are to file bonds or insurance policies payable to the United States, to bind them to any final judgment rendered on account of death or injury to passengers or others or damage of property due to negligence. The regulatory authority may exempt a carrier from this requirement if it can show due assurance of its ability to pay any such claims, upon its agreement to report promptly all accidents in connection with the operation of its motor vehicles. Exemption from the filing of such bond or insurance is revokable on ten days notice.

It is provided that rates, fares and charges shall be just and reasonable and in accordance with tariffs filed and posted in a manner to be prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The tariffs must be rigidly adhered to and free passes are to be issued only under the restrictions now operating with regard to railroad passes. No change in tariffs may be made except after 30 days notice unless especially authorized by the regulatory authority. Any person or organization is permitted to complain against unjust or unreasonable rates, and such charges must be investigated by the regulatory authority. The Interstate Commerce Commission is directed to promulgate a uniform system of accounting for motor carriers and to require reasonably continuous and adequate service at just and reasonable rates.

In case of any controversy or question in carrying out the provisions of the proposed law, the board sitting in the case, upon application of any party must certify a copy of the hearing to the Interstate Commerce Commission. Decisions of joint boards are to be made by a representative of each component party voting as a unit.

Any party in a case decided by any local commission or joint board who may be dissatisfied with the decision is privileged to appeal to the Interstate Commerce Commission within 30 days, the latter to have jurisdiction and finally determine the case at issue. The I. C. C. hearing is to be on the record made before the board of original jurisdiction. To introduce new evidence, the dissatisfied party is to have the right of appeal to the board rendering the original decision for a rehearing and, if this is granted, to introduce new evidence. When an appeal is taken to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the latter will have the power to suspend the original decision pending appeal. If any state or joint board fails to render a decision within 90 days. following the submission of any matter before it, any party to the proceeding will have the right to carry the case to the Interstate Commerce Commission, in which case the I. C. C. may reopen the case for further hearing if it deems such action necessary.

Penalty for knowingly refusing to comply with the order of an authority constituted in the proposed act is fixed at $100 for each offence, each day of violation constituting a separate offence. Operation of motor vehicles in wilful violation of the proposed law carries. a fine of $100 for the first offence and $500 for any subsequent offence. Provision is made for application to any court of competent jurisdiction by any regulatory board or injured party for a writ of injunction or for other proper process to enjoin obedience to the proposed law. Expenses for administration of the act are to be provided by a separate contingency fund to be put apart. from the treasury of the United States. The bill specifically provides that nothing in it may be construed to authorize any intrastate operation or to interfere in any way with the exclusive authority of each state in the regulation of such transportation. A further clause provides that if any provision of this act shall be held. unconstitutional either as respects motor carriers or any motor carrier or class of motor carriers, such invalidity shall not be held to affect any other provision thereof.

Looking Backward

Fifty Years Ago

The management of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis [now part of the Pennsylvania] has issued an order discontinuing all Sunday freight trains, except such as carry livestock or perishable matter.-Railway Age, March 28, 1878.

A system of preserving railway ties, used in England, is said to increase the life of the ties to 20 or 30 years. The day is not far distant when the increased cost of timber in this country will make the general use of some method of preserving wood profitable, unless the use of metal for cross ties comes into vogue.-Railway Age, March 28, 1878.

The boiler of the largest freight engine ever built on the Boston & Albany is now in the erecting shop at Springfield, Mass. The total area of heating surface is 555 sq. ft. and the cylinders are 1834 by 28 in. The weight of the monster will be about 40 tons, and the average train say 25 loaded cars.-Chicago Railway Review, March 30, 1878.

At least one or more of the general officers of nearly 40 of the principal western railways met at Chicago on March 26 to agree upon the percentages of east-bound business which the different roads should receive under the apportionment scheme agreed upon in New York. Division of traffic was made for Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville and Peoria. East-bound from Chicago the percentages were divided as follows: Michigan Central, 32; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, 27; Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago, 24; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis, 7; Baltimore & Ohio, 10.-Railway Age, March 28, 1878.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

George J. Ray has been appointed division engineer of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, with office at Scranton, Pa.-Railway and Engineering Review, March 28, 1903.

Under the new anti-trust law of Texas, passed by the legislature and signed on April 1 by the governor, labor unions are included among trusts, combinations and monopolies which are prohibited.-Railway Age, April 3, 1903.

