Transportation industry

“ To all the processes of industry and commerce, the service of transportation is essential, and it is a plain duty of the people of this country to keep the railways from “loss, decay, or injury,” and to preserve them from destruction. ”

“ Transportation is not a mechanised service. It [Pg 172] is a service of human beings whose lives are worthy of even more intelligent care than that necessary to preserve the physical mechanisms which they operate. And it is clear to me that all the men and women who are employed in our great transportation systems are entitled to the highest possible wages that the industry can afford to pay. ”

“ It is the task of the transportation system to carry commodities from points of production to consuming centers throughout the United States and to the ports for export. The more freely and cheaply the products are carried, the more competition there will be, the more production there will be, and the better will our transportation system serve our national economy. ”

“ This, in the growing, progressive, and expanding states of the West, is a steady and constant complaint, and it requires much time, money, and energy for the railroad-owners and officers to keep the supply of transportation up to the demand. The complaints come in for more freight-cars, for more passenger-trains, for better passenger-stations, for more side-tracks, for more switch-engines, for under-crossings and over-crossings in growing cities, for branch lines into new and undeveloped sections of the country ”

“ Some of the difficulties and inadequacies of the transportation machine of the United States to-day are the result of drifting away too far from the idea that transportation is business, which, in the long run, must be governed by the same great human and natural laws that affect all human affairs. ”

“ The second is that most manufacturers can warehouse their product, hold for rising prices, and sell at some future time. The railroad cannot do this. It must have ample transportation ready at any given time and place, and if it is not used then and there it is lost, not only to the railroad, but to the consumer. The manufacturer of transportation must always be ready to furnish the maximum amount of transportation for the use of the American people. ”

“ The United States has entered a new era in transportation. We are in the midst of a technology explosion, and our Nation's transportation infrastructure stands to benefit tremendously from these innovations. New industries are racing to meet the demands of reinventing American transportation, creating jobs and economic opportunities for companies and individuals alike. ”

“ A smoothly-functioning transportation system is a fundamental building block of a growing economy and a prosperous society. The ability to move people and materials safely and efficiently affects the price of goods in our markets, our ability to sell our products overseas, and the lives and livelihoods of all Americans. The decisions we make now in transportation will serve as the catalyst for improving both the safety and quality of life for our citizens for decades to come. ”

“ Our commerce is great, and our trade extends to the corners of the earth,—the product of a hundred years. Our transportation system, with a capitalization which is the lowest in any civilized country in the world, with the lowest rates, and with the highest efficiency of service and ability to meet the demands of business, is second to none. ”

“ Hoists, cranes, tipping bodies, combination bodies, conveying belts and chains and many other devices facilitate rapid unloading and loading.
By sending goods from factory to retailer by motor railway terminal expense is cut out. Just how far it is profitable to send goods by truck is a question depending on the relative terminal charges, the hauling rate, and the collecting charges. ”

“ Demand for further improvement met by railroads.—Reviewing the substance of preceding sections, we find that of the new means of transportation adopted to develop the resources of the country and to make them available in internal trade and foreign commerce, none had yet proved adequate to meet the conditions. Transportation on the turnpikes was too expensive to permit the carriage of bulky freight over great distances. River navigation, valuable as it was in opening the interior to commerce, still was tied fast to channels cut by nature ”

“ The large transportation companies, the railways, the steamship lines, electric street cars, canals, trolley lines, pipe lines, and so on, when held under private ownership, are all organized in this manner. There are many bus lines and many truck lines already incorporated, and with time the number will, no doubt, rapidly increase. ”

“ Through the years, transportation developments have paced the growth and progress of our Nation, led to innovations in other industries, contributed significantly to the expansion of our country, and strengthened our defense and the vitality of our economy. Transportation has become one of America's greatest and most valued assets, and the people of the transportation industries are an essential segment of our society. ”

“ The motor trucks transport less than carload lots of freight in complete coordination with the rail service. The railroad instituted this additional method of transportation in order to furnish an improved and more convenient freight service to the public in certain areas of light traffic and in order to curtail car mileage and way-freight service. Motor vehicle transportation, in other words, is merely a new method of carrying on part of its all-rail freight business in which it had been engaged for many years. ”

“ Throughout our history, from early railway workers, who laid the first tracks, to the sleeping car porters whose unions became an organized trailblazer in civil rights -- my uncles were Pullman porters -- to the men and women today who manage ports, who drive trucks, and repair roads and bridges, our nation's transportation system has been a vital source of well-paying jobs and a backbone of America's middle class.
So that's why your management, the work that you're doing here in transportation to manage the investments in the economic recovery plan, is so very important. ”

“ It is remarkable, however, that, notwithstanding the large increase of population in the West, the facilities afforded for travel, reduction in rates, and a general increase in railroad business, passenger traffic has decreased, indicating, as the auditor believes, either that the people could not afford to travel, or that the railroad companies have not yet solved the problem of passenger transportation. ”

“ The railways present one of our immediate and pressing problems. They are and must remain the backbone of our transportation system. Their prosperity is interrelated with the prosperity of all industries. Their fundamental service in transportation, the volume of their employment, their buying power for supplies from other industries, the enormous investment in their securities, particularly their bonds, by insurance companies, savings banks, benevolent and other trusts, all reflect their partnership in the whole economic fabric. ”

