Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1917 — LUXURIES ON RAIL [ARTICLE]

LUXURIES ON RAIL

No Country Has Such Wasteful Passenger Service as • Found in America. NUMBER OF TRAINS REDUCED Present Condition Is Relic of Old Days of Unrestricted Competition —Railroad President Was Ab- : ; y.~— - solute Monarch. American love of luxury has no better example than the passenger -service provided by the railroads of this country. Every one knows that American railroad trains are far in advance of those of any other country in comfort, and for long distances at least in speed also, but the traveling public does not always realize that the great multiplicity of- passenger service provided between the important centers of population in this country is no less a luxury not enjoyed elsewhere and one which the stern needs of war may shortly make It necessary to forego. It has long been held by some railroad managers that the interests of true economy demanded some reduction in the number of passenger trains and one of the first steps taken by the executive committee of the American Railway association, which is practically in control of the nation’s transportation facilities for the period of the war, was to urge upon the various companies the propriety of arranging for a substantial reduction In passenger service, the New York Sun says. Play Days of Railroading. The present condition is a relic, almost the last one, of the old days of unrestricted competition between the different companies. It Is a survival of the days when rates were made in the traffic manager’s office without supervision by federal or state commissions, when co-operation was undreamed of and each line considered that its duty lay in running as many trains as were necessary to care for all the traffic between any points which it served regardless of rival lines which were certain to share to some extent in the business. Those were the palmy days of railroading, the days of brass trimmed locomotives, of sleeping cars fearfully and wonderfully decorated, when a division superintendent had the powers of a governor general and a railroad president was the absolute monarch, not only of all he surveyed, but gener-

ally of all the territory servedby his company. Statistics had not yet begun to play a prominent part in railroad management. A soul satisfying name for the newest crack train was more, important than the mere detail of earnings per train mile. Too Many Passenger Trains. So it came to pass that when the day of the railroad czars came to an end, as the day of all czars seems to do sooner or later, and much of the authority which had once vested in them begap to be exercised by public service commissions ii/ the several states, the abolition of passenger trains became more or less a political question. Any attempt to do away with one was resisted to the bitter end by every Inhabitant Of the district through which the gaudy flyer passed; It mattered not whether the particular objector had ever been aboard the train or not. Public service commissions were often reluctant to fly In the face of public opinion, population Increased, and not only did the unprofitable trains remain in service but there was a constant demand for more and more trains, frequently enforced - by the '

specific orders of the state commissions. So arose the situation as it is today. Every important city in the United States is served by from three to ten times as many trains k as are similar centers of population in other parts of the world. The traveler between New York and Chicago has at present the choice of 36 different trains—l 6 on the New York Central, ten on the Pennsylvania, four on the Lackawanna, four on the Baltimore and Ohio -and two tm lhe Erie. Should business or pleasure take him from New York to Philadelphia he is confronted with a selection of 42 trains on the Pennsylvania, 17 on the New Jersey Central and eight on the Baltimore and Ohio —67 In all. Even distant points like Jacksonville or New Orleans are the objectives of half a dozen trains every 24 hours. Europe Is Wiser. In Europe In normal times the service offered between the important cities seems niggardly in the extreme by comparison. London, Manchester and Liverpool, the three greatest commercial cities of Great Britain, all He within a radius of 200 miles and are connected by half a dozen different lines, but the train service between them, though expeditious and convenient, Is equaled by the facilities enjoyed by a score or more of the lesser cities of the United States. On the continent the contract is even greater. Between London and Paris, scarcely 200 miles apart, there ran dally before the war only half a dozen through trains, a day and a night train on each of three routes. Between Paris and Berlin, a distance of 650 miles, traveling is a trifle difficult at present, but prior to August, 1914, an American who undertook the journey was generally astonished to learn that there were only two or three trains which made the journey without change, and that only one of those carried a sleeping car. Between the other continental capitals the same conditions prevailed.