he build toward permanence of the great -national institution with which he is connected but he will begin also to -induce Capital--the wherewithal with which to build up properties and -pay-rolls and possibilities--to come once again toward the bedside of the -sick man. - -Capital is a sensitive creature. Conservative is far too mild a word to -apply to it. Capital takes few chances. And the steady and continued talk -of the plight of the railroad has driven Capital away from the bedside of -the sick man. Yet Capital, if unwilling to take chances, rarely overlooks -Opportunity. And if Capital be convinced that Opportunity is really -beckoning to the Railroad, that fair treatment is to be accorded to the -patient at last, he will return there himself and place his golden purse -in the sick man's hand. Only the wary Capital will demand assurances--he -will demand that the Railroad's two nurses, Labor and Regulation, be asked -to mend their manners and that that fine old physician, Public Sentiment, -be called to the bedside. - -Let us cease speaking in parables, and come to the point: - -Railroad regulation today is, of course, an established factor in the -economic existence of this nation. Already it is all but fundamental. It -came as a necessity at the end of the constructive and destructive period -of American railroading. I connote these two adjectives advisedly, for -while the railroad in a physically constructive sense was being built it -also was doing its very best to destroy its competitors. It had hardly -attained to any considerable size before the natural processes of economic -evolution began to assert themselves. Certain roads, stronger than -others, still stronger grew. And as they stronger grew, the sense of -power, the economic value of power, came home the more clearly to them. To -gain power meant, first of all, the crushing of their opponents, if not by -one means then by another. - -This is not the time or place to discuss the great evils that arose from -the unbridled savagery of cut-throat competition in the seventies, the -eighties, and the early nineties. The whole rotten record of rebates, of -sinister political advantages gained through bribery of one form or -another, has long since been bared. The illegitimate use of the railroad -pass in itself makes a very picturesque chapter of this record. - -Such a condition of affairs could not go forward indefinitely. In this day -and age it is a wonder that it existed as long as it did exist. Out of -this turmoil and seething chaos was born Railroad Regulation. She was a -timid creature at first, gradually feeling her increasing strength, -however, and not hesitating to use it. For a long time she had a dangerous -enemy, a fellow who up to that time had allied himself almost invariably -with railroads and railroaders--the practical politician. Eventually this -fellow took upon himself the role of best friend to Railroad Regulation. - - -[Illustration: THE ROYAL GORGE, GRAND CANYON OF THE ARKANSAS, COLORADO - -The most remarkable chasm in the world traversed by a railroad.] - - -The effect of the railroad pass upon the dishonest newspapers was only a -little less potent than upon the dishonest politician. Put in its -kindliest light it was a softening influence in the editorial sanctum. -When it was gone a sterner spirit began to assert itself in a large -portion of the press. The railroad was being called to account for its -sins more sharply than ever before. And a smarting politician who went -before a legislature with some measure striking hard at a railroad could -be reasonably assured of a large measure of support from the Fourth -Estate. - - * * * * * - -In the golden age of journalism both editors and reporters spent their -vacations in delightful, but distant, points. It was a pretty poor sort of -journalist who paid his fare when he wished to ride upon the cars. -Generally his own office took care of his rather extensive and extravagant -demands for travel. If, however, he happened to be employed upon one of -the few honest newspapers who had conscientious scruples about accepting -free transportation, either wholesale or retail, from the railroads, he -generally had recourse to the local politicians. There were aldermen in -New York, in Philadelphia, and in Chicago, undoubtedly politicians in -numerous other cities, who carried whole pads of blank railroad passes in -their pockets. It was only necessary for them to fill these out to have -them good for immediate transportation. The effect of this transportation -upon the political welfare of the railroads in city halls, in courthouses, -in state capitols, even in the national capitol itself--can well be -imagined. - -There was another evidence of this golden stream of free transportation. -It was having a notable effect upon the passenger revenues of the -railroads, particularly in the relation of these revenues to the cost of -operating the trains. It was no unusual thing for a popular evening train -from some state metropolis up to its capital, to be chiefly filled with -deadheads. The railroads grew alarmed at the situation. It was beginning -to overwhelm them. They looked for someone to help them out of it. They -found that someone in Railroad Regulation--that spiritual young creature -who had been brought into the world and clothed with honesty and idealism. -Railroad Regulation came to their aid. Railroad Regulation abolished the -pass--the illegitimate use of the pass, at any rate. Long before this time -she had made rebating and bribery cardinal and unforgivable sins. - -The effect upon the dishonest politician as well as the dishonest -newspaper was pronounced. The reaction was instant. If this new creature, -Railroad Regulation, possessed so vast a strength, the roads should be -taught to feel it. They would be shown exactly where they stood. And so it -was that viciousness, revenge, and a crafty knowledge of the inborn -dislike of the average human mind to the overwhelming and widespread -corporation seized upon Railroad Regulation. - -Now the railroads were indeed to be regulated. The spiritual creature was -given not one iron hand but eventually forty-six. In addition to the -Interstate Commerce Commission down at Washington, each of forty-five -separate states gradually created for themselves local railroad-regulating -commissions. The efficiency of these boards was a variable quality--to say -the least. But if each of them had been gifted with the wisdom of Solomon -as well as with the honesty of Moses, the plan would not have worked, -except to the great detriment of the welfare of the railroads. No -railroader today will deny that it has worked in just such detrimental -fashion. He will tell you of instance after instance of the conflicts of -authority between the various regulatory boards of the various states -through which his property operates; of the still further instances where -these conflict with the rulings and orders of the Federal board at -Washington. - -Railroaders have large faith in the Interstate Commerce Commission. They -believe that is both fair and able, a great deal more able than most of -the state regulatory boards. Yet even if all the state boards were as -efficient as those of Massachusetts or Wisconsin--to make two shining -examples--the system still would be a bad one. Today these state boards, -in many cases under the influence, the guiding power, or the orders of -erratic state legislatures, are imposing strange restrictions upon the -railroads under their control. In sixteen states there are laws regulating -the type of caboose a freight train must haul. Linen covers are required -for head rests in the coaches in one commonwealth; in another they are -forbidden as unsanitary. Oklahoma and Arkansas are neighbors, but their -regulations in regard to the use of screens in the day coaches of their -railroads are not at all neighborly. In one of them screens are required; -in the other, absolutely forbidden. It, therefore, is hard work to get a -train over the imaginary line which separates Arkansas and Oklahoma -without fracturing the law. According to a man who has made a careful -study of the entire subject, thirty-seven states have diverse laws -regulating locomotive bells, thirty-five have laws about whistles and -thirty-two have headlight laws. The bells required range from twenty to -thirty-five pounds and one state absolutely insists upon an automatic -bell-ringing device. The five-hundred candle-power headlights that are -good enough for Virginia may be used across the border in Kentucky, but -not in North Carolina, which will not permit lights under fifteen-hundred -candle-power. And South Carolina insists that the headlight shall be -ten-thousand candle-power or a searchlight strong enough to discern a man -at eight hundred feet. Nevada goes still further and says that the light -must show objects at a distance of a thousand feet. - -Even the lowly caboose, the "hack" of the freight-trainmen, has not -escaped the attention of state legislators. While many states are quite -content with the standard eighteen-foot caboose mounted on a single -four-wheel truck, thirteen of them demand a minimum length of twenty-four -feet--Missouri twenty-eight and Maine twenty-nine--while fifteen insist -that there must be two of the four-wheel trucks. The legislators at eight -commonwealths have solemnly decreed that caboose platforms be fixed at -twenty-four inches in width, Illinois and Missouri require thirty inches, -while Iowa and Nebraska are content with eighteen and with twenty inches -respectively. A legislator's lot cannot be an entirely happy one when it -comes to determining these details of railroad equipment. But then compare -his lot with that of the man who must operate the railroad--who finds that -one state compels the continuous ringing of the locomotive bell while a -train is passing through one of its towns; despite the fact that an -adjoining state makes such an act a criminal offense. The life of a man -who must operate a railroad over some seven or eight of these states is -certainly cast upon no bed of roses.