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RAILROAD TRAFFIC FROM
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 31
VARIOUS POINTS OF VIEW.
Three notable addresses on the subject of railroad
traffic were delivered at the third annual
dinner of the Traffic Club, of Pittsburgh, on April
7, by Willis L. King, vice-president of the Jones
& Laughlins Steel Co., President Samuel Spencer,
of the Southern railway, and Judge Peter S. Grosscup,
of the U. S. circuit court of the Northern
district of Illinois. The dinner followed an allday
outing by the members of the club who were
taken on a special train through the coal and iron
district between Pittsburgh and Uniontown, Pa.,
traversed by the Baltimore & Ohio and Pittsliurgh
& Lake Erie railroads and the Monongahela division
of the Pennsylvania.
Mr. King's view of the question was from the
standpoint of the shipper. He said in part:
Our population to-day in the real Greater Pittsburgh
is about 800.000, and our yearly freight
tonnage over 86,000,000 tons. Does this not
border on the supernatural. The little hamlet in
something more than a century grows to produce
more tonnage than the combined shipping ports
of London, New York, Antwerp, Hamburg, Hongkong,
and I think Liverpool may be thrown in
for good measure. Surely this may justify our
pride in the past and hope for the future. I must
confess my inability to grasp all that this means;
but I know that it largely means shortage of cars,
motive power and slow delivery. 'ihe fortunes
of the railroads and Pittsburgh are so closely interwoven
that a community of interest in its best
and broadest sense, offensive and defensive, should
prevail under all conditions. Has this obtained
in the past, and what part have the railroads had
in the making of Pittsburgh? No small or mean
part, I am glad to testify, and should I try to belittle
it, history would refute me and this great
assembly disprove me.
Yet it has been felt here for years that the railroads
DID NOT REALIZE THEIR POWER
for good to Pittsburgh, nor their ability to increase
her importance and tonnage. Many of us remember
the opposition on the part of the older railroads
to the entrance of the Pittsburgh & Lake
Erie road, and more lately the Bessemer & Lake
Erie and Wabash. Although unable to care for
the tonnage, this short-sighted policy would have
kept them out, in spite of the fact that every new
railroad entering a manufacturing district favored
by natural conditions, not only makes business
for itself, but the others as well.
Pittsburgh is the admitted metropolis of the
world's steel industry, her tonnage being greater
than the whole of Great Britain, but it is largely
in the more unfinished forms. Have you ever
asked yourselves why there are so few shops or
factories to work up that rough steel into highly
finished articles? No great agricultural works,
no great engine builders, either stationary or locomotive,
no famous tool-making establishments for
iron or wood-working, no automobile factories?
New England and the great West have them.
They should be here where raw material and fuel
are cheapest.
I think our railroads are greatly to blame for
this. The Pittsburgh manufacturers have in the
past also felt that they were not fairly treated in
the matter of freight rates, and that the railroad
policy inclined to assist competitive points, on
the theory or belief that Pittsburgh could somehow
take care of herself. I do not believe that
any such theory would obtain your support now,
for we have many active and powerful competitors.
Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo, all situated on
the Great Lakes, are quick to take advantage of
their cheaper ore and your delay in movement of
freight. Buyers are patient, but finally go to the
market nearest. If your policy has been to build
up these points, you have succeeded.
Interstate Commerce Commissioner Prouty, in
a recent speech, is reported to have said: "Since
my acquaintance with the subject, the development
of industry has forced the railway; the
railway
HAS NOT LED THE INDUSTRY."
This I believe is particularly true of Pittsburgh,
and this is why you now find yourselves short of
cars, motive power and terminals. If you are to
do your full part in the future for sommercial
Pittsburgh you must reverse this policy. Should
you determine now that railroad facilities shall
always be in advance of manufacturing needs, I
have no hesitation in predicting that her past
growth, so marvelous as we know, will seem almost
insignificant.
We have just emerged from a season of rest
into a period of unusual and, I believe, long continued
activity. r l ue farmer plows and plants at
a time when there is no other work to do. You
should have learned of him, and during the period
of rest, prepared for the activity to come with as
much certainty as that the harvest follows seed
time.
The cry of car and motor shortage and delay in
deliveries goes up from the shippers and manufacturers
who increased their capacity last year,
and would still further add to their tonnage this
year, fear for the fruition of their increasing investments.
You have forced private capital to
provide transfer terminals and storage facilities.
I have told you of the rate from Philadelphia in
1784. I think we agree that a man who packed
100 pounds, and did not get killed by the Indians,
was entitled to his 45 shillings a hundred weight.