OCR Text |
Show 'FREIGHT TRAFFIC REMAINS LARGE Railway Age Shows Roads Are Still tnjoying Good Business I The Railway Age points out In U.t I ; current Iswue that while there has) lion ; decline in freight traffic since j October, and the consequent dvHlop-1 ; ment of a surplus of ears the lotal adlOUht of freight l'dng handlnl 6011' tinucri down to the lari week for1 'which Inform.itlnn i tvallnble to bej larger thati in an)' former year. The fact." the tallway Age sojh. ! that In spite of IJi guneral decline ' in business aotivltl Shloh has occurred I within recent montlxx the rallwax srS Still movlnjr more tonnage than ' ever IWore at the name tints of car pridiably has n significance of niuch Importance. It undoubtedly mean that the producing and consuming capacity ca-pacity of the country has Increased si ntUCh within recent xrars that no decline In bUSfneSS activity ever again I will carry th total freight bnlncis nf the railways down anywhere near as low a it used to go. By the name okOh a revlal of bunlnesc activity Will remilt In giving the railways a much larger freight traffic to handle thhn they ever hud before This Is a strong argument for shippers to shop now" while railways have eur-j i lus capacity, for it must mean that xv hen hUHinosp .i-'Mvitx again revives; Uie difficulty of getting sufficient transportation will return The number of cars of freight load-; il in the four weeks ending on De- i senber 1 1, the latest period for which ; figures arc available, was 3.386,280. t ' This shows a decline, as compared' ; with the four weeks ending Octobe.' 23, When the highest record was made, I Of C1T.U87 carloads. While this re- r I r a sharp decltno In traffic, the i I figures for the four weeks ondlng December 11, 1920. omparc very fa-I kDrably with those for the correspond-' Ir.g weeks of i!US, when the- largest 1 1 rnc'iinl for the same weeks of any pre-VloUS pre-VloUS yeaf was madr. Ill thes? xeeks o 191S tho number of cars loaded ! was 3,251,011, or 134 249 less than In j the yrac weeks of this year. Sim e I the average load per car hclng hah-1 riled Is larger than It xvas in IMS. the lotal tonnage being handled is sub-1 sub-1 stantlally larger The truffle whose j movement is chiefly causing the total loadings to hold up so Well hi spite j I of the recent decline In general busl- ness activity Is the coal traffic which' I is still betnC handled (h rcoorvl break-1 : lng volume.' no |