[18] - -Yet these are but the smaller troubles which await him. Take the question -of the so-called "full-crew" law: Beginning only a very few years ago a -wave of legislation swept over the country, compelling the railroads to -increase the number of brakemen that they carried upon each of their -trains. The carriers protested bitterly against the measure. They said -that it was arbitrary, expensive, illogical, unnecessary. But it was -indorsed by the labor organizations, and the politicians fell in line. -Twenty-two states passed the law. Governors Foss of Massachusetts, Cruce -of Oklahoma, and Harmon of Ohio vetoed it. So did Governor Hughes of New -York. Later Governor Sulzer of New York signed it. It also became -operative in Ohio. The people of Missouri, speaking through their -referendum, threw it out. But in twenty states it became and remains -statute--a greatly increased operating charge against the railroads which -operate through them. The "full-crew" law in Pennsylvania, in New York, -and in New Jersey costs the Pennsylvania Railroad an extra $850,000 a -year--five per cent, if you please, on $17,000,000 worth of capital. - -The "full-crew" legislation has been followed more recently by an attempt -at legislation regulating the length of trains--freight trains in -particular. Some of the men who engineered the first crusade have been -responsible for the second. They have volunteered the suggestion that the -railroads have sought to offset the effects of the "extra crew" by -lengthening the trains. And they have countered by proposing statutes -suggesting that all freight trains be limited to fifty cars, about half of -the present maximum. - -To the average man this will seem as logical as if the state were to step -in and tell him how long he must take to reach his office in the morning -or how long he must wear a single pair of shoes. To the railroader the -injustice of the thing comes home even more sharply. For these ten years -or more he has been working to increase the efficiency of his plant. He -has believed that one of the straightest paths to this end has been in -increasing the capacity of his trains--just as the carrying capacity of -merchant ships has steadily been increased. He has made this possible by -enlarging his locomotives and his cars, by laying heavier rails, by -rebuilding his bridges and by ironing out the curves and reducing the -grades in his tracks, by multiplying the capacity of his yards and -terminals--all at great cost. These things have made the 100-car, -5,000-ton capacity freight train not merely a possibility, but to his mind -an economic necessity as well. And this despite the interesting opinion of -Mr. Harrington Emerson which I have given in an earlier chapter. - -Last winter, when the state of Illinois seriously considered the -legislation limiting train-lengths, the president of one of its greatest -railroads went down into the southern part of the state and said: - -"Do you wish us to discard these strong new locomotives that we have been -building? Do you wish us to return to the small engines of a quarter of a -century ago? It would be inefficient, wasteful to use our modern -locomotives for the short-length trains. And sooner or later you would -have to bear the cost of the discarded equipment. State laws may be -erratic. Economic laws never are. They are as fixed as the laws of nature -or of science." - -And the state of Illinois took heed of what this man and his fellows said -and killed the piece of ridiculous legislation. But it is by no means -killed in some of the other states of the Union. - - * * * * * - -The conflicts between state authorities that we noticed already have borne -directly upon the railroad's earnings. The conflicting intrastate rates -have borne far more deeply and far more dangerously upon them. Indiana -long since fixed the demurrage penalty at one dollar a day for each car -which a railroad failed to furnish a shipper; North Dakota made it two -dollars; while Kansas and North Carolina fixed it at five dollars a day. -Unscientific is hardly the word for such rate-making. And how shall one -term Kansas' action, withholding passenger-fare legislation until she -found whether or not the supreme court of Nebraska would permit the -two-cent-a-mile bill of that state to stand? - -If these rank discrepancies in the manhandling of rates by the various -states affected only their own territories it would be quite bad enough. -Unfortunately they play sad and constant havoc with the interstate -rates.[19] These are delicate and builded, many times, upon local or -state conditions. And this despite the fact that the vast majority of -freight traffic is interstate, rather than intrastate. The majority of the -grain from the farm lands of Nebraska or Minnesota is not destined for -Omaha in the one case, or Minneapolis in the other; yet these sovereign -states take upon their solemn shoulders the regulating of grain rates--to -the ultimate discomfiture and cost of the other portions of the land. - -I have but to refer you to Justice Hughes's decision in the so-called -Minnesota rate case. He showed how this arbitrary local outgrowth of the -obsolete doctrine of states' rights worked to the utter and absolute -detriment of the nation as a whole. And yet in the six long years while -that case was pending the Great Northern and Northern Pacific companies -lost more than $3,000,000--a sum of money never to be recovered from their -shippers--as a result of the state's unsustained reductions in freight -rates.[20] No better argument has ever been framed for the nationalization -of our railroads, for making the powers of the Interstate Commerce -Commission absolute and supreme. - - * * * * * - -No wonder, then, that the railroaders are praying that a way may be found -and found soon for lifting the entire authority over them out of the hands -of the forty-five present state boards of control--who never have agreed -and who apparently can never be made to agree on any one form of -procedure--and placing it in the hands of the very competent regulating -board down at Washington, enlarged and strengthened for its new burdens. -The Interstate Commerce Commission has never shown a tendency toward freak -rulings. Its time has been taken with genuinely important matters. On -these it has raised itself to its present high degree of efficiency. It -has shown itself capable of studying the details of complicated -transportation problems and rendering decisions of great practical sense. - -But the scope, and therefore the efficiency, of the Interstate Commerce -Commission are closely hemmed in by existing laws. The latest "crisis" -between the railroads and the four great brotherhoods of their employees -brought this limitation sharply to the fore. It is therefore equally -essential that the power and scope of the Federal commission be broadened -as well as being made superior to those of the state regulating -boards.[21] And it is gratifying to note the progress that President -Wilson already is making toward the first of these necessary immediate -reliefs to the railroads of the land. - -If President Wilson shall succeed in persuading Congress that the entire -control of the railroads should be placed in the hands of an enlarged and -strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission, he will have earned the -thanks of every man who has made an honest study into the situation. Such -a commission, clothed with the proper powers, could and would do much not -only toward relieving the railroads' immediate necessities in regard to -both physical betterment and the enlargement of their pay-rolls, but in -enabling them to grasp some of the opportunities which we have outlined in -previous chapters--opportunities requiring a generous outpouring of money -at the beginning. If I mistake not, public sentiment is going to demand -that, if the railroads be granted the relief of unified regulation, they -shall be prompt in their acceptance of at least some of these great -avenues of development. - -We have heard much in late years of the banker control of our railroads -and of absentee landlordism in their management. The two things are not to -be confused. Banker control is not, in itself, a bad thing. Absentee -landlordism invariably is. There are good stretches of railroad in every -part of the country that today are failing to render not alone the proper -income returns to their owners but, what is worse, service to their -communities, because of this great canker, this lack of immediate -executive control and understanding. And it is significant in this close -connection of two phases of the railroad situation that it was the banker -control in New York of the one-time Harriman system--the Union Pacific, -the Southern Pacific, the Oregon Short Line, etc.