Report by H. G. Taylor on proposal of Chicago and North Western Ry. Co. to eliminate heater charges on shipments of potatoes 316 Minutes of regular meeting of the committee of directors, Sept. 13, 1447 318 Minutes of regular meeting of the committee of directors, Sept. 10, 1454 Minutes of regular meeting of committee of directors, Nov. 14, 1934 Cutline of activities for February 1937, by H. G. Taylor, com- 325 Minutes of regular meeting of the committee of directors, Apr. 14, 1472 Letter to D. A. Crawford, from L. E. Greenlaw, Oct. 30, 1934. Agreement between the Pullman Co. and Union Pacific R. R. Co., re "new-type lightweight cars", September 1936. Letter to L. S. Hungerford and L. S. Taylor, from D. A. Crawford, Letter to Champ Carry, from D. A. Crawford, Jan. 7, 1939_ Memorandum on proposed form of supplemental agreement on spe- cial type of nonstandard construction cars, by D. A. Crawford, Letter to Budd Manufacturing Co. from W. K. Etter, vice president Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. System, Apr. 7. 1936- Letter to Budd Manufacturing Co. from W. K. Etter, Dec. 14, 1936- Letter to D. A. Crawford, from L. S. Taylor, July 28, 1936 Letter to S. T. Bledsoe, president, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 340 Telegram to D. A. Crawford from Henry Sturgis, July 22, 1936_. Letter to D. A. Crawford from Henry Sturgis, July 17, 1936. Letter to D. A. Crawford from Hale Holden, Jr., Philadelphia, July 1490 Amended Air Agreement, Railway Express Agency, Inc., from Mr. Fxhibits introduced by Herbert Schimmel: "Wired Wireless" for Trolleys: An account of some experiments made in Connecticut on the application of carrier current teleph- ony to street railways' purposes, by Leon T. Wison, May 1923. Excerpt on air brakes from the American Railroad in Laboratory by 345 Letter from Senator H. M. Kilgore, to William J. Patterson, Chair- man, Interstate Commerce Commission, Feb. 2, 1944. Letter from William J. Patterson, to Senator H. M. Kilgore, Feb. 1508 No. 346 347 Exhibit Memorandum dated Feb. 4, 1944, from M. O. Lorenz, Bureau of Table 1. Number of locomotives of class I line haul railways, Table 2. Number of railroad cars classified by age groups, Memorandum dated Feb. 4, 1944, from John M. Hall, Director, Table 2. Investigation of safety devices, date of report, kind Table 3. Recommendations made in accident-investigation Appears on page 1509 1509 1510 1510 1510 1511 1518 1521 1527 1527 1528 348 Conclusions of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation on pas- 1530 Table 4. Recommendations made in Bureau or Safety reports. Power brakes and appliances for operating power brake systems. 349 350 351 Letter from Timken Roller Bearing Co., Railway Division, to Sub- 1551 1554 1556 LIST OF EXHIBITS According to page of testimony to which they refer SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL MOBILIZATION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1944 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON WAR MOBILIZATION, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10: 17 a. m., pursuant to adjournment on Tuesday, February 8, 1944, in room 101-B, Senate Office Building, Senator Harley M. Kilgore, West Virginia (chairman) presiding. Present: Senator Harley M. Kilgore and Senator James E. Murray. Also present: Dr. Herbert Schimmel, chief investigator; Wendell Berge, Assistant Attorney General of the United States; Arne C. Wiprud, chief, Transportation and Public Utilities Section, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice; Joseph M. Cormack, special assistant to the Attorney General; Joseph Borkin, consulting economist, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice; Irston R. Barnes, consulting economist, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice. STATEMENT BY SENATOR HARLEY M. KILGORE The CHAIRMAN. No review of American technology is complete without considering the railroad industry. America's industrial expansion up to the end of World War No. 1 was intimately linked with the growth of the railroads. With the help of Government subsidies, they opened up the country. They were the forces of penetration that made accessible our rich and enormous natural resources. Indeed, it was the railroads that brought together our resources of coal and iron to build a basic economic foundation which by the end of the nineteenth century had welded the 48 States into an industrialeconomic community. The railroads were the lines of strength that matured us into world leadership. But since the booming frontier days of the railroads, they seem to have lost their resiliency and youth. They settled into a comfortable middle age after the turn of the century and before the First World War. They have participated little in industrial progress since World War No. 1, and there were signs of approaching senility as we entered this war. Anyone who has traveled this past year must appreciate the extent to which our passenger-carrying railroad equipment is essential to war mobilization. The transportation of men in uniform and of civilians on war business is perhaps the most conspicuous feature of railroad travel today, and this war burden, superimposed on whatever volume of pleasure travel continues, has loaded our railroads far beyond their capacity to carry with safety. The fact of overburden ing is known to every passenger who has had to stand in the aisle long hours or even overnight on shaking, swaying passenger coaches. But the statistical background is not so well known. First it should be noted that we entered this war with 44 percent fewer passenger-carrying cars than we had when we entered the last war. As of December 31, 1917, according to I. C. C. tabulations, the class I railroads had 36,880 passenger-carrying cars in service. The comparable figure for December 31, 1941, was 20,709-a decrease during the 26-year period of 16,171 cars. That is, the railroads had to face