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Show 'PROGRAM CALLS FOR TIMS OF mE OS AND ENGINES : Railroads Take Steps to Bring Rolling Stock to Par, Necessitating Expenditure of Millions of Dollars. i By HARDEN COM W (Copyright. 1922. by The Standard-Examiner. Standard-Examiner. ) WASHINGTON. Dec. 2.r-Leading railroads of the country are planning on bringing their equipment back to par. A program Involving tho construction con-struction of many thousands of freight cars and locomotives at expenditures totalling several hundred millions of dollar: over a period of two to four years is under consideration by seven or more of the chief carriers of the Enited States. The chief obstacle to the Immediate adoption of the program h.ts been, up to tho present time, a satisfactory ! method of financing the cost of the added equipment. The carriers aro hopeful that they can find a way out however. Some of them have already ordered considerable numbers of earn and locomotives, paying for them in Installments over periods of from 10 to 20 years, but this method Is deemed inadequate for handling a program of the magnitude the carriers have In I mind. I Already, however, a general ten-Idency ten-Idency Is manifest on the part of the railroads to replenish their rundown freight cars and locomotives. The American Railway association's announcement an-nouncement this week, placing total J freight car? ordered and Installed dur-,lng dur-,lng the flrt ten months of this year at 1117,288, shows that the carriers have ; built up their equipment this year to a greater extent than In any single year since 191-1 i A report made public by the joint committee on agricultural inquiry discloses, dis-closes, howi v'T, tnat the number of freight ears in operation at the present pres-ent time is only a few thousand in ex-jcess ex-jcess of the number in operation eight 'years ago or at the end of 1914. During Dur-ing that eight-year period the freight I handled by the railroads Increased I from 1 .000,000,000 tons annually, on originating roads to I.-'OO.OOO.OOO tons, or more than p-r cent Carriers, considering the building program have decided to Increase their i arloadlng capacit to kt-ep step with the traffic Increase, or about by 2i per cent above r.'H figures. These does not mean necessarily that, there will be a 25 per cent increase in the number of freight cars, for cars built today average a higher loading capacity ca-pacity than those built eight or more years ago. The commission's report also discloses dis-closes that while the railroads have Increased In-creased tho number of their freight cars by only 17.000 In the eight y ears 'from 1914 to 1922, they Increased the number by 600,000 during the preceding preced-ing eight years. Should all the carriers follow tho lead of those at present engaged in mapping out a rebuilding program, itho total number of cars and locomotives locomo-tives to be built within the next (:: ye in will make- this year's record pale i by comparison. There are not enough steel cur plants in the country to mako the demand and the workmen employed at such plants would find steady work for five or more years to corno. Plans of some of the carriers contemplating con-templating additional orders for equipment equip-ment probably will mature within tho next 80 days or six weeks. The coming com-ing year, in the opinion of the rall-road rall-road Officials, Will be the busiest within with-in a generation in car building and locomotive works. Even wVth present business, howecr, these shops are paying top wages to skilled workers and report a scarcity of labor The federal reserve board's optimistic optim-istic report of conditions made yesterday, yester-day, Is corroborated by surveys of industry in-dustry made by private concerns during dur-ing the week. One such survey analyzes an-alyzes the financial affairs of 150 large business concerns engaged in almost every major lino of activity except transportation. It shows that: For every company reporting a decrease de-crease In earnings this year, four companies com-panies reported an increase. For every company reporting an op- n ting deficit during the year, there were nine companies that reported Increased In-creased profits. Thirty-four companies either Increased In-creased their dividends or declared an extra cash dividend. Thirteen companies that had passed their dividends lust year resumed them in 1922. , On the other hand, the survey dla- ) closed that liabilities of firms that failed in business this year will establish estab-lish a new high record, surpassing tho $627,000,000 mark of 1921. The busl-. ness failures, however, generally reach I their peak tho beginning of a new I period of prosperity. They hold on In the hope that affairs will become bet-ter, bet-ter, in many instunccs long after they have become bankrupt. Carloadlngs surprised railroad officials offi-cials by swinging sharply upward again, coming within 30.000 cars of the 1,000,000 mark for the week. The! car shortage was reported as some-; What abated, but still remained at dls-I dls-I tr easing figures, the total being reported re-ported at 158,000 cars. In tnat total, .however, there were probably many duplications. The railroads are hopeful hope-ful of wiping out tho shortage within I the next six a ei k There was little change during the week In the financial situation. |