--that gave to it at one -fell swoop, five presidents--one at San Francisco, one at Omaha, one at -Portland, one at Tucson, and one at Houston--each a young, vigorous man -equipped with power and ability. The good effects of that far-seeing -move--that instant wiping out of the charges of absentee landlordism that -were being lodged against the Harriman system--are still being felt. - -It is not banker control that is essentially bad for our railroads. It is -banker control together with an utter lack of vision, that has cost them -so many times their two greatest potential assets--public interest and -public sympathy. Banker control plus vision may readily prove itself -the best form of control for our carriers. And that our bankers -do not entirely lack vision may be argued by the far-seeing and -opportunity-grasping way in which our bankers of the newer school are -today reaching for American development in South America, in China, in the -Philippines, and in other parts of the world. - -Back of the President, back of the Newlands committee and its rather -dazzling sense of importance, sits the nation. It is far superior to any -mere committees of its own choosing and it is weighing the entire -railroad situation as perhaps it never before has been weighed. It is -considering the enlargement and the strengthening of the Interstate -Commerce Commission--together with it a feasible method for the Federal -incorporation of our roads--this last a vital necessity in the mind of any -man who has ever tried to finance an issue of securities for an interstate -property with each separate state trying to place its own regulations--in -many cases both onerous and erratic--upon them. With the spirit of -Congress willing, there still remains the very large question of how far -its power would extend, in attempting either to reduce the power of the -state boards or to make them more amenable to the Federal commission. Our -states have been most jealous of their sovereign rights. And it is easy to -conceive that their aid and cooperation--so very necessary to the success -of the entire ultimate project of the nationalization of our railroads--is -not to be obtained by the mere wishing.[22] - -President Wilson has set the beginnings for the plan and set them well. As -I write it is still up to Congress to undo its mischievous legislation -which, if it is made to include an eight-hour day, should render a genuine -eight-hour day, one applicable to every class of railroad -employee--although it would be difficult to imagine a railroad -superintendent or general manager or president quitting at the end of the -short-term service. They are schooled to harder things. - -And with the eight-hour day must come these other things to which we have -already referred, not once but several times. First among these are the -matters so closely correlated in President Wilson's program that they -cannot be separated from the eight-hour day: arbitration--compulsory -arbitration, if you please--the strengthening of the power of the -government to seize the railroads and operate them in a time of national -panic or military necessity, the enlargement of the powers and the -personnel of the Interstate Commerce Commission. With all these things -accomplished, and the situation just so much strengthened, it will then -become the duty of the railroads to reach out more generously toward their -opportunities for further development as the transport service of a great -and growing people. It will be necessary for them to attract, to train, to -reward new executives of every sort; to further their credit by deserving -credit, to show outwardly in a more potent way the thing that so many of -them have believed they inwardly possess--true efficiency, both for -service and for growth. - -Please do not forget this great point of growth--of development, you may -prefer to put it. In my mind, men, institutions, nations, even railroads -never stand still; they either grow, or else they decline, they shrink, -they die. But the Railroad, as the greatest servant of a great people, -cannot die without bringing death to the nation itself. Therefore he -_must_ grow. He must plan. He must announce his plans. He must bring -Public Sentiment to his aid. Law can do many things--but few of these -latter ones. Public Sentiment may accomplish every one of them, and almost -in a crack of a finger. No wonder that Capital--that conservative -fellow--longs to have him stand at the bedside of the Railroad. - -The sick man is not without his ambitions--you may be sure of that. He -sees his opportunities, perhaps more clearly than ever before in the -course of his long life. He is anxious to be up and at them. But before -this can be done, some of these things, which we have outlined so briefly -here, will have to come to pass. There are reckonings to be made, huge -doctors' bills to be met--and the American public will have to help meet -them. - -The alternative? - -There are many panaceas suggested; but I fear that most of these are but -nostrums. Ingenious, many of them are, nevertheless. And some of them come -from men who speak with both authority and experience. One man proposes to -have the entire Federal taxes paid through the railroad, which, in turn, -would recoup itself through its freight and passenger rates. He makes an -interesting case for himself. Another suggests a Federal holding company -for all the railroads of the United States and makes his suggestion read -so cleverly and so ingeniously that you all but forget that he is drawing -only a thin veil over government ownership. Of government ownership I am -not going to treat at this time; not more than to say that to almost all -American railroaders--big and little, employers and employed, stockholders -and bondholders--it represents little less than death itself to the sick -man of American business. In my own opinion it is, at the least, a major -operation--an operation whose success is extremely dubious. - - - - -INDEX - - - Adamson Bill, object and effect of, 235-239. - - Aliens, value of, in railroad work, 74 ff. - - American Railway Association, cooperation of, with government, 211. - - Arbitration, compulsory, 240, 258; - in wage disputes, 57 ff. - - Architectural problems in relation to increase of passenger traffic, - 107 ff. - - Atlantic coast, service of railroads in defense of, 192. - - Automobile: effect of the, on railroad traffic, 134 ff.; - as a freight feeder of the railroad, 158; - operated on railroad tracks, 151. - - - Betterments and additions, amount needed for, 18 ff., 22, 26. - _See also_ Railroads. - - Branch-lines and their relation to automobile competition, 142; - opportunities neglected by railroads, 152, 156. - - Brotherhoods, 90 ff.; - influence of, on wages, 95, n.; - strength of, 238. - _See also_ Labor. - - - Canals, advantages of, to railroads, 176. - - Capital, 4; - relation of, to earnings, 17; - - Conductor, efficiency of the present-day, 45. - - Cooperation of public vital to railroads, 179. - - Cost of living, how influenced by railroads, 6. - - - _De Luxe_ trains, economic wisdom of, 228. - - Deficits, how met, 18. - _See also_ Railroads. - - Droege, John A., 211, 214. - - - Efficiency, 12, 15; - relation of, to economy, 13. - - Eight-hour day legislation, 220, 236, 257. - - Electricity as motive power, 105, 125, 129; - advantages of, 113 ff.; - in Boston, 114; - in Chicago, 117; - in Philadelphia, 119; - to freight traffic, 131; - to railroad systems as a whole, 129, 132; - to suburban systems, 121; - transformation of gravity pull into motive energy, 131. - - Elliott, Howard, 179. - - Embargoes: cause of, 9; - effect of, 15, 159; - motor truck, value of, in case of, 160. - - Emerson, Harrington, 99. - - Employees, number of, in interests allied to railroads, 5; - number of, on steam railroads, 5. - - Engineer, efficiency of the present-day, 33 ff. - - Engineering problems in relation to increase of passenger traffic, 109. - - Excess-fare trains, 222, 226; - pending inauguration of, on western railroads, 227. - - Extensions, difficulty of raising funds for, 26, n. - - - Freight and passenger traffic, economic difference between, 232. - - Freight cars, number and condition of, in use, 24; - number needed per year, 22, n. - _See also_ Railroads. - - Freight feeder for railroad, automobile and motor truck recommended as, - 158, 162. - - Freight gateways as housing places of affiliated industries, 166. - - Freight terminals, development of, 169. - - Full-Crew Bill, the, 219; - legislation regarding, 247. - - - German railroads, efficiency of, 188. - - Government ownership, 259. - - Grade crossings, extent of removal of, 20-21. - - Grain, cost of transportation of, 8. - - Grand Central Station, the, 107, 110. - - Gray, Carl R., 179, 211. - - - Harriman, E. H., 179. - - Harrison, Fairfax, 211. - - Hill, James J., 19, 21, 179. - - Hine, Major Charles, 212. - - Holden, Hale, 179. - - Hustis, James H., 179. - - - Interstate Commerce Commission, effectiveness of, 253; - enlargement of powers of, 258. - - - Labor, bonus payments, 97 ff.; - brotherhoods, affiliation of labor with, 90; - improvement in quality of, 31; - relations of organized, with the railroads, 30, 56; - unorganized labor, interests and responsibilities of, 62 ff.; - wage adjustments between railroads and employees, 56 ff.; - wages of, 92 ff. - - Labor question, the, 3, 4. - - Legislation, conflict of state, 245 ff. - - Liquor, opposition of railroads to its use by employees, 31. - - Locomotives, number ordered per year, 24, n. - - - Markham, Charles H., 179, 211. - - Mellen, Charles S., 196. - - Military Reserve Corps among railroad men, 212. - - - Negro, value of the, in railroad work, 73. - - Nonunion labor, employment of, 238. - - Noonan, William T., 179. - - - Operation, what it involves, 18. - _See also_ Railroads. - - - Pacific coast, service of railroads in defense of, 200. - - Panic of 1907, effect of, 26. - - Passenger and freight traffic, economic difference between, 232. - - Passenger-mile, statistics of, 17; - unit of traffic, 17. - - Passenger rates, increases in, 220; - prospects for future increase in, 229, 233. - _See also_ Railroads. - - Passenger service, state of, 25, n. - _See also_ Passenger-mile. - - Pullman cars, comparison of, with European cars, 224. - - Pullman Company, control by, of sleeping and parlor cars, 224. - - - Railroad fares, effect of automobile on rate of, 139 ff. - - Railroads, and national defense, 181; - army operation of, in case of war, 207; - as military lines of communication, 191 ff.; - banker control of, 254; - betterments and additions, expenditures for, 18; - capitalization of, 14; - car famine now existing, 22, n., 23; - condition of, in case of present-day war, 185; - in Middle West and South, 19; - congestion, effect of, on, 15; - cooperation of public vital to, 179; - cost of living, how affected by, 6; - credit of, affected, 16; - debt of American farmer to, 8; - deficits, how met, 18; - depreciation fund, an asset, when, 28; - development extent of, yet needed, 21; - difficulties under which they labor, 2; - double-track, military value of, 202; - needed, 21; - earnings of, in relation to capital, 17; - efficiency, as applied to, 12; - emergencies, ability of, to meet, 214; - employees, number of, on, 5; - equipment, 25; - federal incorporation of, 256; - flexibility of equipment of, 210; - freight and passenger traffic, economic difference between, 232; - German military use of, 188; - governmental operation of, in case of war, 206; - inadequacy of, to meet needs of nation, 15, n.; - labor and tax, 31 ff.; - locomotives, condition of, in operation by, 25, and note; - losses, extent of, 29; - necessity and value of, to the country, 217; - operating, cost of, in relation to capital and earnings, 17; - opportunity of, 105; - passenger rates, part played by, in cost of operation, 232; - part played by, in Civil War, 182; - possibilities of development for, 151 ff., 158, 163, 166, 171, 176; - receiverships of, 10-12; - regulation of, 235, 240 ff.; - rehabilitation, extent of, needed, 29; - relations of, with employees, 30; - resources of, need for study of, 177; - service of, in defense of Pacific coast, 200; - service of, in defense of Atlantic coast, 192; - superiority of, in 1898, over those in Civil War, 184; - seizure of, by government, 258; - trained officials necessary for efficient handling of, 208; - upkeep, failure of, to meet, 23; - value of, to the nation, in time of war, 181; - wealth of the nation, how affected by, 6; - _See also_ Labor. - - Rate increases, need of, 219. - - Regulation of railroads, 4, 235; - confusion resulting from present methods, 237; - essential and advantageous, 241 ff.; - unified, 240. - - - Section boss, the, 62 ff. - _See also_ Labor. - - Standard unit container, a factor in freight traffic, 163. - _See also_ Railroads _s. v._ "Possibilities of development." - - State railroad commissions, ineffectiveness of, 244. - - Station agent, the, 62 ff., 77 ff. - _See also_ Labor. - - Supervisor, the, 66. - _See also_ Labor. - - - Telegraph, value of the, in time of war, 181. - - Telephone, effectiveness of the, in national crisis, 181. - - Terminals, development of, 106. - - Ton-mile, statistics of, 17; - unit of traffic, 17. - - Tonnage-mile costs, 101. - _See also_ Labor; Wages. - - Track foreman, the, 62 ff. - _See also_ Labor. - - Traffic tides and congestion, 217. - - Trains, legislation regulating length of, 101, 248. - - - Union Pacific Railroad, military value of, 200. - - - Vanderlip, Frank A., 32, n. - - "Vital area" of country, how served by railroads, 192, 195. - - - Wage adjustments and arbitration, 56 ff. - - Wages, bonus payments, 97, 102; - hour basis, the, 100; - maximum and minimum rates of, 240; - mile basis, the, 100; - "piece-rate" principle, the, 100 ff.; - rate of, discussed, 92 ff. - _See also_ Labor. - - Waterways: development of inland, 171; - objectionable provisions of navigation law, 172; - vessels, need of, 175. - - Wealth of nation, how affected by railroads, 6. - - Willard, Daniel, 179, 211. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] "Not only have the developments of the last fifteen months disclosed -the enormous productive capacity of the people and industry of this -country, but they have also shown that when it is being fully utilized the -facilities of the railroads are not adequate to the demands which it -causes to be made upon them. To sum up, then, the industry and commerce of -the country grew rapidly throughout the ten years ending in 1907, and -almost throughout that period the facilities of the railroads were -increased so rapidly that they proved adequate to the demands made upon -them. At last, however, the traffic did catch up with the facilities, the -result being the great car shortage of 1906-1907. The year 1916, unlike -the year 1906, marks the beginning, not the approach of the end, of a -period of industrial and commercial activity and growth. There will -doubtless be a painful and violent readjustment after the war ends, but -there will be another period of industrial expansion after the -readjustment is passed. - -"Since our railroad facilities have proved inadequate at the beginning of -the present period of prosperity, will they not prove inadequate to the -demands which will be made upon them as soon as the period of readjustment -is over. And if they prove inadequate at the beginning of a period of -prosperity, what kind of a situation will they cause to develop if -industry steadily grows more active and traffic heavier, as it did for -several years prior to 1906? - -"There seems to be only one rational answer to this question. No matter -how favorable to a period of prolonged and great prosperity other -conditions may be, progress in industry and commerce will be sharply -arrested, and there will not be any long continuance of prosperity, if the -facilities of transportation are not greatly increased. The net operating -income of the railroads during the year now closing has been -unprecedented, probably averaging more than six per cent on the investment -in road and equipment. In the past whenever it has averaged over five per -cent there has resulted a largely increased investment in new facilities. -In view of the large net earnings now being made the expenditures during -1916 for new mileage and trackage, for new equipment and other improvement -have been relatively small."--_Railway Age Gazette._ - -[2] Frank A. Vanderlip, President of the City National Bank, New York -city, in an address delivered in Washington, late in October, 1916, called -attention to the fact that in the year just closing, $400,000,000 had been -invested in new industrials in America, but practically not a dollar for -railroad investment. The only new capital which the railroads have been -able to obtain has been through borrowing. On top of this Congress has -taken the extraordinary responsibility of advancing the wages of the -railroad trainmen. The extent of the railroad business is such that it -ought to be building 200,000 freight cars a year. Last year (1915) they -built 74,000, in 1916 the total was little, if any, greater. And week -after week the reports are published, showing the car famine in America. - -[3] "In the five years, ending with 1906, the number of locomotives -ordered by the railroads of the United States was almost 22,400, or almost -4,500 per year. During the five years, ending with 1916, the number -ordered has been less than 14,000, or about 2,800 a year. - -"In the five years, ending with 1906, the total number of freight cars -ordered was almost 1,100,000, an average of over 218,000 a year. During -the five years, ending with 1916, the number ordered has been only about -740,000, or an average of about 148,000 a year."--_Railway Age Gazette._ - -[4] The winter which ushered in 1917 has seen not only great freight -congestion, and in consequence many embargoes, but a serious impairment of -passenger service, particularly in the northern and eastern sections of -the United States. This impairment has taken the form of constant and -irritating passenger train delays. These have come despite a winter more -mild and open, particularly in the East, than we have had for a number of -years. They have been so constant and so pronounced as to arouse much -comment as to their possible causes. By some they have been attributed to -labor disaffection, and by others, to the congestion caused by the -abnormal movement of freight. But the railroaders who know best feel that -the real cause is in "engine failure." In the hard years of stringent -economy through which our carriers have just passed they not only failed -to purchase sufficient new locomotives, but to repair and maintain -properly the ones already in their roundhouses. And in February, -1917--after eighteen months of grilling traffic--these locomotives have -begun to bend and break under the strain. After all, a locomotive is not -so very much different from a man. There comes a limit to its endurance. - -[5] "Some question has been raised repeatedly as to whether the condition -of railroad net earnings really has been the cause of the decline in new -construction, and in the acquisition of new equipment. For example, in the -hearings before the Newlands Committee at Washington some of the members -of the committee have called attention to the fact that the stocks of many -of the better managed and more prosperous railroads have steadily sold -above par, that their bonds also have commanded what seem to the -questioners figures which indicate a good market for bonds, and it has -been asked whether any cases can actually be cited where strong railroad -companies have sought and have failed to sell at good prices securities to -raise money for improvements. Points of this kind having been raised, the -_Railway Age Gazette_ recently addressed a letter to the presidents of -several of the leading railroads of the