The "Pennsylvania Special" 20-hour train between New York and Chicago, which was taken off on February 5 in consequence of the freight congestion, is to be restored on May 3.-Railroad Gazette, April 3, 1903.

The Baltimore & Ohio has obtained 50,000 sq. ft. of space in the Transportation building at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis and will make an extensive exhibit showing the evolution and development of the world's railways.Railway Age, April 3, 1903.

Ten Years Ago

The railroad control bill was signed by President Wilson on March 21, immediately after the passage of the war finance corporation bill by the House. The President held the bill for a week because if there had been a failure of the finance corporation bill, which provides for loans to railroads, it would have been necessary to seek a larger appropriation than the $500,000,000 provided in the railroad bill.—Railway Age, March 29, 1918.

"We are building over here to fight a thirty-year war, if necessary, in order to establish the principles of democracy," W. W. Atterbury, director general of transportation of the Army in France and in private life vice-president of the Pennsylvania, told a New York newspaper correspondent at Paris, France, on March 26. “Our task is to make two lines of railroad from the sea to the bases at the front, wherever this front may be. Before the end of 1918 we will have not less than 800 miles of railroad constructed.-Railway Age, March 29, 1918.

I was very much interested in the editorial on Why Locomotive Auxiliary, and C. A. Brandt's paper on The Design and Proportion of Locomotive Boilers, presented before the February meeting of the Canadian Railway Club, both of which appear in your March 10 issue.

The steam locomotive is a pressure-heat machine and its overall efficiency is a combination of boiler, engine (including feed water heating) and machine efficiency. Electric current generating and motor equipment has already been developed to a pretty high state of efficiency, and there is not much left in the way of possibility to produce the maximum efficiency obtainable, but the steam locomotive has many possibilities in that direction.

The splendid achievements of physical and chemical engineering, in combination with improvement in design, make it possible for us now to take advantage of higher steam pressures and temperatures and enable more heat units to be compressed into a smaller volume. When a pound of steam at the higher initial pressure and temperature is expanded to the same exhaust pressure as a pound of steam at lower initial pressure and temperature, the former will, through an increased number of expansions, convert a greater amount of energy into work.

Overall efficiency in the steam locomotive, from the coal to the drawbar pull, now ranges from 6 to 9 per cent, and what we need and must have in future new steam motive powerwhich, in order to justify the investment cost, should remain with us and be useful for the next 35 to 50 years-is the utilization of a much greater percentage of the heat value of the fuel in the combustion process and in the live steam. This means higher pressure boilers; improved means of combustion; better circulation of the boiler water with better absorption of the products of combustion; increased pressure and temperature of the steam entering the cylinders at short cut-off; less heat exchange loss or cooling of the steam entering the cylinders by exhaust-swept clearance spaces and cylinder and piston walls; and reduced pressure and temperature of the exhaust steam. In order to accomplish this, we must reduce, instead of increase, the obstructions in smokeboxes, and reduce the temperature, resistance and heat losses of the gases flowing through the boiler and smokebox.

Thermo-dynamically, superheated steam is much more sensitive to heat losses than saturated steam, and where there is a high initial superheat there is a certain amount of superheat left in the exhaust. However, cylinder condensation is the main source of heat loss and we must make a radical change in the conventional cylinder and valve design to overcome it. This can, no doubt, be accomplished by a modified arrangement of unaflow cylinders, as the loss resulting from limited cutoff with counterflow cylinders is responsible for a large amount of inefficiency.

There is now too much frictional resistance and loss of pressure between the boiler and the cylinders caused by the tortuous passages that the steam must take to get between these two points. Furthermore, our present practice of passing the superheated steam through the coldest part of the boiler on its final passage to the cylinders is a most undesirable practice. By making use of a firebox-fire-flue type of superheater in combination with exterior saturation and superheated steam conduits and a throttle valve located outside of the boiler, much more steam space will be provided inside of the boiler and there would be much greater accessibility to all of these parts. Likewise, we will secure the benefit of more radiant heat effect in the superheating process; there will be less restriction

of the gas areas through the flues and tubes; the gas area through the superheater elements can readily be increased with corresponding reduction in frictional and pressure losses. Furthermore, the removal of the superheater header, the steam branch pipes and the baffle, diaphragm, deflector and other plates from the smokebox will enable keeping the flues and tubes clean, will reduce the exhaust pressure and enable lowering the smokebox temperature. In other words, we must follow in locomotive practice the inter-deck and furnace types of superheater arrangements which are now being utilized in practically all central power station, high-pressure, high-temperature, high-capacity boiler installations.

