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THE RAILROAD PROBLEM
[Illustration: _Courtesy of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway._
An interesting illustration of rail-power development. Notice the
evolution of the crude steam engine of 1848 into the giant locomotive of
1913, which in turn is overshadowed by the later arrival--electricity.]
[Illustration: _Courtesy of the C. M. & St. P. Railway._
Steam, the giant power, which, by welding our states together with bands
of steel, has been a mighty factor in the unifying of the nation.]
THE RAILROAD PROBLEM
by
EDWARD HUNGERFORD
Author of "The Modern Railroad," etc.
Illustrated
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1917
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1917
Published April, 1917
W. F. Hall Printing Company, Chicago
To An Old Friend, and a Good One
SAMUEL O. DUNN
Acknowledgment
I wish to express my indebtedness to the editors of _Collier's_, _Every
Week_, and the _Saturday Evening Post_ for their very gracious permission
to use, as portions of this book, parts of my articles which have appeared
recently in their publications. To Mr. E. W. McKenna of New York is due a
special word of appreciation for his helpfulness in the preparation of
this book.
E. H.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Sick Man of American Business 1
II The Plight of the Railroad 5
III Organized Labor--The Engineer 30
IV Organized Labor--The Conductor 45
V Unorganized Labor--The Man with the Shovel 62
VI Unorganized Labor--The Station Agent 77
VII The Labor Plight of the Railroad 90
VIII The Opportunity of the Railroad 105
IX The Iron Horse and the Gas Buggy 134
X More Railroad Opportunity 158
XI The Railroad and National Defense 181
XII The Necessity of the Railroad 217
XIII Regulation 235
Index 261
Illustrations
PAGE
Illustration of rail-power development _Frontispiece_
The engineer 34
The knight of the ticket punch 54
The section gang 66
The station agent 82
The Pennsylvania's electric suburban zone 114
Electricity into its own 114
The Olympian 130
Ore trains hauled by electricity 130
The motor-car upon the steel highway 152
The adaptable motor-tractor 152
When freight is on the move 158
The Bush Terminal 166
Freight terminal warehouse at Rochester 166
The railroad in the Civil War 182
The railroad "doing its bit" 186
America's "vital area" 196
Rock Island government bridge 206
Railroad outline map of the United States 216
The Royal Gorge 244
ERRATUM
The word "telephone" on page 182, line 2, should read "telegraph."
THE RAILROAD PROBLEM
CHAPTER I
THE SICK MAN OF AMERICAN BUSINESS
On a certain estate there dwells a large family of brothers and sisters.
There are many of them and there is great variety in their ages. They are
indifferent to their neighbors; they deem themselves quite
self-sufficient. But, for the most part they are an industrious family.
They are a family of growing wealth--in fact, in every material sense they
may already be called rich. And their great estate is slowly beginning to
reach its full development.
In this family there are several older brothers who long since attained a
strength and dominance over some of the younger members of the family. It
is one of these brothers about whom this book is written. It does not
assume to be a story of his life. That story has been told by abler pens.
It merely aims to be a brief recital of his present condition. For, truth
to tell, this older brother has come upon hard times. After a long life of
hard work, at a time when his service should be of greatest value to the
estate, he has broken down. He has begun to fail--and in an hour when the
greedy neighbors grow contentious and he may be of greatest service to his
own big family.
The Railroad is the great sick man of the American business family. He is
a very sick man. Doctors may disagree as to the cause, sometimes as to the
nature, of his ailment; they may quarrel even as to the remedies they deem
necessary for his recovery. But there is no question to the fact that he
is ill. Just at this time, owing to the extraordinary and abnormal
prosperity that has come to the United States, largely because of the
great war in Europe, he has rallied temporarily. But his illness
continues, far too deep-seated to be thrown off in a moment. And the
recent extraordinary legislation passed by Congress has done nothing to
alleviate the condition of the sufferer. On the contrary, it has been a
great aggravation.
I make no pretense as a doctor. But in the course of ten years of study of
our American railroads certain conditions have forced themselves upon my
attention--time and time again. I have had the opportunity to see the
difficulties under which the railroads labor and some of the difficulties
which the railroads have carved for themselves. I have had the chance to
see how a mass of transportation legislation has acted and reacted upon
these great properties. I have known and talked with their employees--of
every station. And I have made up my own mind as to the great opportunity
that still awaits the railroad in America. For I am firmly convinced that
the great transportation organism of the United States has but scratched
the surface of its usefulness. It is this last phase of the railroad that
is, or should be, of greatest interest to every American.
Within the short space of the pages of this book, I am going to try to
show first the financial plight that has overtaken the overland carriers
of our country. I am less of a financier than physician. But the figures
upon which my premises are builded have been obtained by a veteran
railroader; they have been carefully checked by expert auditors and
railroad statisticians, and as such they may be called fundamental.
Given first the financial and the physical plight of our railroads as it
exists today, we shall come to another great phase of its weakness--the
labor question. Partly because of a disposition to put off the real
solution of this problem to a later and apparently easier day, and partly
because of conditions over which the railroads have had no control
whatsoever, this problem has grown from one of transportation to one of
politics--politics of the most vexed and complicated sort. We shall look
at this labor question from the most engrossing angle--the human one--and
we shall try to look upon it from the economic and financial angle as
well. And we shall reserve our real opinion as to its solution until we
have had the opportunity to look from the depressing picture of the
railroad of today to the picture--by no means conceived in entire
fancy--of the railroad of tomorrow.
Upon that second picture we shall build our opinion as to the present
necessities of the railroads. Because, in my own mind, it is only as the
railroad seeks opportunity, as it seeks to enlarge its vision, that it
will be given the chance to live as a privately owned and managed
institution. It is today close to the parting of the ways, and the men
who control it have come now to the point where they will have to
choose--the one path or the other. It will no longer be possible to delay
the decision of a really vital economic question to a later, and an
easier, day.
* * * * *
Around the bedside of this sick man of our great estate are gathered the
physicians and the nurses. They are a motley lot. One of the nurses is
called Labor, and at first thought you will think him well worth watching.
Another nurse is more appealing at first sight. She is a slender
_spirituelle_ thing. We call her Regulation. Perhaps she is worth
watching, too. Perhaps her ways should be mended. She is not bad at heart;
oh, no! but she has had bad advisers. Of that you may be sure--at the
beginning.
And it is quite certain that until she does mend her manners, until Labor,
the other nurse, does likewise, the caller who stands around the corner
will not come in the sick room. The invalid constantly calls for him. The
man around the corner is known as Capital. He holds a golden purse. But
you may be quite sure that he will not come to the sick man and thrust the
purse within his fingers until both Labor and Regulation have changed
their manners.
There are no two sides to such an argument.
With which statement let us turn from parables and toward plainer
speaking. Let us begin consideration of the plight of the railroad.