| Show NEWS ws' ws BEHIND THE NEWS Overloaded ying Return o of Oversees Overseas Veterans By ALBERT LEMAN LEl LEMANA A new whopping burden will avalanche on our overloaded transportation system already weighed down by pass passenger travel peak freight movements and strikes Until recently recently- troop transit was the major load Now the the navy Is dumping men at a greatly accelerated pace More gobs than soldiers are piling into trains at Pacific ports The ratio will increase in succeeding months Pressure In the west Is Intensified Intensified intensified fied because only six main lines can distribute the men from debarkation debarkation debarkation de de- points Maintenance labor Is scarce in thinly populated populated populated areas A bumper grain crop will be on the rails through November The office of defense transportation transportation transportation tation this week estimated that soldiers sailors and marines will land between now and next June June on the Pacific coast Naval and military military military mili mili- tary statisticians judge that will arrive in the west in October Between January and May the monthly rate will be This section will receive soldiers and naval personnel in October In January January January Janu Janu- ary the proportion will be army and navy The figure for the naval branch will remain constant through June but army arrivals will dwindle later until the number drops drop's to in June Veterans from Europe and andAsia andAsia andAsia Asia must be bc carried to staging areas and distribution centers then home All told approximately 1400 rail-man rail moves will take place monthly through October November and December a surge breaking all records The transportation difficulties will increase because the navy has no facilities for tor handling the flood of The army anny was mobilized in large camps and staging areas these installations installations installations install install- are now available for demobilization de- de demobilization demobilization de de- mobilization purposes Lads for the navy trickled into ports from recruiting stations stations stations sta sta- sta- sta Seabee bureaus boot camps etc The departments department's distribution centers are limited and its officials have not had so 50 much experience as has the army in huge rail movements of ot otmen men and materials Lack of know-how know already is evident on the Pacific where gobs sobs and arid leathernecks are not picked up by trains as quickly as G. G Is I.'s are Secy Seey Forrestal's e ex experts x p e r t s wanted anted to prevent bottlenecks by routing their men through the Panama canal to gulf and Atlantic ports But jittery congressmen congressmen congressmen con con- gressmen deluged by mail mall from their constituents insisted that families wanted their boys at home at once regardless of the transportation problem Sailors worrying about Job opportunities ties also demanded haste packed Jam-packed trains are not the only complication Strikes at ports have disrupted disrupt disrupt- ed ship schedules The coal strike has reduced the amount of ot fuel available for locomotives when it is settled the tracks will willbe willbe be filled with coal cars catching up on the back orders of industry indus indus- try The Pullman shop strike has delayed delivery of urgently needed new sleeping cars Normally October is the peak freight month This year exceptionally exceptionally tio ally large traffic In passengers passengers passengers gers and goods is expected in the Thanksgiving and Christmas rushes Railroad managers gaze at their already crowded trains and worry about what may happen when Ice and snow blanket the Rocky mount mountains With rails congested as never before storms anywhere could cause severe severe severe se se- se- se vere Trainmen remember the long lines of ot cars frozen in inthe inthe inthe the Buffalo yards last Winter There Is scant hope of ot greatly easing the car shortage Two thirds of the country's Pullmans already are employed in military transit The second batch of twelve hundred special troop sleepers cannot be manufactured manufactured manufactured manu manu- In time Austerity locomotives locomotives locomotives loco loco- i motives and cars of light construction construction construction con con- used in the battle zones are unsuited to United States railroads Added to all the headaches is isa isa isa a growing scarcity of railroad labor At the moment the lines have openings Greatest I demand Is s for firemen brakemen brakemen brakemen brake- brake men and switchers Twenty Twenty thousand maintenance workers workers are needed to keep tracks and bridges in oper operation tion Mexicans who were imported during the war for lor pick and shovel tasks arc are now going home at the rate rale of ot a month Americans discharged from war plants will not take these jobs They consider the pay too low The workers are are used to modern factories with all sorts of conveniences comforts and recreation n facilities They refuse to eat cat and sheep in rough boxcars boxcars boxcars box box- cars parked on lonely sidings and subject to winter storms The problems mentioned here are some of the reasons why Johnny will not come marching home so fast as his letters an an- i. i |
