RAILROADS TO BLAME FOR TROUBLES
Ford, Henry
Railroads To Blame For Troubles Putting Money Into Pockets of Stockholders Who Make No Contribution to Lines Should Stop; Give Employes Part Ownership An Interview by WILLIAM ATHERTON DU PUY...
...We have no monopoly and no great terminals...
...If the brakeman on a railroad owns stock in it, he has an additional inducement to competent service...
...What we have set out to do is to design an axle that will allow for this difference in the distance the wheels have to travel, that will make the slip unnecessary...
...Paying a dividend to these people is a burden which should be shifted from the railroads...
...The first thing to do is to make a railroad work...
...Overweight of rolling stock is the prime mistake on the mechanical side of railroading...
...We are hauling around too much dead weight...
...This we did...
...He declares that one of the big troubles with the railroad problem in this country is "stock manipulation" by Wall Street, Mr...
...Financing the Roads RAILROADS should not have to go to banks for money...
...He has tried to reduce freight rates on his line, but so far has been balked by the government.—Managing Editor's Note...
...From the necessity of earning their living...
...Better service is a valuable by-product which will come from his ownership of stock...
...I was told that the track was clear for the run...
...Some patents are taken out to prevent the free use of ideas...
...The road we have acquired runs north and south and crosses most of the transcontinental lines...
...When freight is tied up in these unnecessary delays, the rolling stock of railroads is tied up also...
...Our patents will guarantee the free use of ideas...
...Our men earn more and do more, because the way has been cleared for them to do more...
...I was told that there had been a wreck some twenty miles down the track and that the train was going out to clear it up...
...Mr...
...A freight train is several times the weight of the load it carries, and a passenger train is twenty times as heavy...
...The problem of holding the rails can be taken care of in redesign...
...We talk too much about finance...
...No man really likes a job that is half inefficiency and half loafing...
...It would keep all this detail off the books...
...In the end the pub-lic pays these dividends...
...IF YOU were operating a railroad such as the Pennsylvania or the New York Cen-tral," I said to Henry Ford, out at his office in Dearborn, "how would you proceed...
...I asked if they were ready to start, and they said they were and had been for half an hour...
...The Ford freight that the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton gets only leaves Detroit by our road and is transferred to other roads all the way down the line...
...It would be still further reduced if our connecting lines had the slack taken out of them...
...They are a tax on the whole people...
...On the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton we are Using up the old types of engine and car, but they will be displaced by better types...
...This is a considerable item...
...But here is another point...
...They can be otherwise financed...
...Ford," I interjected, "that your claim of economy of lighter rolling stock is an undemonstrated theory...
...When we acquired the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton there were 2,600 people on its payroll...
...We will patent our new designs where they are patentable, but we will do this only to prevent someone else from doing so...
...And you can't do that by giving them $500,000,000 to perpetuate the present bad system, either...
...He has also wanted to own a railroad and recently purchased one...
...Get Rid of Lawyers THIS brings us to the fourth point, that of the surplus and inefficient employes...
...I said: 'Come on and let's go.' We took the train out and got to work...
...I would expedite the delivery of freight...
...One of the first things is to dispense with the legal staff...
...Ford is a son of farmer parents, having been born near Detroit, July 80, 1863...
...It is more so, because that car is likely to hold another car back...
...If a car takes more time than it should to deliver its load at its destination it is not, of course, earning as much as it should for the road...
...We are not governed in our redesign of rolling stock by what has gone before...
...With their stockholders on their backs and their banker bosses who don't know anything about railroading, what can they do...
...The children would be better off if they had to finance themselves...
...Contrast this with the efficiency of the bicycle which weighs twenty pounds and will carry a man who weighs 200 pounds...
...I would discharge unnecessary employes...
...It means that we carry en our books $30,000,000 less undelivered product than we otherwise would...
...There are theoretical compensations which it is claimed take care of this difference of distance traveled by wheels, but they are not real compensations...
...Proper organization would lead, at the time it is first presented, to establishing the facts about it and settling it on the basis of justice...
...They have long ago passed the point of economy...
...Well," he replied, "It doesn't do much good to talk about it...
...It is just as much waste as it would be for a man to take two days for a one-day job...
...In the meantime the track was blocked and a passenger train was being held up...
...The trouble is that we start with finance and expect finance to make the road go...
...There is a possible and practicable system of financing railroads by which those contributing the money will be in positions to add directly to the success of the undertaking...
...Proper financing would, of course, be easier on new roads...
...Then there will be no trouble about finances...
...There will be twice as much freight in the yards, so they will have to be bigger...
...Some of the troubles of the railroad situation in this country are told by Mr...
...Passed Economy Point "GREAT weight in trains, of course, calle for correspondingly heavy rails and ties...
...Since they are on the same axle and one cannot turn without the other, this makes it necessary that one wheel should slip on the rail...
...However, you have got hold of the main principles...
...At the station I noticed a wrecking train standing on a side track with steam up and went over to inquire what was the matter...
...Any small claim against a road is very likely to knock about the claims department for weeks or months, to require endless clerical attention, to clog the machine, to cost many times as much as it would to pay it...
...How can that be true," asked Mr...
...The heavier the engine and the heavier the rail, the greater was the consumption of steel and the greater profit all along the line...
...Of course, if such a course were attempted, we could expect a great outcry for the protection of invested capital...
...Most railroads have enough lawyers working for them to operate them if they were engaged in useful work...
...They must be liberated from the present system...
...Our experience illustrates this excellently...
...Once it is done, it won't need any explanation...
...Here is an example of redesign in freight cars...
...By speeding up our freight on this preliminary part of its journey we have been able to shorten the time of its delivery by periods ranging from seven to fourteen days...