“ Transportation, as a service, is the commodity produced by common carriers. The manner in which the price of this commodity has been brought under governmental regulation has a direct bearing upon another problem just beginning to open up ”

“ Besides their receipts from freight and passenger traffic, railroads derive revenue also from the transportation of mails and express freight on passenger trains, from the sleeping-car companies, and from news companies for the privilege of selling upon trains. ”

“ To have this great transportation machine work smoothly, with the fewest points of obstruction and interruption—the least amount of friction—and with the greatest harmony among all its constituent parts, means, in the long run, the furnishing of the best transportation service to the people of New England. ”

“ Third—I advocate the regulation of competing motor-carriers, by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Where rail service should be supplemented by motor service to promote the public interest, the railways should be permitted in this manner to extend their transportation facilities. They should be encouraged to modernise and [Pg 170] adapt their plant to the new needs of a changing world. ”

“ But they cannot take the place of the freight car or the steamship. They are more rapid, easily making 100 to 150 miles an hour, but they are as yet of limited capacity carrying light letter mails, and a few passengers, but at too great an expense to compete with the improved rail and water carriage of the present. Besides most people would rather be near the ground in case of accident. I mentioned to you the greatly reduced cost of railway transportation in North America where all the lines are operated by the state. ”

“ Nevertheless it seems probable that new methods of operating the motor truck transport, and possibly new types of trucks or trucks and trailers will be developed so that freight traffic over many roads will be of considerable tonnage and an established part of the transportation system of the nation. ”

“ The advent of the new means of transport was, in fact, marked by the complete absence of any centralised effort with a view to securing the network of a railway system, so planned or so co-ordinated as to make the best possible provision for the country as a whole, and especially for the rapidly increasing necessities of trade, commerce and industry. ”

“ As our cities grew, transit systems developed to provide people with affordable and convenient transportation. This century brought the automobile, truck, intercity bus, and an expanded road system that includes thousands of miles of Interstate Highways. ”

“ Contribution of the railroads to recent national development.—The importance of this change in a country of great distances can scarcely be exaggerated. It has transformed the railroad from a luxury for the use of passengers and high-class freight to a necessity for the producers and consumers of the commonest articles. In 1860 even a ware like wheat could556 not pay the expense of transportation over a distance exceeding many hundred miles, and distant freight traffic was restricted to manufactures and the most valuable of farm products, such as live stock. ”

“ It should be remembered that in every case there must be a keen, avid market and adequate transportation facilities. The market, since more than half the people of the United States live in the cities, is likely to be sufficient if the marketing machinery is ample and properly functioning. Horse-drawn wagons may answer the purpose in some places, in others the motor truck, but other crops cannot be marketed without access to the steam railway. ”

“ THE SUPPLY TRAIN.
July 3, 1904. My Dear Boy:—Blacksmiths’ horses and shoemakers’ wives proverbially go unshod. A railroad puts up its poorest sample of transportation in the routine handling of its own material and supplies. Company stuff is moved and handled last of all; and probably at maximum expense. For example, if we wish to ship a car of wheels to division headquarters we load them after we are lucky enough to get an available car. ”

“ With ninety million busy people In this country the next twenty years must see a constant addition to the railway facilities of the country if the commerce is to be moved satisfactorily, and the railway-user must see to it that the railway-owner has sufficient margin to justify the enormous additional investment that must be made in order to provide the needed transportation. ”

“ Billions of dollars are invested in railroad properties. Millions of passengers, as well as millions of tons of freight, are moved each year by the railroad companies, and this transportation is carried on by a multitude of corporations working in different parts of the country, and subjected to varying and diverse conditions. ”

“ Rail transportation well serves this need. There has been historically, however, an imbalance between the low-rated agricultural, mineral, and forest produce traffic flowing out of the region, and high-rated manufactured goods flowing into the region. ”

“ Originally the term 'car service' included the 'movement, distribution, exchange, interchange, and return of cars used in the transportation of property.' As amended the term is made to include the use, control, supply, movement, distribution, etc., not only of cars, but of locomotives and other vehicles. It is further extended to include, 'the supply, movement, and operation of trains by any carrier by railroad subject to this act' and so requires every carrier by railroad 'to furnish safe and adequate car service. ”

“ Oppressed on every hand by the universal extortion of railroad monopoly, they are slowly awakening to a realization of the fact, that the question of cheap transportation, is for them, the one, overshadowing question, which demands immediate attention.
"As an object lesson on the subject of good roads, the introduction, and constantly increasing use, of bicycles, motor cycles, motor freight wagons, automobiles, electro mobiles, locomobiles, and the entire class of vehicles equipped with rubber tires, has aroused a widespread interest, which is prophetic of great results. ”

“ Such a plan is to preserve a reasonable degree of competition and to maintain so far as practicable the existing routes and channels of trade and commerce. The desiderata are that the several systems shall be so arranged that the cost of transportation as between competing systems, and as related to the values of the properties, shall be approximately the same, so that these systems can employ uniform rates in the movement of competitive traffic, and can earn, under honest and efficient management, substantially the same rate of return upon the value of their respective properties. ”