CHAPTER VI

INTERRELATION BETWEEN HIGHWAY AND OTHER KINDS OF TRANSPORTATION Transportation has been classified as primary and secondary. Transportation on the public highway, whether of raw products to the market or finished products to the consumer, is denominated primary; transportation by railroads, canals, and ships as secondary. Practically all secondary transportation is of products which were first or last or both subjects of primary transportation.[159] There should, therefore, be a natural harmonious relation between them. Suppose the foot should say to the hand, “You are useless, it is I who support the body”; and the hand should retort, “Think you’re smart, don’t you? I’ll let you know it is I who collect and prepare the food which nourishes it; a log of wood could easily replace you”: would that make either one of them independent of the other? Too true that the great railroad corporations have not always acted in a manner suitable to the man in the street, that they have often taken too much toll, that they have become rich and arrogant, that they have frequently manipulated the political machinery of government in their own favor, that they have exploited where they should not, that they have shown favoritism to prominent shippers, and that they have often borne down heavily on the laboring man; but, this country would never have been developed to its present state of civilization and prosperity without some powerful and efficacious method of transportation. The railroads, proving themselves to be more efficient than either the public highways or the waterways, without perhaps intending any maliciousness, put them practically out of business. Now that improved roads and automobiles and motor trucks are giving the railroads a race for their life some unthinking persons are gloating over the fact and shouting “to the victor belongs the spoils.” The evolutionary law that the “fittest will survive” does not necessarily mean that what is best for the world, for government, for society, for business will always survive. Weeds will often choke out the corn unless prevented by outside influence. A beautiful elm stands on the corner. Every spring it sheds an abundance of seeds; soon these germinate and there springs up throughout the lawn, flower and vegetable gardens, myriads of young elm trees. Now elm trees in their proper place are desirable, are useful, are ornamental and furnish pleasure, but when they become weeds they should be rooted up that the lawn, the vegetables, and the flowers may persist. Here the fittest for society survives only because of artificial regulation. The railroads, steam and electric, the waterways and the highways all have spheres of usefulness; let each perform its function and there need be no incongruity or discord. Experience has proved time and again that any machine has a particular capacity at which it can be most efficiently operated. A simple stone crusher kept half full is running at a loss; if crowded and speeded up it will wear and break unduly. It would be foolish to run continually a 50 horse-power engine to serve a 2 horse-power motor. An electric light plant is most economical when operated at its “capacity.” Horse and wagons, motor trucks, railways, canals, and ships, are but machines, and the law holds with all of them that they are most efficient when operated at their proper capacity. Another economic truth is that the unit cost of production is usually lowest when the output is great. Quantity production is the goal of practically all successful manufacturing enterprises. Automatic and near-automatic machines replace the human hand. One person by the aid of mechanical and electrical devices produces as much in the same time as could a score or even a hundred without such help formerly. The chief reason why quantity production is cheaper than individual production is that it allows for a division of labor, a separation of the preparing processes into several operations or occupations. Growing the grain, transporting it to market, grinding it into flour, baking it into bread, and selling the bread, indicate some of the several occupations, that arise in the simple preparation of “our daily bread.” The meat-packing industry affords an excellent example of the principle: The animal is surveyed and “laid off like a map”; and each workman as the carcass passes him has one operation to perform. One man sticks the pig, another scalds it, another pulls the hair from a particular portion of the body, one cuts the slits for the gambols, another inserts the sticks, still others hoist the body to the hanger, and so on as it proceeds along its course scores of persons are each doing a very limited portion of the work until the entire animal is prepared and packed for shipment. The workmen are classified and the highest paid are put to the most delicate or important parts while for the less delicate and less important duties the pay is very much lower. But each workman having only a small variety of work to perform soon becomes adept and can do a much greater amount than if he attempted the entire round of labor. The building of automobiles wherein materials start from different places and eventually coalesce as they proceed on their journey through the shops by each workman as they pass adding one thing or performing one operation until the whole emerges a complete machine ready to run away under its own power, is another case in point. Mr. James J. Hill, when president of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Chicago Burlington & Quincy railroad companies, applied the principle of quantity production to railroad transportation. Under his supervision locomotives and cars increased in size; this necessitated heavier