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Show Railroads and Public Must Work Together to Meet Wars Demands . By FAIRFAX HARRISON, Chairman of Railroad. War Board During the coining months American railroad will, face the greatest transportation problem in their history. " The war demands have increased the railroads' rail-roads' burden virtually overnight by millions of tons -of freight Some conception of this may be gleaned from the fact that the additional service demanded ithis year is equivalent to carrying 120,000,000,000 tons of freight one mile. Moreover, frankly, the railroads will have to handle it with inadequate facilities. , Cars, locomotives, terminals, all the other equipment, track space cannot be built overnight. During the war, food, munitions and material must be kept moving to the seacoast, lumber to the shipyards, men must be kept moving to the cantonments and all these movements, a s far as possible, must be made without serious interference inter-ference with the regular commercial traffic. , ' . To do this, the railroads must increase their own efficiency. They cannot rely altogether on the shippers. As chairman of the railroads' war board I f eel I can state thjs increase in efficiency will be accomplished, as there has been no disposition on the part of any member of the railroad army to do anything but give his best.. Consignees can also! help by purchasing in the nearest market, by being prepared to store the whole- Contents of the cars, by bunching their orders to make full carload lots aiid by unloading promptly. . ' The co-operation we ask from the general public is harder to explain. .What- we need above all is a thorough understanding of the magnitude of the transportation problem and the necessity for public co-operation in its' solution. "- -?; ' We want the public to understand that passenger trains have been eliminated for one purpose only to 6ave equipment, man power and track space absolutely needed to handle the tremendous freight increase. We want the public to understandtoo, that every effort the individual indi-vidual family makes in any form of conservation will help solve the transportation trans-portation problem, as well as the other economic war problems. . By using food and fuel economically, by refraining from the use ot things unnecessary for a healthy existence, ly foregoing luxuries which demand rail transportation, and by supporting the movement against the UBe of freight cars for hauling nonessentials, the people as a whole will lessen the burden of the railroads and help carry this war to a successful conclusion. |