Give Them An E Flag, Too

Paradox of the month was offered by the railroads: May carloadings dipped 4.3% below the 1941 level, though the carriers are hauling far more freight far more miles than ever before. Revenue ton miles for the first two months of this year were up 31% over 1941, 83% over 1939, and 17% over 1929 (when the roads had 7,400 more locomotives and 500,000 more freight cars).

Shippers studying these figures quit worrying about a car shortage at the 1942 fall peak, began worrying about a locomotive shortage instead. Last year carloadings never rose more than 90,000 above the May average. This fall there will be 80,000 new cars in service, less 13,000 old ones scrapped. At last year's 922,000 carloadings high there were still 40,000 cars in reserve. That means that the roads should be all right this fall even if loadings rise twice as much as last year from May to October. Some shippers think they may actually rise less.

Fuller Cars. Average load is perhaps five tons more than last year, ten tons more than 20 years ago. Shippers everywhere were cooperating in the drive for fuller cars. A cement shipper saved 600 cars in one month; 36 instead of 18 hogsheads of tobacco per car cut a tobacco shipper's requirements by 465 cars. By doubling the number of barrels of flour per car, a northwestern miller used 100 fewer cars. Less-than-carload-lot shipments under six tons have been entirely banned by ODT, cutting l.c.l. carloadings last month 251,950 below last years 630,967.

Longer Hauls. In 1929 the average freight movement was 317 miles; last year, 367; this year, it is estimated, well above 400. Many a roaring train whistling through the night is on a transcontinental journey with West Coast lumber, canned goods and foodstuffs formerly shipped through the Panama Canal. Westbound freightcars are going back full for the first time in a generation, loaded with guns and tanks for MacArthur, supplies for California aircraft plants and shipbuilders. Diversion of shipping from the Atlantic ports to the Gulf means long north-south hauls of sugar, coffee, bauxite. All-rail movement of coal to New England doubles the mileage of coal cars in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Net ton-miles per freight train hour today is double the 1922 figure, up 20% over 1939. Locomotives, giving 160% more service than they did in the last war, are keeping heavier trains running on schedule.

Not all railroads are getting the same share of this booming business. Biggest gainers are the transcontinental lines. Ton-miles for the first quarter were up 64% on the Santa Fe, 42.5% on the Seaboard, 39% for the Atlantic Coast Line, only 22% for the New York Central. But practically all the carriers made good money for the first four months--though their wage increases were already in effect, their compensating freight-rate boost not until March 18. Combined profits of all Class I roads were $149,000,000--almost double last year's $76,299,000. In April, when last year's net was cut by the coal strike, the gain was even more dramatic: $57,900,000 for 1942, against $7,264,000 in 1941.

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