rails and more substantial track; trains were not allowed to leave the terminals until a full load had been accumulated; regular schedules were of course done away with except for passenger and a few local freight trains. Other trains were to be run only at the full capacity of the locomotive. This was not conducive to speed, but the unit cost of hauling a ton of freight one mile was very materially reduced. The same crew with comparatively small increase in costs may operate a train of many cars about as easily as one of few cars. The same principle underlies the efforts of motor transport companies. They are increasing the size of trucks and loads to decrease cost. They have not used discretion, however, in this and their heavy trucks have ground to powder high-cost roadways with the result that public sentiment is reacting against them and regulatory laws are being passed by many legislatures. Increasing the size of the plant, train, or truck will not bring economies unless it can be run at its capacity load, consequently when the trade or traffic will not utilize full loading a smaller plant should be adopted. To run a 12 horse-power gasoline engine to turn a 1¹⁄₄ horse-power washing machine motor is no more foolish than to run 100-car locomotives to pull 2-car trains, or 7-ton trucks where the load never exceeds 2 tons, or 7-passenger automobiles with 1 or 2 passengers. The contention is well founded that western railroad methods are futile on New England railroads[160] and that if prosperity is ever to come to New England roads they must reduce their rates and rates can only be reduced by making the size and number of cars commensurate with the character and amount of traffic. In England where shipping distances are comparatively short the small van or car and quick deliveries have been evolved. In well-settled portions of this country, as in New England, similar practices might well be adopted that the railways may not be entirely eliminated and the public forced eventually to resort to more expensive transportation methods when both direct and indirect costs are considered over the public highways. The railroads are also complaining that the automobile is cutting into their passenger earnings. This is no doubt true. What else can be expected with approximately 11,000,000 machines now in operation? Thousands of tourists are daily traversing the country. They find the outing pleasant and when several occupy one car it is cheaper than railroad travel. Free camping along the way avoids hotel bills which have grown inordinately during the past few years. If these rates continue, simple inns as in the olden days may grow up and cut into the business of the high-priced hotels. Lower charges for both railroads and hotels will mitigate but not entirely eliminate the automobile competition. The motor car is here to stay and automobile travel will continue to increase. It is no longer a theory but a condition which exists, and the railroads and hotels should adopt the policy of the wily politician,--who said, “If you can’t lick ’em, jine ’em,”--meet the automobile half way and make the most of it. If predictions of those in close touch with the automobile business be any criterion the railroads will feel the influence of the motor car more and more. H. F. Blanchard, writing in _Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1923, p. 26, claims that the $150 passenger car is in sight, and that the “saturation point” which has been a worry for years has not yet arrived and will not if the lowering of prices keeps pace with increased production. It is pointed out that the production of automobiles and trucks is still increasing. The 1922 output (2,577,220 machines) is more than the 1920 output (2,276,000) and these are bought by the public as fast as made. Mr. Durant, a prominent manufacturer, is quoted as saying that: “The development of a cheaper car than we now believe possible is only a question of the development of the highways. Millions more of automobiles would be in use in America to-day if the conditions of our highways permitted. When our automobiles can be built to run on highways that are on the average as good as our city streets--and this is bound to come sooner or later--we shall have lighter, better and far cheaper cars. And the time is not far distant.” In Roger W. Babson’s weekly comment dated September 30, 1922, we read: Railroads have already felt the effects of pleasure automobiles, but they have not really begun yet to feel the effects of auto trucking. The trucking of goods within a radii of 50 or 100 miles has only begun and this radius may readily be extended to cover 200 or 250 miles. Transcontinental systems ... have nothing to fear from trucks. In fact the trucks may help them. Other roads [those intermediate in length] can survive and perhaps profit under this competition. With roads such as [short-line roads] this is not true. These roads are bound to suffer far more from the truck than they now think possible. We shall live to see great highways built by the state exclusively for truck use. Railroads are destined ultimately to lose all of their short haul business and hence the roads which are in comparatively small and compact territories are sure to suffer. The only hope for some roads ... is to sell certain of their rights of way to the state in order that the tracks may be removed and concrete highways laid in their place. Many roads have parallel lines to-day under their control. The wise railroad company will develop one of these for itself and will sell the other at a good price to the state for a concrete truck highway. If the steam railroads are feeling the competition of the motor, the interurban trolley lines and the street-car