Waste heat in the exhausted steam from the main engines and accessories and in the smokebox gases must also be utilized by all possible reclamation in the boiler foodwater.

Books and Articles of Special

J. E. MUHLFELD.

Interest to Railroaders

(Compilea by Elizabeth Cullen, Reference Librarian, Bureas of Railway Economics, Washington, D. C.)

Books and Pamphlets

Dated

50 Jahre 1878-1927 Archiv fur Eisenbahnwesen. January-February 1928 this half-century anniversary number includes a review of 50 years by Dr. von der Leyen, statistics of the world's railways for 1925, and important articles on railways in Asiatic Russia, English railways since 1921, Canadrian railway systems and discussions of railway conditions in other sections of the world. 340 p. Pub. by Julius Springer, Berlin, Germany. 10 RM.

Government and Business—a Study in the Economic Aspects of Government and the Public Aspects of Business, by Earl W. Crecraft. Chapter 19 "Transportation and Government" and the portions of Chapter 14 on employee and stockholder representation and Chapter 18 on international transport and communication policies will be of particular interest. 508 p. Pub. by World Book Co., New York. $2.96.

Principles of Rate Making, by Joseph H. Donnell, Traffic Management Manual No. 52 outlining principles involved in the construction of freight rates. The general level of rates, cost of service, value of service, volume and regularity of movement and various kinds of competition are considered. 72 p. Pub. by LaSalle Extension University, Chicago. $1.

Periodical Articles

After Eight Years, by Franklin Snow. What has happened or apparently happened since the Transportation Act, 1920, became effective. North American Review, April 1928, p. 452460.

Une Exploitation Industrielle de la Forêt Equatoriale, by Léon Géraud. The great railway systems of France formed the "Consortium Forestier des Grand Réseaux" in 1920 to operate a forest concession in Gabon and thereby assure themselves of ties, timber and wood for various purposes. The organization of the consortium, problems of feeding, housing and otherwise caring for employes, getting equipment in and wood out, the tropical woods and their uses in railway service are presented in an interesting way. Americans will have to become accustomed to "A. E. F." meaning "Afrique Equatoriale Française." Revue Générale des Chemins de Fer, March 1928, p 181-197.

Use of Cost-of-Living Figures in Wage Adjustments, by Ethelbert Stewart. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' indexes as used in railroad arbitrations and others with opinions as to their value. Monthly Labor Review, March 1928, p. 1-8.

Oldest Pensioner?

The Missouri Pacific probably enjoys the unique distinction of having the oldest ex-railroad employee, who, after a period of service extending over forty-four years, was retired on a pension May 1, 1918, and is still living at the exceedingly ripe old age of nearly 104 years. M. Judsonia is the name of this old veteran, who is a colored man and now resides in a little place just beyond the town of Bald Knob, Ark. He was born in slavery in North Carolina on April 11, 1824, and at the close of the Civil War went to Arkansas where in 1874, when already 50 years old, he was employed on a construction gang engaged in building the Cairo & Fulton, which later became an important section of the present Missouri Pacific Lines. He served on track work for many years and, during the latter years of his service was employed as a helper at the Bald Knob station, where he continued until retired on pension at the age of 94.

You Can't Get Around the Judges

As is well known to every one who follows the doings of Congress, the average Congressman, when one of his pet laws gets knocked out by a decision of a court, at once proceeds to secure the passage of a new law, taking the place of the one that has been killed; or, in other words, he casts about to see how he can, by means of pure camouflage, present for the criticism of the judges, a different set of facts or statements, while still cherishing his original purpose. A court decision recently reported, in a case where a railroad appealed from a verdict of excessive damages, amusingly illustrates how jurymen are a good deal like Congressmen in this respect.

The case was tried and the jury gave damages of $750. This decision against the road was reversed, in the higher court, solely for the reason that the sum was excessive. The case was retried and the result was a verdict for $1,000, for which sum judgment was entered. But the railroad again appealed. There was no substantial difference in the evidence in the two trials and this decision also was reversed. (C. & O. vs. Hill, 299 S.W. 1059). The court simply said that the evidence was the same as before and "the law of the case" Iwas that the verdict was excessive. In other words, the higher court was obliged plainly to tell the lower court to go back and read the first reversal. B. R. B.

