Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current, April 22, 1963, Image 3

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Herald and news., April 22, 1963, Page 3, Image 3

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Newspaper Page TextRAIL ROAD TO RUIN Railroads Thirty Years late espite Age Of .Automation Editor's Note: The Cuban mis. silc crisis last fall exposed such slacking defects in the nation's rail system that U.S. military men are worried today's railroads could not do the job in a major war. Even railway president Jer vis Langdon of the Baltimore and Ohio admits that during the crisis "While we managed to get the cars that were required by the military and we managed to get them by the time they were re quested, it was not an easy job." Now a presidential emergency board is seeking to avert a na tionwidc rail strike in June over the bitter work rules controver sy. This is the first of five re ports by an experienced business reporter on what's wrong with America's ailing transportation Riant and what's being done to fix it. By RAY CROMLEY Newspaper Enterprise Assn. FAIRVIEW, Md. NEA -"When I took over as president a year ago," said young railroad president James M. Easter II, "I found the accounting done With a quill pen. They'd write in the job on one line in a ledger; tjien when it was paid, they'd cross out that line. , "You found who owed you by looking back through the ledger 4nd adding up the accounts that weren't crossed out." , Easter installed electronic ac counting equipment, put his rec ords on tape. He retired two thirds of his accounting depart ment. Now the Baltimore and Annapo lis Railroad is a very small line fc be sure. But it is an old one and its problems typify the prob lems of the once vigorous industry vhich played such a major role in building the United States and preserving it through two World Wars. To learn these problems first' Hand t talked to railroad presi dents and railroad men from Kan Francisco to Chicago, from Wash ington to New York and at way points in between. Quill pens are unusual but an tiquated accounting systems are r M m .; ill flr' v',::' ( . 'wtmm .11 1 fill ri ill PLUGS FOR EFFICIENCY James M. Easter II, president of the Baltimore and Annapolis railroad, threw away the quill pens in his accounting system in favor of more efficient modern methods. not. Too few railroads know ex actly what it costs them to carry a particular commodity. They don't know where they're making money, where they're losing. They aren t sure where they can prof itably cut prices and win busi ness and where they can't. A rail road president I interviewed said bluntly: "The railroads as an industry are 30 years behind the times in costing techniques." I've looked at new-type freight cars that enable railroads to cut their rates by two-thirds or more on major commodities and make more money. Few roads have them So railroads have Inst Iheir grain business, or lumber busi r.ess, or cement business, or fresh meat and packing house business in one area or another. sensational new microwave communications . computer com binations are available that would enable railroads to make better use of the freight cars they have. slash their investments for new cars by 20 per cent. But few rail roads have these efficient new electronic systems. Automatic ticket vendors would have wide use. But I've always had to stand in line myself. The. average railway has failed to get rid of deadwood among management and white collar workers as well as among the operating union workers. There's featherbedding all up and down the line from top to bottom. Tlie result: railroad payrolls ac count for 67 per cent of rail oper ating expenses, compared to 32 per cent in manufacturing. Government sources foresee the strong possibility of a national railroad strike this year clinching the years long battle over wheth er management can drop the firemen it believes are feather-' bedding in diesel engines on freight runs and in yards. A re cent Supreme Court decree threw the problem right back at man agement and the unions after a special presidential commission had recommended gradually drop ping these tiremen. Rail union officials deny the featherbedding charge; they also point to a 50 per cent decline in the number of railroad jobs dur ing the postwar years from 1,400, 000 to 700,000. Union men I talk to say the roads' big problem is that they don t go after new busi ness with vigor that truckers and airlines do. Certainly most rail roads have not matched their! road and sky competition in pam pering their customers whether passengers or freight shippers. I took a train ride, on one of the nation's largest lines, just re cently. The train was late, slow, dirty, jerky, crowded. There was no steward or porter visible: a man rushed through taking tick ets arguing with passengers. I took a plane back, the cost only few dollars more. The trip took an eighth as long. There was an attractive stewardess. I was of fered a magazine, coffee, a meal at no extra cost. The plane was clean, uncrowded. Shippers make the same com plaintsslow trains, jerky rides that damage their cargoes, lack of interest in special services the truck lines are eager to give. 1 recently ordered a steel filing cab inet. It arrived damaged; so I turned it back. Then I ordered a wooden cupboard. It also came by! train and I had to go to the sta tion in a neighboring city to pick! it up. It was damaged but I was! discouraged and decided to re pair it myself -rather than go through the bother of sending it back. Then