companies are harder hit. The interurban lines are most of them short and depend upon local traffic. Their cars stopped at any cross-road along the way to pick up passengers and freight. But the motor transport is going them one better; it picks up its load at the front gate, saving the trouble of even a short walk, or in the case of freight, of loading and unloading and a short haul to the track. The case of street-car lines is slightly different. So many persons are purchasing and daily using automobiles to go to and from business that the street-car people have complained bitterly. Many lines are running behind and one at least, Des Moines, Iowa, entirely stopped operation (August, 1917). The moment they found their revenues decreasing they ran to the railway commissions and city councils with requests for permits to increase rates of fare. The increase when allowed not only failed to alleviate but aggravated the trouble. Even old-fashioned persons who formerly traveled home for luncheon and back afterward began patronizing cafeterias and clubs. The habit of eating noon luncheon down town was soon formed. Others emulated their example, resulting in the loss of hundreds and even thousands of fares per week. Riding to and from work in an automobile has a fascination for most men, and every one in a street car who sees his neighbor whizzing along by the side vows that he, too, will drive a car as soon as he can save enough money to make the first payment. Useless for the street car managers to try to prove to him that the expenses of a car--gas, oil, tires, repairs and depreciation--are vastly greater than street car fares; everybody knows that, but he must be in the style. Farmers, as the implement dealers have found to their sorrow, will do without or tinker up old harvesters and plows in order to enjoy the pleasure of owning an automobile. The mechanic may change his seven-passenger for a light-four as wages go down but he still insists on riding his own car. The merchant while complaining that others should give up their machines and pay their bills, hangs on to his own with the grip of death. Women, even, are willing to give up pretty dresses and wear khaki overalls at least half the time. It looks as though many will hereafter live a nomadic life using their cars and garages more than their one- and two-room apartments. Stop the people from using motors and force them back to the street cars? Never, until the hardships of living reach the state of starvation and nakedness. In addition to the owners of automobiles there are the taxicabs, “jitneys,” and buses. If the street car system is the logical plant it is desired to maintain for the good of the community then these others are weeds if allowed free rein. If, when the street-car companies go bankrupt and quit business, the motor cars could give a better service, outside of the fact that property had been destroyed without compensation, no particular damage would be noticeable to the community as a whole. But the experience of Des Moines shows that while special efforts were made to transport every one; buses were brought in from distant cities and owners of cars most freely picked up the pedestrians, nevertheless, there was much inconvenience and discontent. Private cars cannot long be depended on to carry free the throng; taxicabs are too expensive, insufficient in number and have no regular schedule; jitneys are unreliable sporadic cars, and half of them go out of business on days of bad weather. There is left then the buses. These may be made of such size and be run with such regularity as to be really valuable for local transportation service. No doubt they will survive and always be a strong competitor of the electric surface street car. Not being confined to a track they load and unload at the curb thus eliminating an element of danger from passing vehicles much feared by timid people. Not having to keep up a track, trolley lines, or a plant for generating electricity the expenses are not particularly great per bus, from $25 to $35 per day will cover them, it is estimated,[161] which puts the bus on a par in this respect with the small street car. [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ TRACKLESS TROLLEY OPERATED ON STATEN ISLAND, N. Y.] [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ GASOLINE LOCOMOTIVE AND TRAILER Operated by the Chicago & Great Western R. R.] There is a legitimate field for these buses in the smaller cities and on streets in large cities not easily reached by, or upon which it is desirable not to have street-car tracks. But they should not be free lances--they should be under regulations as street cars are under regulations, they should make scheduled trips, they should be backed by capital or insurance sufficient to pay indemnities in cases of accident and upon payment of license fees are entitled to protection and possibly monopoly in their prescribed territory. A cheap form of transportation, either electric trolley, with or without track, or buses, is absolutely necessary. Buses and individual jitneys cannot, where the business is heavy, carry passengers as cheaply as the electric street car, but for a more limited traffic the buses may take their place, and for still less traffic jitneys can find a useful occupation. If buses and jitneys are allowed absolute freedom without restrictions as to schedule or route they will skim the cream from the street transportation business and so reduce the revenues of the street cars that they will have to discontinue operation. A thing so undesirable that the public will have to subsidize the street cars and guarantee a certain percentage of earnings or take over their ownership, run them at a nominal fare and let the