country, asking them to give -specific examples of how the condition of earnings and of the money market -during recent years has interfered with their raising money for extensions -and improvements. There has not been time as yet for replies to all these -inquiries to be received. Some have been received, however, and they -contain significant information. One letter which has been received is -from the president of an important and relatively strong, prosperous and -conservatively managed railroad in the Northwest. He says in part: - -"'This company has been for some time, and is now desirous of building -about four hundred miles of extensions of its railroad in sections of the -Northwest that are not at present adequately served by transportation -facilities; but, because of its inability to dispose of its securities, at -a price that, as a business proposition, would warrant their sale, has -been unable to make these much needed extensions. - -"'Until within the past few years this company was able to dispose of its -four per cent bonds at approximately par, and in common with other first -class securities, these were considered by the purchasers to be a good -investment; but in the last few years we have found it practically -impossible to dispose of these bonds at a price that would meet the -demands of an economical and proper administration of its financial -affairs. - -"'In 1915 in order to secure funds required for needed improvements and -betterments, we were compelled to issue bonds drawing five per cent, and -for improvements on our Chicago division we were unable to find purchasers -for its bonds, and were compelled to issue notes due in three years, -bearing interest at five per cent for that purpose.' - -"Another letter which has been received is from the president of one of -the greatest railroad systems, not only of the eastern part of the United -States, but of the world, a system which has been managed with notable -conservatism and ability, and which has regularly paid substantial -dividends. The president of this railroad says: - -"'Replying to your letter regarding cases where railroads had found it -impracticable to do any new construction work because of their inability -to get the public to invest in their securities, much depends upon how -this question is put. Railroads cannot issue bonds and stock and throw -them on the market to discover whether the public will take them or not. I -know of no instance where any company with sound credit and good earnings -had any difficulty in selling its securities to the public, provided the -rate was satisfactory, compared with others, but there have been very many -cases where the railroads have discovered, through consultation with -investors and bankers, that there was no market for railroad securities, -except on terms too onerous for the railroads to accept, and, further, -because many railroads, including our own, suffered such a reduction in -earnings that they were not warranted in offering securities to the public -or proceeding with large items of construction work or large orders for -equipment. - -"'For instance, in the case (of an important subsidiary property), I know -that for a long period we had to defer selling bonds on more than one -occasion, although the construction work was proceeding, because market -conditions were not favorable. Its mortgage bonds would be guaranteed by -(its owners), but in lieu of selling them, we temporarily authorized -short-term borrowing at lower interest rates. For the period 1908 to 1915 -the general experience of most of the railroads was that they had not -sufficient business, or earnings, to furnish a credit basis to make proper -additions to their property and equipment, nor was there sufficient -prospect of any increased traffic to justify proceeding with any great -expenditure program. During this period, short-term financing had to be -resorted to because of the impossibility of selling capital stock on any -basis, or mortgage bonds, except on onerous conditions.'"--_Railway Age -Gazette._ - -[6] "The bitter fight now raging as to the content and enforcement of the -Adamson Act should not make us lose sight of certain things which are more -fundamental in railroading than either wages or hours. The transportation -service of this country has been the best in the world, partly because it -gave us a free field for able and ambitious men. Rising from the commonest -sort of day labor, these executives command the respect and obedience of -the rank and file, but sometimes forget to cooperate. That is the root -cause of the present-day troubles. It is natural that a corporation -president should stand for the interests of the company, but if the men -are to be bound up heart and soul in loyalty to the work, then their -interests are, and must be, part of the interests of the company. A -railroad cannot be run exclusively by presidents, superintendents, and -managers; there must be engineers and firemen of training and long -experience. As a practical matter, this means that these occupations must -hold many capable men during their entire working lives. In a country of -free institutions this situation cannot be held down by autocratic rule. -If the men have no say in the company, they will try to get one in the -union. The great mistake of American railroad presidents during the last -thirty years has been to force this growth of factionalism, to make it -plain that the union was the means by which the men could get ahead. The -railroad brotherhoods secured one concession after another in hours, -wages, and operating rules, concessions which the nonunion men could not -get. The limits of this method have about been reached. Cannot railroad -executives save the future by definitely abandoning this policy of quarrel -and drift, by making themselves the true leaders of all their men? We -think they can. They have had too much of a caste point of view and have -been too much absorbed in other things. It is time to change. The general -alternatives have been well stated by Edward A. Filene, a leader of the -new mercantile New England, in these words: - -"'If American employers are farsighted they will begin to put as much hard -thinking into the problem of men as they have put into the problem of -machinery, for, finally, that contentment of labor which is based upon a -welfare that springs from justice and frank dealing is the only soil from -which permanently prosperous business can spring. - -"'All of the initiative in solving the labor problem must not in the -future come from the employees. If the employers of America do not solve -the labor problems by business statesmanship, the employees of America -will determine the outcome by force; and what labor cannot get in the -future by the physical force of strikes, it may be able to get through the -legal force of legislation and the income-taxing power.' - -"If our railroad employers, among others, will learn and apply the wisdom -expressed in this excerpt, all will yet be well."--_Collier's Weekly._ - -[7] Already it has been followed by several other railroad and express -systems--conspicuous among these, the Southern Pacific, the Union Pacific, -the Erie, Wells Fargo & Co. Express, and the American Express Company. The -Union Pacific's plan, embracing an expenditure of approximately $2,500,000 -in bonus payments, differs from those of the other railroads, except the -Erie, in that it does not make a distinction between the men who belong to -the brotherhoods or other forms of union labor, and those who are not -"contract labor." The Union Pacific's plan also embraces a scheme of group -insurance, in the benefits of which its employes participate without cost -to themselves. Insurance plans, of one sort or another, have recently -become popular, and are being recognized as a logical outgrowth of the -pension systems which have long since become part of the fiber and -structure of the older and more conservative of our railroad and express -companies. - -[8] The filing of further plans for the development of its main passenger -terminal in Chicago would indicate decidedly that the Illinois Central had -not overlooked the possibility of the electric development of its great -suburban territory there. For the plans now not only include the new -terminal, itself, but the complete electrification of the suburban service -on the main line, as well as the South Chicago, Blue Island, Kensington -and Eastern branches--all told, some forty miles of line--and involving -for electric equipment alone the expenditure of about $25,000,000. The -railroad is to give up a large portion of the ground occupied by the -existing station to permit of the widening and extension of the Lake Front -Park, and its approaches. An interesting part of the whole terminal scheme -is that which provides that the entire portion of the Illinois Central -tracks between the present main passenger terminal at Twelfth street, -which, in a general way, will become the site of the new one, and Randolph -street--reaching the entire eastern edge of the Loop District--will become -an elongated suburban station. From the several platforms of this station -subways will pass under Michigan avenue, and so enable commuters to avoid -the heavy automobile traffic of that great thoroughfare. - -The new terminal is to be planned large enough to accommodate eventually -the many passenger trains of the several large railroads that now enter -the LaSalle and Dearborn stations. If this is ever brought to pass the -city of Chicago will have accomplished a real economic benefit. For the -land occupied by these two great stations and their yards is not alone a -considerable acreage, but the terminals