Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1905 — PLENTY MAKES A “FAMINE." [ARTICLE]

PLENTY MAKES A “FAMINE."

Railroads Cannot Handle Amount of Truffle Offered Them.' The present situation of the railroad business is comparable to the case of a farmer who has raised big crops but who has to take thenx to market in a aheelbarrow instead of in wagons drawn by horses. Such are the results of the car famine. One western railroad with headquarters at Chicago reports that there is not a moment nowadays when it could not use a thousand more cars than it has, if it possessed them. The managers say that they have given up trying to handle the business that is offered them. ' Normally, there is the problem of the return freight to be dealt with in the matter. A million cars, oil going east with cargoes of grain, but returning empty, would not afford profit to the railroad except at a high rate. But just now not a car goes empty either way. There is business enongh for ail. Though the congestion is decidedly inconvenient and is driving shippers and railroad'men frantic it has its very reassuring side. It is the immediate expression of an abundance which will soon make itself felt in every home. The shout for “more cars" which follows the traffic managers over the telephone to their very beds is really a paean of prosperity. The country home of Charles Jsmew, « widower, sged 85 years, was burned nt Hamilton. Ohio. James’ charred corpse was found ia ths ruins.