taxpayer take care of the deficit. By these means those persons who ride their own automobiles, the heavier taxpayers, who are, or should be, most vitally interested in maintaining cheap transportation for the unfortunate residue who cannot possibly afford automobiles, yet whose labor is absolutely essential to the industrial and commercial prosperity of the city, will be required to pay a portion of the upkeep of street-car transportation. If a subsidy be adopted it would be better that it should not be a direct guaranty of a fixed percentage of earnings for in that manner there is no premium on efficiency as our Government found to its cost in dealing with the railroads during the recent war. It would be better if some sort of a sliding scale could be worked out whereby the lines should be relieved of occupational taxes or license fees in proportion as they lowered fares, and such that the lower the fares the greater the percentage of profit they might earn. The contract or charter might provide that all earnings above a specified percentage, due allowance having been made for operation, repairs, and upkeep, on bona fide capital invested should be turned over to the city as a license for the use of the streets. For example with a fare of three cents the city might guarantee a 5 per cent income, but allow, by reduction of taxes and all payments to the city an earning of 10 per cent; on a five cent fare guarantee 3 per cent and allow earnings of 8 per cent; and so on as shown by the accompanying table the figures of which are merely illustrative: +--------------+----------+-------------+ |With a fare of| The City |And allows an| | |Guarantees| earning of | +--------------+----------+-------------+ | 3 cents |4 per cent| 10 per cent | | 4 |3¹⁄₂ | 9 | | 5 |3 | 8 | | 6 |2 | 7 | | 7 |1 | 6 | | 8 |0 | 5 | +--------------+----------+-------------+ To make a workable contract of this sort there would first have to be an agreement as to the corporation capital upon which earning percentages are to be based. If this could be made equal to the real investment it would be absolutely just to both the public and the corporation. However, the so-called unearned increment would in some cases have to be considered. Publicity in accounting, capitalization, bonded indebtedness and earnings, and the feeling engendered that the public is in a sense a co-partner with the corporation would add to more harmonious relations between the two. Similar contracts might be arranged between bus lines and the city, or between bus lines and the state where rural roads are used, and between railroad and other transportation corporations and the Federal Government for interstate lines. Objection may be raised to this plan on the ground that it violates usury laws. Nearly every state in the Union provides by law for a maximum rate of interest. Laws of this kind have existed almost since the beginning of history and are so imbedded in the minds of the people that they believe 6 or 7 per cent is all a public service corporation should be allowed to make on its investment, when as a matter of fact all sorts of private businesses are making profits many times that amount without hindrance by law or public sentiment. People who risk money in adventures which are in general for the good of the public should be allowed returns fully as high as those suggested, even though they do go beyond the customary 7 percent. Whatever the right figures are careful accounting and publicity will have a tendency to establish, and once established they ought to be as stable and permanent as life insurance rates and thus encourage the investment of funds in such enterprises. =Legitimate Fields of Transportation Agencies.=--Agreeing, then, that the present systems of transportation should not be put out of business by less efficient ones, what seems to be the most feasible interrelations that will allow all of them to live and let live? There seems to be no doubt but what the railroads can and do transport large quantities long distances quicker, better, and more efficiently than can be done on the highways. Highways may be considered as feeders of the railways. With good roads the zone from which the railway can profitably draw products for long distance or quantity transportation is widened, and again widened very materially when better roads allow the use of motors in place of horses. This, if no other railway interferes, means a larger grand total of traffic hauled. Again the character of the farming along the zone served by a railroad will depend upon the facilities for marketing as well as soil and climate. Those products ordinarily called perishable may be raised if the roads are good so that they may be marketed quickly and cheap enough to compete with other localities. Such produce yield a larger net return per acre than the staple grain products. Intensive farming is usually necessary in such cases so that a smaller farm will support a family allowing an increase in rural population, a thing most highly desirable in this country. The railroad benefits again, then, because of the increased produce raised by intensive farming brought about by quick marketing facilities, and by increased freight and passenger traffic necessary to supply the greater population. Furthermore, if roads were good throughout the year marketing would be spread over the entire period and there would not at times be a glut with corresponding scarcity of cars, and other facilities for handling. If cars, warehouses and elevators were sufficient to care for these periods there would be an over supply of facilities at other times and capital would be unnecessarily tied up producing larger overhead charges. With good roads there would likewise be less need for large quantities of money at particular periods of the year as uniform marketing would allow a smaller capital to be turned oftener. Moreover, unproductive branch lines would by the increased traffic brought to them by the improved highways be either made productive or they could be dispensed with altogether. The unproductive short-haul traffic would then be cared for by electric railways, motor trucks or even by horse wagons. =Intra City Traffic.