AMERICA'S QUEST FOR WAR EFFICIENCY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 124, 12 February 1918, Page 8

AMERICA'S QUEST FOR WAR EFFICIENCY

ALL EAILROADS UNITED IN ONE SYSTEM. The war'has had a remarkable effect upon the management of railroads In America there has been practically uo intervention by the Government, and yet, almost at a stroke, the railroads were placed under centralised control as'soon as the nation was at war. The vastness of this enterprise may be appreciated when it is stated that the number of railroads thus merged. into one great national system was 693, operating 262,000 miles of track, using 2,326,987 freight cars, employing 1,750,000 persons, and owned by 1,500,000 security holders. The initiation of this great step in industrial mobilisation took place at a meeting at Washington on April 11, 1917, Vhen 50 railroad presidents representing the transportation business of the entire country responded to the appeal of Secretary Lane and Daniel Willard, chairman of the advisory commission of the National Defence Council, by deciding to co-operate and eliminate all competitive activities. The president appointed a commission of five of fhe most experienced railroad officers in the country, _ with, plenary powers to establish policies for any or all (if the railroads of the country. Independent companies for the time being abdicated their independent functions, and entrusted their operations to the direction of this committee, with the single purpose of obtaining for the nation a maximum of transportation ofiiciency. The fundamental feature of the arrangement is that, instead of the Government assuming any responsibility, as has been done in Great Britain, for the operation of the railroads under war-timo conditions, that responsibility is placed upon railroad officers.