I ordered a storage shed. It arrived damaged and I returned it. A replacement that arrived several months later was also damaged and returned. Nationwide figures indicate the annual loss as a result of break age, delayed delivery and the costs of extra bracing and pack aging on jerky railroads results in a new loss of $200 million a year. Those extra costs mean higher prices for you. In 1930, the railroads hauled 75 per cent of intercity freight. This year they'll carry less than 40 per cent. In this gloomy situation, a few roads stand out. They are headed by imaginative, tough men. They are trying new ideas, buying new equipment, seeking ways to' pamper passengers and ship pers. Some are meeting the com petition by joining it, making acals with truck lines or organiz ing their own truck pipe lines. But the antiquated, poorly man aged railways are millstones V U4 ? '.1 1 K TWILIGHT ON THE ROAD Which way to a new dawn? This question is answered in part by this new series starting today. Because of through travel, the average railroad normally has less than half its own freight cars on its own road. If it builds mod- around me necKS oi mese ener- getic roaas. Highly automated freight yards in some railroad systems are can-i celled out by old methods used on other lines. On a dozen suc cessive days I've passed by one oi the prize automated yards in the U.S. and seen cars stalled eight to 12 hours before being shifted from one rail line to the next so they could continue their journey. If a hell-bcnt-for-lcather rail president wants to offer his cus tomers faster service, he beefs up his schedules, speeds up his trains, delivers his cars with their loads rapidly to the end of his line. But if the service on the next connecting road is bad, the customer may decide to ship by truck next time. Or lake passenger trains. - Ev ery four weeks I pick up my wife's mother at a nearby sta tion. Four out of five times I meet the train, it is an hour to an hour and a half late. I talked to the president of that line. He said his trains move on time; the delay is in the line that oper ates the ears the first leg of the journey. But the passengers blame his line because it is the one that lands them where they want to go late. ern, elficient cars, halt are nor mally in use on oilier lines. "So why should I buy new, expen sive cars," says one railroad pres ident. "It costs me a lot of money; then I've got them only half the time. A good many of the cars I get from other roads are broken-down cars from inefficient lines." Union officials say such condi tions often aren t necessary, They say the roads are" really earning big profits, but hiding them in complicated mter-compa- ny balance sheets. They say the lines would be better off if they put their money into wages for employes and new equipment. But railroad managers insist their problem is dollars. They say profits have slipped to an average of 2i per cent on investment. Many railroads are saddled with the past; heavy debts make it difficult to attract new money They say they're taxed much higher than truck, barge and air lines. But most of all, they com plain about government regulations. (Next: The Mishmash of Laws and Regulations.) Peace Corps Tests Dated On April 27 The spring placement test for applicants interested in being con sidered for Peace Corps assign ments will be held in Room 202 of the Post Office building on April 27, beginning at 8:30 a.m. General qualifications for Peaci Corps projects include a minimum age of 18, U.S. citizenship, suund health, maturity, initiative and above all a desire to serve. Mar ried couples are eligible in some projects if both qualify and they have no dependent children. Volunteers serve for two years, including training. They receive allowances to cover clothing, food, housing, medical care and inci dentals, plus a readjustment al lowance at the termination of their service of about $1,800 based on $75 for each month of service. Seven countries have asked the Peace Corps for volunteers who know how to operate and repair farm machinery. Especially need ed are agricultural mechanics who can offer ingenuity and common sense along with their knowledge Training will begin early this summer for Peace Corps projects in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Gui nea, Malaya, Pakistan and Sene gal. All of these projects need volunteers with rural backgrounds who have had training and expe rience in maintaining farm equip ment. In Chile, for example, the vol unteers will form a demonstra tion team to travel from one ag- lcultural high school to another. They will be working not only with the students in these schools, but also with the farmers in neighboring communities. Similar ly, in the other countries, the vol unteers will teach machinery oper ation and maintenance to their co-workers at experimental sta tions and to local farmers through the extension service. Experience in a number of coun-l tries where volunteers already at work has shown that ingenuity is must for Peace Corps me chanics. In most places there is a variety of machinery, and parts arc difficult or impossible to ob tain. Rather than face the long delay of ordering parts that must be imported, volunteers have1 found it helpful to be able to make them on the spot. Two vol unteers in Pakistan have intro duced regular schedules for lubri eating and inspecting machinery to catch small defects early as part of their efforts to teach pro ventive maintenance. Applications and information on these and other projects may be obtained from County Agent Bev erly Bower in her office on the second floor of the Post Office building, or by writing Jim Gib son, Peace Corps; Division of Agricultural Affairs, Washington, 25. D.C. .Monday, April 22, 1961 PAGE 3 HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Oregon "DENNIS THE MENACE" MILITARY SHIPMENT Railroads did an outstanding job in World War II, but with antiquated methods, their effectiveness is in doubt should there be another major, war. AUTOMATED CONTROL This is a view of the interior of an automated freight yard control tower panel. Few railroads have these efficient electronic systems. REPAIR SHOP A view of a diesel engine in a repair shop. In some railroads over one fourth of the equipment is laid up for repairs. 