=--Mr. J. C. Thirlwall, of the railway and tractive engineering department of the General Electric Company (_General Electric Review_, Vol. XXIV, pp. 974-985), discussing the fields of the rail car, trolley bus and gasoline bus, tabulates the respective costs of these types on a comparative basis for a variety of conditions. In general the calculations indicate that: (_a_) Where rush hour headways of 3 min. or less are required with safety cars, rail cars are the most economical and up to 6 min. headways offer successful competition to the other types where the road is a going concern. (_b_) On longer headways the trolley bus appears to have the advantage due to the lower fixed charges. (_c_) The gasoline bus on account of higher operating expense does not offer competition to the rail car until minimum headways of 10 min. are reached on new routes and 20 min. on existing lines. (_d_) The trolley bus is more economical than the gasoline bus up to headways of 60 min. or longer. A tabulation of the respective fields is as follows: Minimum headways, 3 min. or less; rail cars. Minimum headways, 3 to 6 min.; rail cars or trolley bus. Minimum headways, 6 to 60 min.; trolley bus. Minimum headways, 60 min. or more; gasoline bus. This does not mean that existing lines with headways of 7¹⁄₂ to 10 minutes should be scrapped and replaced with the newer forms of transportation. It would not pay to do this until a headway greater than 15 or 20 minutes has been reached. =Length of Haul for Economical Trucking.=--The railroads would not be alone in the benefits due to better roads. Truck lines could be established to care for freight and passenger traffic between farm and station. Here the truck and railroads would coöperate, there would be no competition, for each would be performing a function incapable (or unprofitable) of performance by the other; the net result would be a benefit to the entire community. But most transport lines that are being established come into actual competition with existing railroad lines. Just how far a motor truck may profitably compete with the railway depends, of course, on the relative costs of transportation. Mr. Cabot[162] calculates that twelve miles is the dividing line between motor truck transport and rail transport. He figures the cost of delivery and removal from the railway station at 15 cents per hundred weight, or $3 per ton at each end for terminal charges and that the cost of motor truck haul is at least 50 cents per ton mile. A ton may be hauled, therefore, on truck, 12 miles to balance the railway terminal expense or charge. A formula might be worked out this way. Let _x_ = the number of miles where rail and truck charges just balance; _m_ = motor truck charge per ton-mile; _r_ = rail charge per ton-mile; _t_ = terminal railroad charge-cost of collecting and delivery to the railroad plus the cost of removal from the railroad. Thus motor charge for _x_ miles is _mx_ and railroad charge for same distance is _rx_ + _t_, equating these, _mx_ = _rx_ + _t_. Solving for the distance traveled, _t_ _x_ = ---------. _m_ - _r_ With Mr. Cabot’s figures this formula gives 6.00 600 _x_ = ---------- = ---- = 13.5. .50 - .055 44.5 Using the cost 25 cents per ton mile made up by actual averages compiled by the Motor Truck Association of America and 5.5 cents used by Mr. Cabot as the railroad cost charge, there results 6.00 600 _x_ = --------- = --- = 30 miles. .25 - .05 20 It will be noticed that this formula contemplates no terminal charge for the motor truck as it is expected to pick up and deliver the freight at the doors of the consignor and consignee and that the cost of doing this is absorbed in the cost per mile. The dividing distance between profitable rail and freight transportation, _x_, is seen by the formula to vary directly with the terminal charge and indirectly with the difference between motor and rail cost per mile. To lessen this distance is in the interest of the railroads and can be accomplished by decreasing the terminal charges and the cost of transportation per ton-mile. Express companies have for years accomplished this by employing the system of free collection and delivery, and railways in England do likewise. The motor transport companies will have to decrease their cost per ton-mile in order to increase the distance that it is profitable for the shipper to utilize motor trucks. If the difference in cost per ton-mile could be reduced to twelve cents with terminal costs at $6 per ton, and doubtless this may be done under favorable circumstances, the distance would be lengthened to 50 miles. This is probably the maximum motor truck haul which can in general profitably compete with rail transportation. With better roads, larger trucks, trailers, or, in special cases, with certain classes of goods and commodities, longer hauls will be profitable. The distances which it seems profitable to do trucking are continually being lengthened. Forrest Crissey, writing in the _Saturday Evening Post_ of December 16, 1922, relates a case in which household goods were hauled from Boston to Cleveland at a saving over rail rates and expenses incurred by delays of $417.50 on the shipment. His figures summarized are as follows: Rail-- Crating and Hauling to Station $ 300.00 Freight 150.00 Hauling and