For Musicians Only

Allison W. Ind writes to compliment this department in such terms that our modesty forbids repeating them. Then he

says:

"I have noticed at times some gossip about a 'railroad symphony.' Now it's a pretty sure bet that when Edward Greig, the great composer of Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46, wrote Part Four of the suite 'In the Hall of the Mountain King,' he did not have in mind the poetry and music of some great brute of a locomotive laboring to tug a sullen string of heavy Pullmans into motion. But it seems to us that here he created a 'railroad symphony' of unsurpassed beauty and expression. Listen to it

once.

"Can't you hear the first slow, deliberate explosions from a short, stubby stack, and see the rigid blast of smoke climb straight and high? Then she begins to feel the rail. The exhausts become faster. There is a ponderous, rhythmical clank as side and main rods alternately thrust and pull on the pins. Faster... Faster . . . The increasing drone of flashing drivers. The quickening beat of oscillating crosshead-like the sweep of a baton. The perfect syncopation of valve gear. Faster .. Faster... New sounds join the symphony. Woodblocks clicking as wheels meet joints. Sharp tongued squeals from between

swaying tender and thumping engine. Faster . . . Faster . . . The click of blocks becomes the con-rattle of snares, punctured with an irregular one-toned thud of axles taking up the end play. The soprano song of the wind shrilling out above the hoarse bellow of the exhaust. Faster . . . Faster . . . Until all is blended into one mighty chorus of rushing sound . . . Confused... Yet thundering with measured accent. . . . "It's all there; and more! Try it."

12 M.P.H. Speed-Limit for "Devil-Wagons" Technical editors fifty years ago found it worth while to face the mechanical age with an open mind. Witness this item from the Railway Age in 1870:

"It is hardly safe to be skeptical nowadays in regard to the announcement of any invention pertaining to railway operation, no matter how novel and startling. Still we would really like to see in operation the latest French idea-that of reflecting a hundred miles of road by mirrors, to a great mirror at a central station, so that the movements of all trains can be seen at once before we grow enthusiastic."

But on the other hand probably the editor who wrote the following would have viewed with horror the suggestion that railroads would 25 years later be operating the “devil-wagon" as an adjunct to their trains :

"Automobile accidents have become so alarmingly frequent that the new conveyance will soon have to be abated, as a public nuisance, unless speeding can absolutely and everywhere be prohibited.**** City and village ordinances limiting the speed of automobiles to 8 or even 12 miles an hour are contemptuously evaded by the drivers of machines that can run 40 or 50 miles an hour, and the possibility of occasional arrest at the cost of a $5 fine, will never prevent speeding up to the limit at every opportunity. The only way to stop this dangerous sport is to stop the construction of motor carriages capable of making a speed of more than, say, 12 miles an hour. *** If automaniacs want to build roads to be devoted solely to their sport, with ample protection of crossings, the construction of high-speed machines for use exclusively on such courses might be permitted. But this would need to be under condition that the detection of such a "devil-wagon" upon any other road or street would mean its confiscation, and in extreme cases, the electrocution of the murderous driver."

N. YORK & N. HAVEN RAIL-ROAD

NOTICE.

It has been observed that persons living

in the vicinity of the line of this road at various points, have been in the habit of turning their Cattle in upon the roadway on the Sabbath. This practice is not only injurious to the road and slopes and embankments, but highly dangerous in case any emergency should render it necessary to run a train over the road on that day, and cannot be submitted to by the Company. Any person who shall hereafter turn any

Horses or Cattle

upon the said roadway on the Sabbath or other day, will be dealt with aecording to law.

Bridgeport, August 1st, 1850.

R. B. MASON, Superintendent of New-York and New-Haven Railroad.

Safety Ideas Are Not Entirely New, As Indicated by the New Haven's Warning Proclamation Issued

78 Years Ago

THE AMERICAN RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION will hold its annual meeting at Miami, Fla., on May 9, 10 and 11.

THE PROTECTIVE SECTION of the American Railway Association will hold its annual meeting at Hotel Statler, St. Louis, Mo., on June 19, 20 and 21.

THE NEW YORK CENTRAL, on March 19, placed in service its new $2,000,000 locomotive terminal at Harmon, N. Y. Harmon is the point where the change is made between steam and electric traction for the New York terminal zones.

THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC announces that, beginning with April 1, the locomotive whistle signal to be sounded at the approach to grade crossings will consist of one long blast, two short ones and a final long one.

THE TERMINAL FACILITIES, freight stations and the mechanical department forces, of the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Missouri Pacific, at Pueblo, Colo., will be consolidated and operated jointly beginning April 1.

THE ST. LOUIS RAILWAY CLUB will hold its next meeting on April 13, when a paper will be read on "The Railroad Situation Today" by Col. Fred W. Green, vice-president, St. Louis Southwestern. The annual election of officers will take place at this meeting.

EMPLOYEES OF the Denver (Colo.) shops have just celebated the completion of a period of nine months, from June 16, 1927, to March 16, 1928, without a reportable personal injury. At the ceremonies a flag was presente to the employees by J. A. Carney, superintendent of safety.

THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION on March 27 issued its tentative valuation report on the Western Union Telegraph Company finding the final value for rate-making purposes of the company's property located in the United States as of June 30, 1919, owned and used, to be $84,744,565.

THE HEARING on the complaint filed by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, asking the inter

state Commerce Commission to require the railroads to equip their locomotives with mechanical firebox doors, has been assigned for May 2 at Washington before Special Examiner Rogers.

A SAVINGS BANK in the state of New York may invest its surplus in bonds and obligations of railroad corporations; but, under a new law, Chapter 449, of the laws of 1928, may not invest more than two per cent of its surplus in any one particular issue; which two per cent must not exceed in value 10 per cent of all of the stock or obligations of the railroad.

eral counsel, Union Pacific; M. L. Bell, vice-president and general counsel, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; and F. C. Nicodemus, Jr.

This committee will report to the Mail and Express Committee of the Association of Railway Executives.

Transportation Division, A. R. A.,

To Meet in St. Louis

The regular annual session of the Transportation Division of the American Railway Association will be held at the Hotel Chase, St. Louis, Mo., at 10 a. m., April 26, according to an announcement by G. W. Covert, secretary. At this session the Division will consider and take action upon the reports of the General committee and the committees on Car Service, Records, Demurrage, Storage, Reconsignment and Diversion, Freight Handling Service and Railroad Business Mail.

REPRESENTATIVE MERRITT, of Connecticut, has introduced in Congress a bill, H. R. 12,177, to amend and re-enact subdivision a of Section 209 of the transportation act, to enable the Merchants' & Miners' Transportation Company and any other independent water carrier similarly situated to prosecute claims for a guaranty for the six months following the federal Railways Oppose Steel Car Bill control period in 1920. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Bruce, of Maryland.

THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC suffered about $300,000 damage to its Los Angeles-Montalvo line along the Santa Clara river from the St. Francis dam flood on March 12. About 20 miles of track was washed out by the flood. Numerous wooden trestles and a 500-ft. steel bridge were washed out.

Mail traffic and other officers of various railways testified at a hearing before the Senate committee on postoffices and post roads on March 26 in opposition to the bill, S. 2107, which provides that after January, 1930, all cars used for railway postoffice service shall be of steel construction and conform to specifications required by the Postmaster General. The bill contains a proviso that after that date no apartment railway postoffice car of other than steel or steel under framed construction may be operated by any independent short-line railroad in trains in which steel or steel underframed cars are operated. H. E. Mack, manager of mail and express traffic, Missouri Pacific, stated that in the mail cars which the bill Investigate Legal Side of Express would make unlawful there has not been

W. F. LAGRONE, of West Point, Miss., a member of the Mississippi Railroad Commission, died of heart disease on March 18 while sitting in the lobby of a hotel at Tupelo, Miss.

Situation

A committee to inquire into the legal

aspects of the future conduct of the railroad express business, in view of the approaching termination of the existing uniform contract with the American Railway Express Company, has been appointed with the following membership: R. J. Cary, vice president and general counsel, New York Central (chairman); C. B. Heiserman, vice-president and general counsel, Pennsylvania; H. W. Clark, gen

a fatality since 1921.

Loring Sets Up $100,000 Fund for

B. & M. Employees

Homer Loring, who has just retired as chairman of the Boston & Maine, accepted no compensation fom the railroad during the four years in which he directed the work of the railroad's rehabilitation. Upon his retirement the board of directors voted him the sum of $100,000 which Mr. Loring accepted only in order

764

to establish a fund "to be administered by trustees for the general good of all employees" of the Boston & Maine.