the tremendous traffic increases of this war with 16,000 fewer passenger cars than they had way back in 1917. About half the cars which the railroads had available for mobilization on the eve of this war, moreover, were the same cars that they had in the last war. Specifically, 49.7 percent of the passenger cars in use last year were built before the armistice which ended the previous war. To that extent we are still using the same cars, or rather the same cars but 25 years older. Some of them, of course, have been "modernized." The locomotive story is not dissimilar. Thus 1,588 of the locomotives in service at the end of 1941 were built before the beginning of 1910. That accounts for 22 percent of all passenger locomotives in service. An additional 2,807 passenger locomotives, or 40 percent of the total, were built between 1910 and 1920. Only one-third of the passenger locomotives in service when mobilization came for this war were not in service on January 1, 1920, when the railroads were returned to private operation by the Government following the last war. It is, indeed, fortunate that we are not fighting the war in the Pacific with battleships built before 1910, and that we aren't bombing Berlin with planes 66 percent of which were built before 1920. Railroad men, of course, point out the tremendous difference between battleships, planes, and locomotives-and quite rightly so. Indeed, that is precisely the point I want to stress. In some fields, notably naval and aircraft design, a process of constant scientific and technological research is being carried on, and the results of this research are embodied in actual new construction as fast as they can be rushed from the drafting room to the shipyards or factories. Nobody would think of retaining a 1910 battleship in actual operation merely because it still floats and its guns still shoot. We say it has become obsolete. Similarly, in the Smithsonian Institution you will find airplanes which may be as good and as airworthy today as they were when they were built. But that's not good enough. We are a progressive people and we demand progress from our scientists, our technologists, and our industries. In normal times we trade in our cars when a better model comes along, not when the old jalopy won't proceed another foot. The railroads, on the other hand, follow a more conservative policy. I think railroad men will agree that, with few exceptions, railroad equipment is retired when it won't run any more or isn't needed, rather than merely because better equipment is available. This conservative principle is nowhere better illustrated than in the rate of introduction of the lightweight, streamlined passenger trains with which you are all so familiar from their appearance in railroad advertisements and with which the Antitrust Division is especially familiar because of the Sherman Act suit against the Pullman Co., resulting in a decision in favor of the Government earlier this year. In his testimony today Mr. Berge will summarize a number of instances of technological repression arising from monopolistic malpractices. Monopolistic repression of new developments seems clearly to be one of the factors in the technological old age of this industry. This series of hearings will endeavor to bring out a number of others. Learning from the past and using it as a springboard, I believe and hope that the railroad industry will break with the traditions it has followed for a quarter of a century. It must do so if it is to cope with the wartime problems now facing it and emerge to provide genuine service to the American people in the post-war period." Great technological opportunities lie ahead. Among them are modernized light equipment, the adoption and adaptation of radio intercommunication and the universal use of roller bearings on all equipment. After Mr. Berge's testimony today I am going to ask Dr. Schimmel to introduce a number of pertinent exhibits into the record. Tomorrow we shall have testimony by Col. E. J. W. Ragsdale, of the E. G. Budd Manufacturing Co., and Mr. William S. Halstead, of the Halstead Traffic Communications Corporation, who have pioneered, respectively, in the development of lightweight trains and radio intercommunications. On Saturday we shall continue the investigation. TESTIMONY OF WENDELL BERGE, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY Mr. BERGE. Our railroads, Mr. Chairman, constitute one of our greatest national assets. They have played a tremendous part in the growth and development of this country. In times of peace the railroads have been highly essential to trade and commerce. They have been a great instrument for the accomplishment of national unity. This country will always need a healthy system of railroad transportation. In time of war the demands upon our railroad system are many times increased. Indeed, any exposition of the obviously critical importance of our railroads in wartime would be both trite and unnecessary. Our railroads are vital to practically every war activity. The railroads today are undoubtedly doing the best they can under trying circumstances to meet pressing war needs. They are to be commended for their wholehearted cooperation in the war program. But because the railroads are presently doing the best they can within the limitations of their capacity to handle the war's abnormal demands should not prevent us from surveying as objectively as possible certain policies and practices which have limited their capacity. For as soon as the war is over there will be many problems which will have to be settled with respect to the future operation of our railroads. In making decisions, Congress and the people should have all of the available facts. This committee, particularly, is concerned with artificially imposed restraints upon technological development. S. 702 would create an Office of Scientific and Technical Mobilization with the duty of gather |