Hammond Times, Volume 12, Number 157, Hammond, Lake County, 24 December 1917 — Page 8

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V 7"I I F. X the United States entered the war, 'the first question that every red-blooded man asked himself was; 'IIow can I best help my country?" To railroad men this question carried a peculiar appeal, as practically every man in the service, from track walker to president, appreciated that in war time the transportation facilities of a country rank next in importance to its army and navy. They did not need the reminder of Marshal Joffrc that the battle of the Marne was won by the railways of France 4 to jolt them into a realization of the. responsibilities that the war had thrust upon them. They knew. And because they knew, just exactly five day 5 after the declaration of war, representatives of 175 of the principal independent railroad companies of the country assembled in W ashington and voted unanimously to "forget competition" and co-ordinate their activities for the period of the war so that the railroads of this country might be in a position to respond immediately and as a unit to any demand made upon them by President Wilson in the interest of America and its Allies. To a small committee of five men, representing the ablest brains in the transportation field, the railroads gave oer their control. Nothing of the kind had ever been done before by any industry in ihis or any other country. It was the answer of the railroad men of America to the question that each individual in the railroad army was asking himself: "How can I best help my country?" As a result of this answer, the railroads of this c-ountrv are beinc nnrratnl tndnv .t a sino-lr. ct-c-tern, working for and with the tiovernment to get the last ounce of efficiency out of their equipment so that the abnormal transportation problem which the war has produced may be solved without jeopardizing the commercial life of the nation. Ownership Names Wiped Out. Sitting constantly in Washington is the committee of five men to whom the railroads have entrusted their control. This committee, which has come to be known as the Railroads' War Hoard, keeps, in effect, before it n map of the United States on which is a railroad system 2G5,000 miles in length with all ownership names wiped out. The members of the War Board no longer think in terms of the Southern Tacific, C. B. & Q., Ii. & O., Pennsylvania or any other road. They see before them only the transportation problems of the entire country, and as these problems arise, one after the other, the solution of them is reached without the question of ownership intruding itself. In the South, recently, for instance, thousands of cars were needed to haul lumber- to the cantonments. The lines operating in that territory bad every car they owned moving between the forests and the cantonments, and it was not enough. Without quibble or dispute the Railroads' War Board, toting through its Commission on Car Service, ordered roadi operating in the North and MiddleWest to send enough "empties" into the. Southern territory to protect the lumber movement and assure the rapid completion of the training camps in which Uncle Sam's citizen soldiers arc being trained for their duties abroad. All in all, more than 125.000 cars havctbeen shifted from one line to another, irrespective of ownership, during the past five months in order to avert freight congestion and a slowing up of the country's transportation machine. What such a slowing up would mean now is not difficult to visualize, l or in addition to keeping the commercial life of this country at high pitch, thousands of carloads of troops, munitions, food and other supplies must be kept moving constantly from seaboard to seaboard.. From now on, Great Britain, France and all o-:r other Allies will have to depend very largely upon this country for their food, and for mueifc of the material needed for carrying on the war. In addition, we must send at least a million men to the fighting lines within the next year. Th is means that millions of tons of food and supplies must be sent out of this country and all of this tonnage must be brought to the seaboards by the railroads. The effect of a shortage of transportation even in normal times can easily be appreciated. What such a shortage would mean at the present time, however, with the whole fate of both this country and Europe involved, staggers the imagination. The railroad men, however, have not permitted themselves tobc terrified by the situation. Neither have they deluded themselves with any false hepes concerning the possibility of securing enough new equipment to enable them to handle the additional transportation that the war has produced, witf out herculean efforts. They know that this new and needed equipment is unavailable, not only because it is impossible to turn out freight cars and locomotives over night, but because what new equipment can be manufactured is sorely needed by the Allies. As a result, they have taken up the only Teal Folution that is practicable, which is to make the I There is no waste space on

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public has enabled the railroads to handle not only the troop movements but an increase of more than 23 per cent in freight traffic, with practically the same facilities that they had in normal times. Co-operation from the employees thmselves has been particularly inspiring. Track walking may not appeal to many people as a patriotic sort of job, but the track walkers in the railroad army have made it one. By increased vigilance in watching out for and repairing damages in rails or ties conditions that might plunge a whole trainload of soldiers to destruction or ruin thousands of dollar worth of war supplies they have done their tit. They have also helped to conserve the supply of live stock needed for food by this country and the Allies by keeping sll right of way fences in good repair so as to reduce the amount of live stock that was killed by trains. Little things, but they count. Staying on the job and saving coal are the two contributions that the locomotive engineers are making to their country in its present crisis. Railroad labor has never been so scarce as it is today. The draft has taken many men and the railroad regiments which were created to help France were recruited from the employees of the railroads of thi3 country. Knowing these things, scores of engineers old enough to retire are staying on their jabs now, run-: ning their engines economically in order to save coal' and keeping their heavy locomotives in condition so that they may be kept out of the repair shop and on duty as long as possible. The firemen are doing their bit too, and in a similar way. In the freight branch of the service, the freight traffic men have pet themselves to the task of educating the shipper up to a war time appreciation of the value of co-operation. In all parts of the country they are at work helping him devise schemes for double loads and for making the most economical use of cars. They are also at work night and day to detect delays to "shippers order notify consignments'' consequent upon the non-arrival of bills of Potatoes now loaded 3 fe.ooo pound TO CAR, INCREASE OF 50 "fo