Uncrating at destination 75.00 Hotel Bill of Family of five, two rooms and board, while waiting 525.00 House rental while waiting 67.50 -------- Total $1117.50 Van company’s charge from home to home $ 700.00 -------- Calculated saving $ 417.50 It should be remembered that certain kinds of goods, such as household, lend themselves readily to truck shipments. With this class of goods expensive packing and several handlings are eliminated. Such is true of much merchandise which can be delivered directly from the store of the seller to the door of the buyer; to many varieties of manufactured goods which are sold within comparatively short distances of the factory. Each case should be worked out for itself and all the various kinds of transportation used that prove to be practical and economical. Where large concerns like packing houses are supplied with railway tracks right to their doors, shipping in car load and train load lots is not only more economical but absolutely necessary where such large quantities are transported in refrigerator cars. But for distribution to towns near-by the truck is much more convenient and economical. It is impossible to say for so-many-miles it is cheaper to ship by truck, because each commodity must be considered individually in connection with the character of the roads, the conditions of weather and climate, and the time of delivery. While the case of shipping household goods alluded to above proved very successful the next one might meet inclement weather, the truck might have to remain out in the rain and some of the goods become damaged, as was the case of one such shipment that came under the writer’s observation. A single swallow does not make a summer, but the trend is no doubt toward much longer truck trips. And as the roads and vehicles become stabilized and standardized this will be even more evident. For example, milk collected at stations 50 and 60 miles from the large cities can be hauled in to market in large tank cars which are built somewhat on the thermos or vacuum bottle principle, the milk arriving at its destination cooler and in every way better than if hauled in small containers. The truck has a large field open for its especial qualities. Let it confine its operations to these and rail competition will not injure it. =Short-Haul Roads Reduce Express Rates.=--The Boston & Maine Railroad is reducing express rates between Boston and towns within a radius of 50 miles in an effort to win back short-haul traffic lost to motor trucks.[163] The average reduction is given as about 40 per cent on less than carload lots. The old rail service rate between Lynn and Boston was $1.50 per ton, 7¹⁄₂ cents per hundred, with a minimum loading of 20,000 pounds per car, while the truck service charge is about $3 per ton, yet it is estimated that 80 to 90 per cent of the business was by truck. The reduced rail rate is 5 cents per hundred, $1 per ton with the minimum loading eliminated. It remains to be seen whether people are willing to pay a higher rate to ship by truck, or whether the trucks will meet the express rates. The railroads may still lower costs by one or two other devices: They may use lighter weight cars and locomotives; they may use gasoline motor cars such as the McKeen used on several branch line runs by the Union Pacific, or a motor car now being tried out capable of running on rails or on the pavements at will. Such a car would take advantage of the light traction on the rails between stations but could go through the main streets to pick up its load. A rail-motor bus following the main features of the street bus and embodying “the same elements of simplicity in construction, reliability in performance, flexibility in operation, light weight, and low first cost,”[164] has been built and operated at an average of 14 miles to the gallon of gasoline, a sufficient indication that it can save in operating expenses. The car weighs 11,000 pounds and has a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour, and when required trailers may be used without materially decreasing the speed. =Avoiding Waste.=--Such methods of cheapening and bettering railroad transportation together with a lowering of rates generally to a point that the traffic can bear, and the adoption of managerial methods that will lessen avoidable wastes, which the railroad unions estimate at one billion dollars per year,[165] may eventuate in a rehabilitation and stabilization of the railway industry. The taking over by motor trucks of short-haul freight and passenger traffic, even though it cause the discontinuation of unprofitable branch lines may prove to roads but a pruning which will be beneficial and inure to the growth of the main trunk and remaining healthy branches. William H. Manse, a member of the Congressional Joint Commission of Agricultural Inquiry,[166] has called attention to another economic waste. He states that “city freight houses were established when team hauling was the only hauling.” These now are the cause of much congestion because of the delivery there of tremendous amounts of less-than-carload freight. The loading and unloading tracks being limited much of the freight must pass through the depot necessitating double handling. Again, in the large cities a considerable percentage of land in the business section, stated to be from 25 to 30 in Chicago, is occupied by the railroads for tracks, road and station purposes. This land is worth from $10 to $50 a square foot, and if freight cars stand upon it intermittently for the receipt and discharge of l.c.l. freight, it is not earning continuously but, on the other hand, it is spending every minute in interest, taxes and maintenance. With demountable containers, which are described in