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Show TOMORROW'S RAILROADS Because they nre one of the nation's na-tion's heaviest employers and taxpayers, tax-payers, everybody is interested in the future of the railroads. John J. Pelley, president of the Association Associa-tion of American Railroads, endeavors en-deavors to look ahead upon the basis of the past. He says: "Three facts which are fundamental funda-mental In assessing the future of the railroads were clearly brought out in the test of war. The war demonstrated how essential rail-toads rail-toads are to this nation, the remarkable re-markable technological progress of the Tailroads, and the importance of investment in railroads in providing pro-viding better transportation at lower reul cost. , Thn firf nf those facts will re- rhain valid in peacetime as in war There is nothing in existence, or in i(fht, to take the place of trains of cars on tracks in transporting I tho vast volume of American com-morce com-morce at rates which now, and for some years past, have averaged less than one cent for hauling a. ton of freight a mile. The technological progress dem-j ' qnstrated by results during the war will continue in peacetime at an accelerated ac-celerated rate. Much of this progress prog-ress will not be conspicuous. Toj tho naked eye, for example, steel! rail rolled today looks about the same as ever, but, as a result of research, it actually has a rate of breakage per year of service only about one-fifth as high as that of rail rolled 15 years ago. All that is but one detail in the composite picture of progress which enabled the railroads, in this war, to do twice as much work per day with nearly one-third less equipment, and to do it immeasurably better than during tho first World war. ! Kright as the future of railroading railroad-ing looks, Mr. Pelley concludes: with the warning that no other form of transportation provides I maintains and pays taxes on; i roadways to an extent comparable! with the railroads. This is a com-j pe'titive handicap' which must be reckoned with before -maximum railroad development can be expected. |