One of America's Railway Regiments being . Reviewed in London

lading, are securing bonds under whkh cars can be promptly released and are urging the handling of bills of lading through the fewest number of banks. A clear understanding of the value of this kind of co-operation may be gleamed from this fact. Until the war board began its campaign for the intensive loading of freight cars the average load of a car was only 43 per cent of its capacity. In a word, more than C0 per cent of the car space ordered was not utilized. Today, in response to the plea of the railroadsa great majority of the shippers are using anywhere from 70 to ll0 per cent of the capacity of the cars. Some are even loading from 5 to 10 per cent beyond the marked capacity. One phase of war work which the railroads have undertaken and which has caused criticism on the part of the unthinking citizen has been the curtailment of unnecessary passenger service. It was not without some misgivings that the Railroads' War Board suggested this step to the. roads, but it was a necessity that had to be faced, for nothing is more necessary at the moment to insure the safety of the country and the proper conduct of the war than that the railroads be able to handle the utmost possible amount of freight. Kvery passenger train eliminated releases locomotives, train crews and track space that are sorely needed for freight service. It means too an important savinjr in fuel, so far more than a million tons a year. These are facts, not theories. The railroads reduced their passenger service solely to increase the facilities for handling freightand to sate coal and for no other reason. The public must understand this. It must understand too that every ton of coal, every locomotive, every mile of track space, every man whose duties are absorbed by an unnecessary passenger train, furnishes aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States by weakening the most important branch of our entire transportation system the moving of food, fuel and suplies. The Government and the railroads need more than mere patience from the travelling public in solving the transportation problem that the war has occasioned. They need the active co-operation of every person who uses .a railroad car either directly or indirectly; they need team work between the shipper, the consignee and the railroad employee and also the banks through which clearances are made; for every day that a car can be prevented from remaining idle anywhere is as valuable as putting a brand new car into service for twenty-four hours. It is Showing how lumber shippers DOUBLING vJHE OtO T;.M&

the idle cars that complicate the transportation problem and the idle car must be eliminated. To win the war and make the world safe for democracy, each and every one of the 2,500,0C0 freieht cars in this country must be kept moving. There are ships to be built to make up for the U-boat destruction and to carry supplies to our boys in France and their allies. Cars are needed to carrv lumber to the shipyards and these cars must be kept moving. Added to this abnormal business is the constant daily transportation of food and munitions to our seaports. Thousands of cars daily are required for th is and they too,' must all be kept moving. Tim is our enemy s strongest ally. Every minute saved in the transportation of things essential to the winning of the war for democracy is of the utmost value. The Railroads' War Boajd. In creating their organization for the war, the railroads had in mind primarily service for the Government itself. As a realization of the importance of continuing the domestic activities of the country became apparent, however, the railroad presidents of the country met in Washington on April 11th and agreed during the war to forget competitive activities and "to co-ordinate their operations in a Continental Railway System, merging during such period all their individual and competitive activities in an effort to produce the maximum of national transportation efficiency." The War Board includes Mr. Howard Elliott, of the N. Y. N. II. & H. R. R.; Mr. Hale Holden, of the C. B. & Q. R. R.; Mr. Samuel Rea, of the Pennsylvania R. R.; Mr. Julius Kruttschnitt, of the Southern Pacific Company, and Mr. Fairfax Hacrison, of the Southern Railway.. Mr. Harrison is chairman. In addition, Mr. Daniel Willard, president of the B. & O. R. B. and chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, has accepted the railroads' invitation to become a member ex-officio of the War Board. Mr. E. E. Clark of the Interstate Commerce Commission, is also an ex-officio member. The War Boards' Machinery. The War Board is divided into departmental subcommittees who work with the military departments of the Government, and also sub-committees on Car Service, equipment standards, transportation, accounting, passenger tariffs, freight tariffs, purchases and supplies and express transportation. To keep close to local situations and to meet difficulties promptly, sub-committees reporting to "the Commission on Car Service have been formed at Chicago, New York,- Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans and similar big business centers, twenty-seven in all, who w-ork closely with the business men of each place. These committees are co-operating with the shipping and travelling public as well as with the military authorities. The Washington organization of the railroads includes twenty-seven experienced railroad officers, including the five executives on the War Board, all of whom are there practically all the time. It also includes trained experts of every phase of the work confronting the railroads. Although the plan of co-operation worked out in this country is somewhat like that adopted in England, with respect to railway co-operation at the outset of the war, the placing of the responsibility for the successful conduct of railroad activities has been accepted by the railroads of this country, whereas in England it has been shifted to the Government. There the Government assumed financial responsibility and guaranteed that the net earnings of the companies would continue to be what they were before the war. In this country, the Government assumes no such responsibility. The Government merely advises the railroads what service it requires and the responsibility is upon the railroad managers to provide that service; when working to that end the railroads are operated practically as one system. Railway Regiments for France. In their effort to give adequate support to the Government in its conduct of the war against Germany, the railroads have not confined their activities to the transportation problems in this country, for the necessity of rehabilitating the French railways is a most important military problem. France cannot spare the men for the work. The United States must do it. To provide the necessary man power, the railroads have recruited nine regiments of railway men. These reeiment3 are composed of motive power men experienced in maintaining and running engines, in building tracks, buildings and bridges, in operating trains, vards and stations, and who can help to maintain, rebuild and operate the railways in Franc. Thoroughness has marked every step cf the preparation for the revitalizing, of the French railways. It was these railways that saved Democracy for th.world by rushing up the munitions and equipment that turned back the German tide at the battle of the Marne. What the French railway men did behind the lines in those stirring days will be repeated bv the railway regiments of America in whatever hattles must be fought, either abroad or at home before Peace can be definitely assured.

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