40,000 Deaths Predicted From Smoke-Caused Lung Cancer 'AUbsapet wants to knowthe size cp that easy eiroOENM? FOUND. IS IT TNV;TEEN-irVENy; OR TSm-mM-ZBW? English Police Hunt Spy Pamphlet Authors LONDON (UPD-Police extend ed their hunt to the provinces Saturday for the authors of a "spies-for-peacc" pamphlet which gave details of government plans for dispersal in the event of atom ic war. The main scene of action was Keele University in the Midlands where 500 abridged copies of the "ban-the-bomb" leaflet were cir culated at a conference of the National Union of Students. Detectives spent most of the morning taking statements from student delegates. But there was nothing to indicate they got any closer to the origins of the pam phlet than they did in earlier raids on homes in London. The police drive was aimed mainly at strengthening the posi tion of Prime Minister Harold M a c m i 1 1 a n when parliament meets on Tuesday after the East er recess. Labor members have tabled eight questions on the pamphlet whose main effect lay in the political damage it can in flict on the Macmillan team. The police call on the student's conference stemmed from the ad mission of 19-ycar - old student Martin Lomey that he was re sponsible for printing and distri buting abridged copies of the pamphlet. Lomey, head of the Bradford delegation at the conference, told police he picked up the original pamphlet during the Easter week end "ban-the-bomb" march at which the pamphlet first appear ed. Police seized several documents at the conference, but an inspec tor said: "We don't know whether there will be any further action." DOWNTOWN OFFICE SPACE Inquire At GUN STORE 714 Main fUX TOW jtn sum mm msi. twismtf . n. Kentucky smicm bourbon whcsket m nm. kentucxt bumed whisket k woof, gsx (mik uromi sum ! Should you smoke cigarettes? , The American Cancer Society suggests that everyone know the facts about lung cancer before de ciding. ' About 40.000 men and women in the United States will die of lung cancer this year, if the present trend continues, said Mrs. John Dickinson, publicity chairman of the local chapter of the Cancer Society. , About 30.000 of the anticipat ed deaths would not occur if the Victims had not started smoking cigarettes, the Klamath County Medical Society said further. ' Abstaining from cigarettes would also save the lives of additional thousands who will die this year of various types of cancer relat ed to smoking, such as cancer ol the lip, mouth, tongue, iarnyx and esophagus, the society disclosed. i "There are about as many can ter deaths caused by cigarette jmoking as there are deaths Caused by automobile accidents," the Klamath County Medical So ciety said. For this reason, the Ameri can aCncer Society during its April educational and fund-raising Crusade is stressing the health hazards of cigarette smoking. If about 30.000 lives in the United States can be saved from lung cancer by not sflioking ciga rettes, it is the responsibility of the American Cancer Society to so inform the public," the Klam ath County Medical Society said. The public should know that cigarette smoking is also rcspon sible for many of the- lives lost each year to cancer of the mouth tongue, lip, larynx, and csopha gus," it was said. The Klamath County Medical Society pointed out that t h e American Cancer Society's main concern is to get the facts to the public about the hazards involved in cigarette smoking "so that the individual can make a realis tic decision of whether to smoke or not to smoke." The American Cancer Society is particularly active in its ef forts to reach physicians and teen agers. Cited was a recent study which showed that at least one out, of four physicians had given up cigarette smoking since 1954. Today three out of five physicians in the United States do not smoke cigarettes. In its educational effort among teen-agers, the Klamath County Medical Society said, the Ameri can Cancer Society seeks to make clear to them the hazards in starting to smoke and the diff'- R & M T.V. HOUSE CALLS $3.00 Phone TU 2-6895 cultics in breaking the smoking habit once it has been established. Already the American Cancer Society has reached more than half of the secondary schools in the country with the facts about smoking; its goal is to reach them all. The Klamath County .Medical Society said that non-smoking men at the age of 35 have only a 23 per cent chance of dying before the age of 65. But with cigarette smokers, if you smoke one to two packs a day. you have a 38 per cent chance of dying before age 65. If you smoke two or more packs a day, it is a 41 per cent chance. "The facts," said the Klamath County Medical Society, "adds up to the conclusion that lung can cer is a preventable disease which could almost be eliminated as a cause of death. 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