Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1916 — MUST BE KEPT IN MOTION [ARTICLE]

MUST BE KEPT IN MOTION

Railroad Cars Were Never Intended for Storage Houses or for Inaction. • — Railroad cars were not intended tot storage houses, the Philadelphia Ledger observes. They should not be used for that purpose. Because here and there some shipper is willing to go on paying his demurrage charges rather than go to the expense of unloading his cars he should not have the power to do so. Freight cars were built to haul commodities and not for vehicles in which to store commod ities at some terminal point for the convenience of shipper, railroad oi consignee, A railroad Is of use only when it can transport people and freight. Therefore, any system which will permit the deliberate blockading of tracks, junction points, docks and terminals ought to be put under legal ban. The interstate commerce commission should be endowed with a few extra powers. One would be to compel shippers to unload their cars after a certain time, irrespective of demurrage, because demurrage does not compensate either the railroad or the wider public when traffic is suspended by embargoes. A second power should pertain to the railroads and enable the interstate commerce commission to make them keep their cars in motion. The present situation is an absurdity. On the one hand, speculators and shippers can, by tho payment of demurrages, delay indefinitely the unloading of cars at terminal points. On the other hand, the railroads can then declare an embargo against all other shippers to that point. Put in a nutshell, the interstate commerce commission should enforce the rule that railroad equipment cannot be used for storage purposes.