themselves have acted as real -barriers to the most logical growth of the so-called Loop District--the -busy heart of commercial Chicago. Barred on the east by Lake Michigan, and -on the north and west by the Chicago River, this commercial center would -have grown south long ago had it not been for these two great terminals. -Their removal, therefore, would not only accomplish a passenger traffic -consolidation--of great advantage to the through traveler--but would open -a great downtown area for the development of Chicago's heart. - -[9] Definite announcement has been made by the Milwaukee that it will -begin the extension of its electric-equipped main line through the -Cascades to Puget Sound early in the summer of 1917. This will mean that -for a time there will be a "gap" for about 400 miles in the vicinity of -Spokane, where steam will continue to be used as a motive power. For a -number of miles west of Spokane the Milwaukee's main passenger line has -trackage rights over the Oregon-Washington system. This fact, and the fact -that electrification is best justified economically in mountainous -districts is responsible for this "gap." It is probable that it will not -continue to exist for many years more. - -At the present time the very high cost of electric locomotives suitable -for hauling heavy freight and passenger trains for long distances is -making the Milwaukee--today the unquestioned leader in this great -progressive policy of electrification--move both slowly and surely. -According to the last annual report of the road the most recent lot of -twenty engines cost an average of $114,396.30 each--or about four or five -times the cost of the largest steam locomotive. Despite the tremendous -initial expense of these electric engines, their remarkable performances -more than justify their cost. - -[10] To a very prominent hotel in the White Mountains five years ago, -ninety per cent of the patrons came by train; last year ninety-five per -cent of the guests arrived in their motor cars. - -"Talk about getting folks to go to California, or even to the Rocky -Mountains," said the veteran passenger traffic manager of one of the -greatest of our transcontinental carriers, when he was in Boston a few -weeks ago and heard of this, "we can and will advertise, but we are up -against two tremendous competitors: The first of these is New York City, -which is a tremendous permanent and perpetual attraction to all the rest -of America 365 days out of the year. The second is the automobile, the -family car, if you please, into which has gone the recreation money which -otherwise might have been going into the ticket wickets of our railroads. -Think of it, there were 900,000 pleasure cars built and sold in the United -States last year, while the experts are placing 1,250,000 as the figure -for 1917! More than $1,500,000,000--an almost incredible sum--was spent by -Americans last year on automobiles, and all the things which directly -pertain to them. What chance has the railroad against such a giant of a -competitor?" - -[11] "The railroad that neglects its branch-line service is playing with -fire vastly more than it may suppose," said a distinguished railroad -economist only the other day. "It may feel that it has an economic right -to neglect branch-line opportunities because of the limited revenue -opportunities that these feeders ofttimes present. But it must not -overlook one thing--the patent fact that many of the voters, the men and -women whose sentiment expressed in their ballots may build or ruin the -future of so many of our overland carriers, reside upon these same branch -lines. Indeed, one may say that the manufacture of sentiment upon -branch-line railroads is a business well worth the attention of a keen -traffic-man. For it may be just that very amount of sentiment that might -swing the balance for or against a railroad." - -[12] "Something more than a nation-wide railroad strike would have been -required to interfere seriously with the business of the Norton Grinding -Company, of Worcester, Mass., of the Halle Brothers Company, of Cleveland, -the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and some other far-sighted -concerns," says a circular issued by the White Automobile Company at the -time of the strike crisis in August, 1916. In meeting the threatened -emergency of having all freight shipments blockaded, these companies -outlined a new example in industrial preparedness. - -"The Worcester machinery makers and the great Bell institution increased -their fleets of trucks by having the machines delivered overland to avoid -all chance of strike congestion, while the Cleveland department store -planned its own transportation system between the Atlantic seaboard and -the Sixth City. - -"The situation confronting the Norton company was one which demanded -immediate action, and in which normal methods were of no avail. When a -general suspension of all the ordinary facilities for moving goods seemed -imminent, the Norton company placed its order for three five-ton trucks -with the Seymour Automobile Company, The White Company's Worcester dealer, -and it was stipulated in the contract that the trucks should be delivered -in Worcester within three days, independent of railroad service. - -"The trucks were shipped by boat from Cleveland to Buffalo, and then -driven overland to Worcester. The 500-mile journey was completed in the -remarkably short time of forty-eight hours, with a gasoline consumption of -better than eleven miles to a gallon. Stops were made only for the purpose -of replenishing the gasoline and oil supply, and for meals for the -drivers." - -[13] "The effect of the improvements wrought as the result of the -self-propelled vehicle's influence is already strikingly apparent. When -Franklin County, New York, voted $500,000 in bonds to improve its system -of roads, twenty-five cans of milk, weighing one hundred and twenty pounds -each, constituted the average two-horse load. After the money raised by -the bond issue had been spent, motor-trucks hauled fifty cans to the load. -With the sum of $28,000 the twelve-mile stretch of road leading from -Spottsylvania Court House to Fredericksburg was improved. In a single year -$14,000 was saved in draying. - -"The estimated cost of hauling the corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, cotton, -and hay crops of the country is annually $153,000,000. No one knows how -much of that vast sum could be saved if motors were able to ply between -the farm and the railroad station. Very few cities have compiled -statistics. Some light is shed on the subject in a report prepared by the -Chicago municipal markets--not so much on the influence of good roads as -on the reduction in haulage costs, which is effected by self-propelled -vehicles running on fine pavements. It appears that it costs eleven and -one-quarter cents to carry one ton a mile by motor in the city of Chicago, -and seventeen and three-quarter cents by horse. The average cost of -delivering a package by the department stores, grocery stores, and meat -markets of the city is approximately eight cents by motor and sixteen -cents by horse for each mile. - -"Apply these figures to the cities of the entire country, and consider -further that motor-trucks can deliver goods directly from the farm to the -city retailer, and it seems not unreasonable to expect that the cost of -living must at least be held stationary, if it is not actually reduced by -the wider introduction of mechanical road vehicles. Surely, the horse must -eventually disappear in our towns, at least, if the city consumer pays an -average of one dollar and ninety cents for vegetables which the farmer -sells for one dollar; if it costs more to haul by horse one hundred pounds -of produce five miles from Chicago wharves to the householder or the -retail store than to ship it by boat from the shores of Lake Michigan to -Chicago; if it costs nearly half as much to deliver a ton of coal by horse -from the railroad tracks to the business district of Chicago as it does to -ship it four hundred miles by rail from southern Illinois to the -city."--Waldemar Kaempffert in _Harper's Magazine_. - -[14] "During 1916 the largest movement of troops took place in the United -States, since the Spanish-American war. It began early in the year when -regular army detachments of cavalry, infantry, artillery and engineers -were sent to the border on March 11, March 20, May 9 and June 11. The -transportation of these organizations was accomplished in an excellent -manner, in exceptionally good time, and without accidents of any nature. -On May 9, the militia of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, were called to -the border, and on June 18, 1916, the National Guard troops of all the -other States were called into the service of the United States, and -directed to assemble at their state mobilization camps. From these points -to designated stations on the frontier transportation arrangements were -under the direction of the War Department. The troops began leaving their -mobilization camps about midnight on June 26. On July 1 there were en -route to the border from various sections of the United States, 122 troop -trains, carrying over 2,000 freight, passenger, and baggage cars, with a -total strength of 36,042 men. On July 4, 101 troop trains were en route, -and 52,681 militia troops (not including Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) -were either at the border or on the way thereto. From the beginning of the -movement up to July 31, 111,919 militia troops were moved to the -international boundary. - -"Some idea of the task imposed upon the railroads of the country by the -transportation of the National Guard