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Show xTfffi BE LUXE ILL IE TAKEN OFFJAILWAYS Passenger Service on All the Eastern Roads Will Be Curtailed 20 Per Cent, Beginning Today. LITTLE CHANGE IS PROPOSED IN WEST McAdoo Imposes Demurrage Demur-rage Charge of $10 Per x-Day; Big Fight on Railroad Rail-road Bill Predicted. By International News Service. WASHINGTON, Jan. 5. "Director General McAdoo tonight announced that beginning tomorrow passenger travel on all the eastern railroads would be curtailed 20 per cent. This will apply principally to the Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio and New Haveu roads. There will be little, if any, reduction reduc-tion of passenger trains in the west, and none on the coast. Commuter service will not be interfered in-terfered with. There will be no more trains de luxe. They will be turned into regular trains. The Congressional Limited and similar express parlor car flyers will be restricted to four parlor cars, with the day coaches. Most of thorn will be made up of all regulation day coaches. Must Unload Cars. With this order, Director General McAdoo took definite, severe steps to prevent shippers and consignees from holding freight cars on sidings at terminals. ter-minals. IIo ordered that notice be given to all shippers that on January i'l they must begin unloading their cars and have them moved " within forty-eight hours. A demurrage charge of $10 a day will bo in effect from that date. This will bo assessed after a car has been Vin the yards eight days for unloading. In making 'the announcement Mr. I ; McAdoo said: ." have consented to this change because it is imperatively necessary that the passenger travel be reduced as much as possible in. the prosent serious se-rious emergency which confronts the people in the eastern district of the country. Still Congested. "The breakdown in the passenger service of tho various railroads in the cast has not made a pleasant impression impres-sion on the public, but it must be borne in mind that the railroad companies in the east are still seriously congested with an unusual amount of freight traffic, traf-fic, the movement of which is more vital to tho country than the movement move-ment of passengers, and that tho weather weath-er conditions for the last two weeks have seriously impeded railroad operation. oper-ation. "I am very much pleased, M he said, "that provision is made in the provisions of the railroad bill for tho use of the inland waterways of tho United States in connection with the railroad systems now under government govern-ment control. The proper use of these waterways will largely increase the transportation facilities of tho country and if the pending bill is passed giving authority to the president to expend money for development of transportation transporta-tion facilities on inland waterways, every ev-ery effort will be mado to utilize them to the full capacity.'' Many Conferences Held. Director General McAdoo was in conference most of the day with passenger pas-senger and traffic managers of the northeastern roads. The railroad men submitted suggestions to he embod-died embod-died in rules to be issued probably within tho next forty-eight hours. Among them were A. B. Smith of the New Haven; L. F. Vosburgh of the New York Central; TV. C. Hope of the Jersey Central; R. E. Wright and J. P. Anderson of the Pennsylvania, and Judge Edward Chambers, member of the advisory board in charge of the general traffic problem. . Meanwhile, upat the capital, senators sena-tors and representatives were lining ut for the biggest fight on the railroad bill. This will center around the proposal pro-posal in the final section of the administration admin-istration measure that the railroads shall riot return to private ownership unless congress specifically orders it. Government ownership advocates will back a move to make the transition into government ownership just as easy as returning the carriers to the present owners. Will Be Much Opposition. Chairman Sims of the house interstate inter-state commerce committee said tonight that such a proposal already is before his committee. Checkmating it is a demand that the government give the owners now an assurance that congress will return the roads when the war is over. "It is evident, ,J said -Mr. Sims, 1 ' that the whole question of government ownership own-ership will be debated and its strength in congress thoroughly tested in the debates. The present provision that government control must continue until congress provides otherwise, is my idea of the ideal settlement of the question. After the government has operated the roads a year or so, the people will really know whether they want "ovemment ownership." The bill goes before both house and senate interstate commerce committees Monday. Senator La FolMte said he would begin immediately a contest on the proposal to guarantee the roads a profit- based on average returns for 1915, 1916 and 1917. On the real invested in-vested value he declares this is a guaranteed guar-anteed value of 35 per cent profit, although al-though only about per cent on alleged al-leged watered stock. Cars Held Up 60 Days. He shows where cars have been held up for sixty days with government shipments that easily could be unloaded. un-loaded. Judge Robert s. Lovett yesterday yester-day blamed the navy and army and shipping board for congestion in many sections. Commissioner McChord shows that on the Maryland division of the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania road there were on Thursday "101S loads and 265 empties, of which lfi loads were for Washington. Moved south, 114 loads and 14 empties. Had 24 trains ready with no locomotives available, 58 cars of government automobiles auto-mobiles in yards, 30 of which are in open-top cars, annd 120 cars of automobiles automo-biles at Glenrock, all of which have been held for more than sixty days. The Pennsylvania railroad had "a total of 1156 cars for thej American Shipbuilding Ship-building company: Hog Island 667 of them in the Philadelphia terminals, 427 cars now at Hog Island; those cars are being unloaded." Movement 30 Per Cent Normal. The commissioner reported that the general situation on the Pennsylvania lines indicated serious congestion to be at Pittsburg and the east. The movement move-ment of the Baltimore & Ohio, from Baltimore, was about 30 per cent normal.1 nor-mal.1 At Philadelphia, the company had fifteen locomotives out of commission for repairs, delayed by a shortage of labor. At Newport News, the Chesapeake Chesa-peake & Ohio was far below normal on account of a shortago of 140 laborers at the docks. The Midland division of tho New Haven, at Boston, was 819 cars below normal. At Maybrook, there were 2062 cars on hand "and onlv 96 moved during the day. The Waterbury anil Hartford branch was badly congested con-gested by shortage of crews and power. Eighty-two passengers trains will be discontinued tomorrow. The Toledo & Ohio Central, at Columbus, had 125 j northbound and 148 southbound cars ou ! hand and no locomotives available. I |
