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diff --git a/40125-0.txt b/40125-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..601a0e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/40125-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7603 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40125 *** + +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 Fé, 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 Fé, 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 Fé, 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 rôle. + +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 rôle +of peacemaker plenipotentiary to the public. It, of itself, is a rôle +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 Fé, 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 Fé 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 fête-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 Fé 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 Fé 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 Fé 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 Fé 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 Fé 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 Fé, 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 Fé, 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 Fé 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 Fé. "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 Fé 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 rôle 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 40125 *** |