2. RUSHING FREIGHT TO NEW YORK

SYLVESTER BAXTER

Without the railroads the commerce of to-day would be impossible. Like a great net of steel they bind the country together and enable us to enjoy products which come from every section of the land. Hardly an article of furniture or a piece of equipment can be found in the home, the school, or the factory to the transportation of which the railroads have not contributed. This selection describes the part they play in collecting and distributing products in a great city.

As you read, notice how the author, by using an example, adds interest to his subject.

THE METROPOLIS AS A FOCUS

"All roads lead to Rome," they used to say. Here in America all roads now lead to New York. At least all railroads do. And on the sides where there are no railroads, the water-lines lead in from the seven seas.

To feed a great city, to meet its many physical needs, to supply the huge market that it makes for the nation and the world, and again to distribute to the nation and the world what is collected or produced at that market — this seems an infinitely complicated problem. The task has gradually shaped itself from day to day, from year to year. Otherwise it would have been the despair of engineers, of statesmen, of the money-powers.

The ends of the earth are drawn upon to serve the greatest city of the western world. Its burden-bearers cross the continent. Upon the restless waters of the bay and throughout the thronging streets there is a constant inpour and outpour of materials for the making of things, the selling of things, the devouring of things a perpetual movement that brings and that sends in every direction an endless torrent of boxes, bales, barrels, and bundles.

All this tremendous turmoil in Manhattan streets, seemingly a chaos of confusion, is, in truth, only a disorderly order. It looks like the movement of a mob; actually it is the movement of a disciplined army advancing for the moment in loose formation.

Should we take at random from the torrent any one of the boxes, bales, barrels, or bundles and trace its journey back to its

source, the magnificent order of it all would be apparent. Whatever the article might be, whichever way it took us, we would explore the workings of some supeib organization moving that particular box or bundle, together with thousands of other boxes and bundles, to this spot.

FISH FROM BOSTON FOR NEW YORK'S BREAKFAST TABLE

Let us suppose that you and I are lunching together in a downtown restaurant in New York, talking this matter over. That broiled halibut which came to the next table looked so good that we ordered some ourselves. Here it is! Could anything be fresher? Well, by following the course of that halibut on its way hither we shall get some idea of the transportation organization of New York's next-door neighbor, New England. We may see something of how New York, and a deal of the country beyond New York, is fed and clothed. "Fed!" you exclaim. "Fed from New England?"

Why, yes, to no little extent! Not only fish, but also potatoes, apples, and cranberries, and a lot of other products good to eat, come from that quarter. Take this halibut, for instance. Very likely it was landed day before yesterday in Boston the first fishing-port in America, having a fresh-fish business of $6,000,000 and more a year.

THE FASTEST FREIGHT-TRAIN IN THE WORLD

The other day I was on a train outward bound from a great city. We rolled past a big freight-yard. Hundreds of cars, bearing the names of dozens of different railroad companies, stood in compact ranks upon scores of parallel tracks. The man sitting beside me remarked: "Curious how freight-cars always seem to be standing still! I'll warrant those very cars have been on those same tracks for the past week without stirring. I read lately that the average ton of railroad freight does not move more than twenty-five miles a day. No wonder freight-trains never get anywhere!"

"However that may be," I replied, "I can show you a yard where the average long-distance ton gets more than 200 miles

inside of twenty-four hours. And a great deal of it is delivered more than 230 miles in less than a third of that time."

The man's eyes opened wide: "And do you mean to say that a freight-train does that? You must mean express, not freight." "A regular freight-train, running daily as regularly as a ferryboat," I replied.

Now let us follow the track of the halibut back to Boston and look at that train for ourselves. It is the famous "Pier Freight," said to be the best freight-train in the world. The time is early last evening at the big yard in South Boston. A census of all the cars in this yard - 1800 on the average, and occasionally as many as 2100 is taken twice a day. The general yardmaster knows about every car there: what it is, where it is, how long it has been there. In this one yard are fifty miles of track; every month at least 200,000 tons of freight are handled there.

The "Pier Freight" stands at its long platform, nearly loaded and ready to start a 640-ton train; limited to the capacity of its motive power. Speed is a main consideration; the engine is a "long-legged," business-looking machine, one of the biggest of ten-wheeled passenger locomotives. Among engineers it is as much of an honor to run the Boston "Pier Freight” as to run the "Merchants Limited Passenger."