...To secure this strength the axle must be very thick and heavy...
...At four o'clock one morning I came in from a trip that I had made to our iron mines up on the northern peninsula of Michigan...
...Finance is a failure...
...The axle connecting these wheels must be very strong to force this slip...
...Keep Freight Moving "THE third step, an immediate step which should be taken in the operation of any great railroad system," Mr...
...The Ford organization has never proceeded against anybody for infringement of its patents...
...We found almost immediately that by cutting out the lost motion, we could reduce that number to 1,500...
...Finance can't do that...
...In fact, finance is the wrong term to use...
...They could not start out on the job until he gave that word...
...How do you know that it would be more economical...
...It is contended," I suggested, "that weight is necessary to make railroad cars hold the track...
...It is said, Mr...
...I don't like to appear as criticizing or carping at any railroad manager...
...Railroad men know this...
...This means that our product gets to the people to whom we sell it from seven to fourteen days quicker than it used to...
...We have a pretty clear idea of what we are going to do...
...If all the roads were brought up to schedule, the benefit that we would derive would be shared by every other ahipper in the country...
...There isn't any business on our lines that some other line doesn't get a generous share of...
...They will belong to the world...
...And they like it...
...They can be made to keep moving...
...Few claimants would refuse to settle on the basis of the facts...
...The great majority of the freight which goes over our road goes over other roads, too...
...It costs money to do that...
...Engines and cars are four or five times as heavy as they should be...
...On the old ones, however, it should be possible to retire the parasite, noncontributing stockholder and get the ownership into the proper hands...
...The cost of pulling empty trains is needlessly large...
...I would reorganize in such a way as to get rid of the unproductive stockholder...
...But in doing so we have greatly reduced the weight of the undergear of every car...
...Redesign of Freight Cars "WERE you ever arrested for speeding...
...We have already solved the problem...
...All of which is aside from the interference with other traffic The tax of delayed freight is a heavy one on both industry and the railroads, and an unnecessary one...
...It would be said that people had bought these stocks for the financial protection of their families, their children...
...The real purpose of a railroad is to serve the public...
...This dead weight must be moved whether a train is loaded or empty...
...In any such case, I would immediately set about accomplishing four things," he replied...
...The first thing to be done anywhere is to reorganize by getting rid of the unproductive stockholders...
...I would redesign the rolling stock...
...Ford continued, "would be that of expediting the journey of the freight carrier...
...We did just this on the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, The lawyers are mostly in the claims department which is one of the most wasteful branches of railroad operation...
...The builders of rolling stock have regarded, or pretended to regard, size as an evidence of advancement...
...The figures are all at Washington...
...Recently he purchased the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton railroad connecting these cities and has begun an interesting series of railroad experiments...
...Ford in this article taken from The Nation's Business...
...Anybody who wants to can use any improvement we make...
...There is no reason why it should be diverted from that service and set to doing an entirely different thing—putting money into the pockets of stockholders who make no contribution to the road's actual operation...
...A well managed road needs less of that sort of service...
...if they don't they can soon find out...
...We find that the present type of rolling stock can be greatly improved...
...We will never proceed against anybody for infringement of our patents...
...I asked why they did not go, and they replied that they were waiting word from a certain man in authority...
...What is your answer to this charge...
...On the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton we tolerate no idle men, idle cars or idle engines...
...Ford countered...
...In the interest of better service we raised the wages of all those who remained on the payroll...
...The axle of a car and the two wheels upon it operate as a unit almost as though they were in one piece...
...Too Many Road Bosses THERE are too many bosses of varying rank on all these railroad jobs and their elimination would save a good deal of money...
...why doesn't someone look them up...
...The public has got to the point where it cannot pay for the dead weight and live freight too, so one or the other must go...
...The greater the overcapitalization, the heavier the burden...
...If it takes a road twice as long as necessary to deliver its freight, it will require twice the number of cars...
...When a car goes around a curve one wheel has to travel farther than the other...
...Although later employed in a factory at $45 a month, he always longed for a factory of his own...
...If the railroad is a success, it is due to him and his fellow workmen, and they are entitled to the profit...
...You can't expect men to work unless they are paid...
...Ford, "when the road hauled more tonnage the year before we took it over than it has hauled since we have had it...
...Even as a boy on the farm he was interested in machinery and rigged up a shop...
...Loaded cars or trains on side tracks are proof of inefficient operation...
...Anything that one can say is open to dispute or denial, but whatever one actually succeeds in doing is beyond argument...
...We are going to make some revolutionary changes...
...Now his main plant at Highland Park, Detroit, covers 147 acres under roof and the output is close to 4,000 cars a day...
...If so, the cop who overhauled you was mounted on a motorcycle that weighed about one-tenth as much as your car, yet it was speedier than you were...
...It is lengthening the time of the turnover of the shipper—and that, too, is a waste of money and everything else...
...But you can't pay them until you hitch up managerial ability with their work...
...It bears them down and prevents them from serving their purpose...
...Give Employes Part Ownership An Interview by WILLIAM ATHERTON DU PUY Authorized and Corrected by HENRY FORD Henry Ford is a railroad magnate these days as well as an automobile manufacturer...
...Protection from what...
...I would keep it moving...
...The primary argument of your critics," I suggested, "is that your success is due to the fact that you are in a position to divert Ford freight to that line, to thus insure its profitable operation...
...Freight can be kept moving...
...The producers of iron and steel have had much to do with the development of railroads...
...After removing this dividend strain, the second step would be to remove the great physical burden of the railroads—needless weight of its rolling stock...
...Make it possible for people to use it as much as they want to...
Vol. 13 • November 1921 • No. 11