may be had when it is considered that -350 trains were necessary to carry the first 100,000 troops. Over 3,000 -passenger cars, including standard Pullman and tourist cars and coaches, -were provided, and in addition about 400 baggage cars, most of which were -equipped as kitchen cars for serving hot meals en route, 1,300 box cars, -2,000 stock cars, 800 flat cars, and approximately 4,900 locomotives and -crews, not including switching engines, yard engines and their crews. The -call upon the railroads for the transportation of the militia occurred in -the fortnight which includes the Fourth of July, the time of the greatest -density of passenger travel in the eastern States. Instructions were -issued by all railroads concerned that the movement of troop trains was to -be given preference over other travel, and it is believed that this was -done in all cases. - -"To have effected the entire movement of all the troops in tourist -sleepers would have required approximately 3,000 cars, or five times as -many as were in existence. The Pullman Company, by utilizing some standard -sleeping cars, made available for the movement 623 tourist cars. In all -cases where it was possible to do so tourist equipment was furnished, and -where they were not immediately available the troop were met en route and -transferred to tourists in every possible case. Official reports from all -military departments show that no organization moved in coaches in less -space than three men to every four seats, and wherever possible two seats -for each man. The total number of men transported in coaches averaged 30 -men to each coach. - -"Although the movement of organized militia came at a time when the -commercial traffic on the railroads was the largest in years, it was -accomplished with very little interference with regular train service, and -with no congestion whatever, either at initial or terminal points or en -route. In July there were moved into the Brownsville, Texas, district 106 -special trains, composed of 1,216 cars of passengers and 1,201 cars of -freight for the army, in addition to 680 cars of army supplies, handled in -freight trains, and the usual commercial traffic. This district is reached -only by one single-track line, and all rolling stock had to be returned -over the same line. - -"The concentration of the militia on the Mexican border and the -mobilization for the great war in 1914 are not comparable, as all civil -traffic was suspended in Europe to make way for military movements, and -the distances involved in the movement to the Mexican border were very -much greater than those in Europe. The longest run in Germany was about -700 miles, and in France much less, whereas the distances traveled by the -troops in the United States varied from 608 miles, in the case of -Louisiana troops, to 2,916 miles in the case of Connecticut troops. The -majority of the troops came from northern and northeastern states and were -carried over 2,000 miles, in most cases in remarkably fast time. For -example, the Seventh New York Infantry with 1,400 men, equipment, -ammunition, and baggage left New York at 2 p. m. on June 27, and arrived -at San Antonio, Texas, at 8:30 p. m., on June 30, a distance of 2,087 -miles. Shipments of freight were made from Washington and vicinity to the -border in four days, from New York and vicinity in five days, and from the -Great Lakes in a little more than forty-eight hours. - -"As a specific example showing how the cooperation of the railroad -companies assisted the army, there may be cited the case of the first -motor trucks purchased for the expeditionary forces in Mexico. -Twenty-seven trucks were purchased under bid in Wisconsin on March 14. -They were inspected and loaded in fourteen cars; the men to operate them -were employed and tourist cars furnished for them, following which a train -was made up which left Wisconsin at 3:11 a. m., on March 16. It arrived at -Columbus, N. M., 1,591 miles away, shortly after noon on the 18th; the -trucks were unloaded from the cars, loaded with supplies, and sent across -the border, reaching General Pershing's command with adequate supplies of -food before he had exhausted the supplies taken with him from -Columbus."--From the report of Quartermaster-General Henry G. Sharpe, of -the United States Army, as reprinted in the _Railway Age Gazette_. - -[15] "When railroads were started in England, they were influenced by -stage coach precedents. They put the engineer behind the iron horse and -called him a driver, they called the railroad car a coach or a van. They -imitated the class distinction of the four-in-hand, and then charged by -the mile. Coach travel cost by the mile. There were no terminal charges, -no road upkeep charges. It was a piece rate proposition, a price per mile -proposition as to revenues. The great difference between horse coaches and -railroads was overlooked. Probably 90 per cent of stage coach expenses, -whether of capital investment or operation, lies in the coaches, horses -and harness. Even in the modern railroad, in the United States, only 20 -per cent of the capital and 20 per cent of the operating expense are in -the moving trains. Classified passenger and classified freight rates based -on distance are founded on one-fifth of the real cost. This is not all. -The cost of the other four-fifths has been increasing steadily from the -start. Yard expenses are increasing far more rapidly than road expenses. -The cost of terminals is growing with the square of the population. What -is more serious, both will continue to rise. Getting so much for nothing, -both passengers and shippers congregate in the big cities, and add still -further to the congestion, to the increased cost of the part of -railroading. - -"Every railroad man, every banker, every investor, every student of -transportation knows that rates should be increased because the roads can -no longer stand the drain of deferred obsolescence, or unremunerative -investments, especially in terminals. - -"Rates ought to be based on four elements and probably a fifth added. The -four basic elements are. (1) Cost of collecting the traffic; (2) Cost of -transporting the traffic; (3) Cost of insurance or classification; (4) -Cost of delivering the traffic. - -"Only (2) and (3) now enter into rates. It is as cheap to arrive at New -York at the Pennsylvania, or New York Central Station, as to drop the -train in Newark or Tarrytown. It is as cheap to ship freight to a New York -dock as to unload it from the car at a country siding. - -"In the New York Subway the cost of (1), (3) and (4) sinks to a vanishing -point, and nothing is left but the flat cost of running trains and a flat -revenue per passenger. - -"In steam railroads operation costs of both (1) and (2) are very great, -but not made up by revenue. The fifth element that ought to govern charges -is a principle that even frogs know all about, but which human beings -operating railroads have not yet learned, namely, to put on flat and -expand when prices are high so as to accumulate a surplus to tide over the -lean years. This fifth element is really included in (3) classification. -Railroads now have different rates for different commodities, but $1.80 a -bushel wheat and $0.20 cotton are not the same as $0.50 wheat and $0.05 -cotton. The wheat raised and the cotton grown, and the iron made into pig -iron at $30.00 a ton can afford to pay rates that vary with the price. - -"Piece rates applied to traffic is the tuberculosis that is gradually but -surely consuming our railroads."--Harrington Emerson. - -[16] As an evidence of the fact that the sick man of American business has -by no means lost his ability to render service, consider what might have -seemed to travelers a minor detail of ordinary service, and yet was in -reality a tremendous task. On a certain snowy morning in January, 1917, -traffic into New York was unusually heavy. The great automobile show was -just opening, folk were flocking to it from all corners of the country. -The facilities of even as great a railroad as the New York Central were -severely taxed. Its Twentieth Century Limited was in three sections, the -Detroiter in two, Train Six in three. On these and two other trains due -into the Grand Central Station between 8 and 9:40 a. m., 1,200 persons -were served with breakfast. This breakfast required sixteen dining-cars, -eighty-two stewards, cooks, and assistants, and 105 waiters. Advance -advice was received of the requirements, the cars assembled, the crews -brought together, and everything made ready to attach the cars to the -train at Albany in the early morning. And this was all in addition to the -regular dining-car service of the road. - -[17] And now Congress has adjourned without passing the supplementary -feature of the Adamson bill--the all important requirement of arbitration -in labor disputes. - -[18] "Fifteen States have laws designed to secure preferential treatment -for their freight by prescribing a minimum movement for freight cars. -Several of these require a minimum movement of fifty miles a day, though -the average daily movement throughout the nation is only twenty-six miles. -One state imposes a penalty of ten dollars an hour for the forbidden -delay. Though under the Federal law there is no demurrage penalty for -failure to furnish cars to a shipper, several states have penalties -running from one dollar to five dollars per car per day. The result is -that the railroads are compelled to discriminate against Interstate -Commerce and against commerce in the states that have no demurrage -penalties. - -"One by-product of all this chaotic regulation has been an increase in ten -years of eighty-seven per cent in the number of general office clerks -employed by the railroads, and an increase of nearly 120 per cent (over -$40,000,000) in the annual wages paid to them. During this period the -gross earnings of the roads increased only fifty per cent. In the fiscal -year of 1915 the railroads were compelled to furnish to the national and -state commission and other bodies over two million separate -reports."