It is now within a few minutes of starting time; everything is on board except some of the fish. Trucks still come hurrying into the yard with crates and barrels just packed; the perspiring freight-handlers are rushing their trucks along the platform to the cars. The train is scheduled to pull out at 5:55 P. M., and it lacks only eight minutes of leaving time.

"All full!" comes the word. The last car doors are shut. Too late a wagon backs up to the platform. Its three crates of fish must be taken around to the South Station and go by express. They will get to New York on time, but at a much higher cost.

The halibut is safe on board. It is a rushing business, that of getting Boston fish to the New York market. The Boston dealers, as a rule, do not get their orders from New York till after I P. M. The orders come by mail or wire; usually by wire, either telegraph or telephone. New York fish merchants cannot figure out their requirements for the day until well along in the forenoon.

At the Boston end there has to be quick work in getting the fish out of storage, and in packing and forwarding it. The main problem is to get the fish to the consumer as fresh as possible; hence the delay in ordering and the speed in forwarding.

TWENTY-NINE MILES AN HOUR, INCLUDING STOPS

The Boston "Pier Freight” runs to New York in 7 hours and 55 minutes distance 227.75 miles a running time, including stops, of a little less than 29 miles an hour. At times the speed runs as high as 60 miles an hour. Imagine, if you can, an old-time freight-train, with jiggly light cars and link couplings, going like that! Such speed is made possible by the air-brake and automatic safety-coupler. Strange that their compulsory use was fought by some of the biggest railroad men.

In the old days a big railroad man once said of his company's freight service: "Eight miles to the hour is the proper speed. I will dismiss the engineer who dares run by his mile-post faster than that speed." An eminent expert in transportation charged another great railroad company with reckless extravagance in running its freight-trains as fast as twelve miles an hour. "The wear and tear is terrible," he declared. "It is pounding the track to pieces; every ton of freight hauled at that rate is carried at a loss; a reduction of speed to eight miles an hour would lessen the expenses in the wear-and-tear account of the freight service of that railroad more than a thousand dollars a day!" Those were the days of iron rails and hand-brakes.

Just as the Boston "Pier Freight" habitually pulls out on schedule time, so it customarily arrives ahead of schedule time. It is almost never late in leaving or arriving. Once, when there was a bad snow-storm in Boston, shippers were informed that on account of the bad going in the streets the train would be held for twenty minutes, if necessary. Even then all shipments were delivered to the yard in season and the train left promptly on time.

This morning the "Pier Freight," due at Harlem River at 1.55 A. M., came in, as usual, ahead of time. The Fulton Market had its own boat in waiting; the crates of fish were promptly taken on board and down the river to the market. At five o'clock

the fish were on the auction-block. And, as usual, that element in New York's breakfast, luncheon, dinner was taken care of for the day.

ENLARGING NEW ENGLAND'S MARKET

How railroad improvements made at a distant point may be of as great or even greater benefit to a given locality than improvements made at the locality itself, is seldom appreciated. The average local merchant or manufacturer delights in transportation improvements in his own neighborhood, but is indifferent to those made at a distance. But does not a better stomach mean a better heart and a healthier man? In a similar way improvements in one part of a railroad may brace up the whole system and benefit everybody along the line.

For this reason Boston and the rest of New England are benefited by terminal improvements in New York just as much as they would be by improvements made at home. Since New York is New England's greatest market, every improvement that makes the shipment of goods from New England to New York easier and cheaper benefits New England.

Agricultural as well as manufacturing interests benefit thereby. The Wallabout Market in Brooklyn is said to be the greatest in the world. From that market New England had been well-nigh excluded, while the trunk lines from the West enjoyed terminal relations that gave them cheap access. Potatoes brought a thousand miles from Wisconsin, or two thousand miles from Montana, kept out the potatoes of Maine, only a few hundred miles away. But now the advantage lies with the East. These instances of the way in which a whole section of the country may benefit by terminal improvements in New York, show how the various communities that are served by a common system of transportation are members one of the other literally bound together by hoops of steel.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Explain how the people of New York get their food. What work do they do to pay for their food?

2. Do New Yorkers use most of the commodities which are brought into the city or do they ship most of them elsewhere? Explain.