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Show DEFERRED WORK ADDS TO RAILROADS' TASK Large Capital Expenditures Required, Re-quired, Says Hines Impossible Impos-sible to Do All Now. In order to keep pace with the growth of business and production In this country and the demand for Increased In-creased transportation facilities an enormous amount of railroad worlt must be done In the next few years which will require the Investment of billions of dollars of new money. This Is essential not only to maintain the railways at their normal high standard of service and efficiency, but also to make up for ordinary expansion and Improvement needs on existing linen which were interrupted by the war and to a large extent deferred altogether. alto-gether. Railroad managers realize that even If the necessary new capital was available avail-able It would be practically a physical Impossibility for the railroads to accomplish ac-complish any large part of this delayed de-layed and accumulated work during the present year. Consequently the most vital needs of the railroads will receive first consideration In the plans for the Immediate future so that the public demands in the months of heavi-' heavi-' est traffic may be served as efficiently as possible. Vast Amount of Work to Be Done. Walker D. Hines, Director General of Railroads under government control, con-trol, emphasized this task facing the railroads after their return to private operation In a letter to Senator Albert B. Cummins, chairman of Senate Interstate Inter-state Commerce Committee, and Representative Rep-resentative John J. Esch, chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Mr. Hines pre sented this phase of the railroad problem prob-lem to them In urging the necessity for pressing the railroad legislation and to point out that delay would "seriously "se-riously Impair the public service by virtually suspending Improvements and the acquisition of equipment" "In order to keep abreast of the growth of business In this country," wrote Mr. Hines, "It Is Indispensable that railroads should continue to spend large sums in the acquisition of new equipment, the enlargement and unification unifica-tion of terminals and the construction of additional and the enlargement of existing shops, engine houses, turntables, turn-tables, etc., and In the carrying forward for-ward of normal programs for the revision revi-sion of grades, construction of additional addi-tional main line tracks, longer and more numerous passing tracks, etc. "A vast amount of work now remains re-mains to be done," he added, "which the Intervention of the war has necessarily neces-sarily delayed and accumulated, and the result Is that during the year 1920 very large capital expenditures ought to be made to make up for the Interruptions Inter-ruptions Inevitably due to the war and to prepare the railroads to serve adequately ade-quately the Increased traffio throughout the country. "In the year or two prior to the beginning be-ginning of federal control this work was largely arrested by the difficulties of securing materials and labor and also by the difficulty of securing new capital. During the year 1918 this work was largely restricted to things which could be promptly done and which would have a relation to winning win-ning the war and also restricted by the scarcity of materials. The result was that comprehensive programs for developing the railroads were lurgely Interrupted. "During the calendar year 1919 there has been unavoidably an almost complete com-plete stoppage of all these matters because be-cause of the prospect of early termination termina-tion of federal control and the resulting result-ing Indisposition on the part of Congress Con-gress to make appropriations." |