--Harold Kellock in _The Century Magazine_. - -[19] Illinois a few years ago passed a statute limiting passenger fares -within her boundaries to two cents a mile. To this, the Business Men's -League of St. Louis filed a complaint with the Interstate Commerce -Commission, stating that a discrimination had been created against St. -Louis. The Federal board had made most of the interstate passenger fares -in the central portion of the country average two and one-half cents. This -made the fare from Chicago to St. Louis (in Missouri) $7.50, while the -fare from Chicago to East St. Louis (directly across the river, but in -Illinois) only $5.62. A similar complaint was received from Keokuk, Iowa, -also just across the Mississippi from Illinois. After reviewing these -complaints the Federal Commission held that two and four-tenths cents was -a reasonable rate for interstate fares in this territory and required the -railroads to remove the discrimination against St. Louis, Mo., and Keokuk, -Iowa. The decision was limited, however, to the points involved in the -complaint. The supplemental report covers all points in Illinois. - -"'In our original report in this proceeding,' Commissioner Daniels says, -'it was shown how the lower state fares within Illinois furnished a means -whereby passengers could and did defeat the lawfully established -interstate fares between St. Louis and Illinois points. This was done by -using interstate tickets purchased at interstate fares from St. Louis to -an east side point in Illinois, and thence continuing the journey to any -Illinois destination on a ticket purchased at the lower state fare. - -"'We deem it advisable to point out that the interstate fares between St. -Louis and Keokuk on the one hand and interior Illinois points on the -other, made on a per mile basis of two and four-tenths cents, would -likewise be subject to defeat if the state fares to and from interior -Illinois points intermediate to the passengers' ultimate destination be -made upon a basis lower than the fares applying between St. Louis or -Keokuk and such Illinois destination. It would be necessary merely for the -passenger who desired to defeat the interstate fare to shift the -intermediate point at which to purchase his state ticket. The burden and -discrimination which a lower basis of fares within the state casts upon -the interstate commerce would not be removed merely by an increase in the -intra-state fares to and from the east bank points. - -"'And not only this burden, but the direct undue prejudice to St. Louis -and Keokuk will also continue if the east side cities while on the face of -the published tariff paying fares to and from Illinois points upon the -same basis as do St. Louis and Keokuk can in practice defeat such fares by -paying lower state fares in the aggregate to and from Illinois -destination, by virtue of such an adjustment of fares.'" - -As soon, however, as the railroads attempted to put this edict of the -Interstate Commerce Commission into effect the state courts of Illinois -stepped in and tied their hands. At the present time the matter is still -involved in much litigation. And a man may buy a ticket from Chicago to -East St. Louis for $5.62, and for ten-cent trolley fare cross the Eads -bridge into St. Louis. This is, of course, a great injustice to the -railroads--an inequality which must sooner or later be adjusted, and the -sooner, the better. - -[20] "A curious light was thrown on this condition in connection with the -Shreveport rate case. Texas, in order to keep Louisiana merchants from -competing in its markets, had fixed a number of rates within the State -applying between points of production and jobbing centers and markets in -the direction of the Louisiana line. These rates were substantially lower -than the interstate rates from Shreveport, Louisiana, to the same Texas -points of consumption. The United States Supreme Court sustained the -Interstate Commerce Commission in raising the Texas rates so that -Louisiana business men could get a square deal. - -"Thereafter Senator Shepard, of Texas, introduced a bill in the Senate to -abolish the doctrine of the Shreveport case. In a hearing on this bill it -developed that while Louisiana was protesting against rate discrimination -on the part of Texas, the city of Natchez, in Mississippi, was making a -similar protest against the action of Louisiana in fixing rates which -excluded the business men of Natchez from the Louisiana markets. Moreover, -one of those who appeared in favor of the bill was Judge Prentice, -chairman of the Virginia Railroad Commission, which was at that time -complaining that the state rate-fixers in North Carolina had discriminated -against Virginia cities. - -"In short, an appalling condition of interstate warfare was revealed that -was hurting business generally and killing railroad development."--Harold -Kellock in _The Century Magazine_. - -[21] When one comes to consider the possibility of the Interstate Commerce -Commission being made supreme in these matters of railroad regulation, he -must assume that the members of this Commission are to be held immune from -interference; save by the actual and necessary processes of the higher -courts. The objection by Senator Cummins, of Iowa, recently to the -Senate's affirmation of the reappointment of Commissioner Winthrop M. -Daniels, is in this connection, most illuminating and disquieting. Senator -Cummins was careful to say that he held no quarrel against Mr. Daniel's -character or personality. He added that he would be glad to vote for a -confirmation of appointment to any other government position. -Unfortunately, Commissioner Daniels had written several of the -commission's opinions advocating recent raises in railroad rates. For this -offense the Senator from Iowa sought to punish him by blocking his -reappointment. Fortunately, however, Mr. Cummins carefully conceived -revenge failed of execution. The Senate promptly and generously confirmed -the President's appointment. But the episode shows clearly a great -potential danger to which the members of this Commission, as well as all -other regulatory boards, are subject if their honest opinions, as -expressed in decisions, run counter to the whim of popular opinion. - -[22] "No one who has traveled about the world will seriously contend that -there is any other country where the quality and quantity of rail -transportation is so good or so abundant as in the United States. In most -European countries rail transportation is furnished by the government at -great cost to the public, both directly in the form of heavier taxes and -indirectly in the form of high rates. In this country it is furnished by -the investment of private capital. This capital is supplied by about -2,000,000 persons. It is absolutely at the mercy not only of the Federal -Government, but, within their boundaries, of the legislatures of -forty-eight States. How much it may earn depends upon the whim of these -masters. How much it may lose has never been determined; for when a -certain point is reached the courts step in and administer the bankrupt's -business. - -"Last year the railways of the country earned about $1,000,000,000 net, a -greater sum than ever before in their history. It was less than six per -cent on railroad property devoted to the use of the public. - -"The record earnings of the railroads in 1916 are being used and will be -used to urge Government ownership. But how about the lean years? If in the -most prosperous year of their lives the railroads of the country cannot -earn six per cent, what happens in poor years? Ask the courts. They know. - -"It is possible now, by right administration, to make particular railroads -yield liberal returns to investors; but under Government ownership there -could be no such incentive to careful management; the bad would be lumped -with the good; the profits in one quarter would be required to meet the -deficits in another; the Government would have to assume all necessary -capital, and this would by so much impair the Government's borrowing -power. - -"If the people of this country can once be brought to appreciate the -importance of maintaining the quality and expanding the quantity of rail -transportation they will see to it that private enterprise is supported, -not hampered, in furnishing this most vital of public services. They will -manifest overwhelmingly a wish that the roads be set free from the -conflicting authorities of forty-eight masters and be controlled by only -one, greater than all the rest put together. They will demand that the -Federal Government allow such rates as will permit earnings sufficient to -attract private capital actually needed to supply public service. They -will insist that the Federal control and regulation of transportation -shall be as constructive and helpful as Federal control and regulation of -banking. It is painful to look at the Federal Reserve system and then to -contemplate the plight into which haphazard regulation has brought the -railroads."--The _New York Sun_. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAILROAD PROBLEM*** - - -******* This file should be named 40125.txt or 40125.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/1/2/40125 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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