Mr. Loring in his letter to the board said: "As I think most of you know, I did not enter Boston & Maine affairs with any idea of financial remuneration. The task seemed worth undertaking and the satisfaction and enjoyment in having helped accomplish it, has been adequate compensation for what I have contributed.

"The new Boston & Maine has been created by the courage and judgment of the entire board of directors and by the loyal efforts of the whole body of employees. So I am going to accept with sincere thanks your gift of $100,000 and establish with it a 'Boston & Maine Employees Fund' the income to be administered by trustees for the general good of all the employees".

The detailed plan for administering this "Boston & Maine Employees Fund" will be worked out by the trustees, selection of whom will be made later.

Atlantic City Exhibit Space 90
Per Cent Taken

At a meeting of the Exhibit Committee
of the Railway Supply Manufacturers' As-
sociation held at Pittsburgh, Pa., March
22 and 23, assignments of 127,000 sq. ft.
were made
of exhibit space
to 321
exhibitors for the exhibit which will be
held on Young's Million Dollar Pier at
Atlantic City, N. J., June 20 to 27, in-
clusive, during the conventions of the
Mechanical, Purchases and Stores, and
Motor Transport Divisions of the Amer-
The total
ican Railway Association.

space available this year is 142,270 sq. ft.,
of which 48,000 sq. ft. is located in Marine
Hall, the new structure which is being
provided on the ocean side of the board-
walk immediately adjoining and directly
connected to the boardwalk end of the
pier.

The Mechanical Division meeting will be held from June 20 to 27, inclusive, in the convention hall on Young's Million Dollar Pier; the Purchases and Stores Division will meet in Vernon Hall, Haddon Hall Hotel, June 20 to 22, inclusive, and the Motor Transport Division meeting will be held at the Traymore Hotel, June 21 to 23, inclusive.

Verdict Based on "Imagination

and Sympathy" Reversed

In an action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act for the unexplained death of a car inspector whose body was found between the main track and a parallel track on which a freight train was ́being made up, the Texas Supreme Court sustained a verdict for the plaintiff on plaintiff's hypothesis (supported by little. if anything except the place where the body and the lantern of the deceased were found) that he had been engaged in inspecting the cars and so absorbed that he did not hear an approaching train on the main track, relying on the usual ringing of the engine bell, which witnesses said was not rung.

The Supreme Court of the United States has reversed this judgment, on the

ground that it was a mere guess that the deceased was engaged in inspection work at the time of his death; still more that he was absorbed therein. The deceased The was seen not later than 6:45 p. m. train passed at its schedule time, known to him, 7:05. His body was found at 7:25. The main track was straight and the train was making a great noise and showing a bright light as it approached. Nothing, it I was held, except imagination and sympathy warranted a finding that the death was due to the negligence of the railroad rather than to that of deceased himself. Kansas City Southern vs. Jones. Decided March 19. Opinion by Mr. Justice. Holmes.

New York Legislature Adjourns

The New York State Legislature has adjourned after almost the shortest session on record. It passed a number of laws of interest to railroads which are now in the hands of the governor, who has 30 days in which to take action on

them.

tively, for crossing charges outside these
cities. The railroads in all cases pay 50
The new laws are
per cent, as now.
numbered 677 for New York City, 678
for crossings outside of the three cities
and 679 for the Buffalo law. Chapter 632,
also signed by the governor on Wednes-
day, authorizes the appropriation of forty
million dollars for work outside New
York City.

Hearing on Rules for Car Hire
Settlement

Final hearings in connection with the Interstate Commerce Commission's investigation of the rules for car-hire settlement, which has been under way for over a year and has been the subject of hearings held throughout the country, were begun this week at Washington before Director W. P. Bartel of the commission's Bureau of Service. The investigation was instituted following complaint filed by the American Short Line Railroad Association taking the position that the code 01 per diem rules of the American Railway Association is inequitable as between subscribers and non-subscribers to the car service and per diem rules agreement.

The short line association, on behalf of many of its members, takes the position that Per Diem Rule 6, to the extent that it is enforced, deprives a subscriber and a non-subscriber of the right to agree between themselves as to how they will share the cost of car-hire. It asks that paragraph (b) of the rule be cancelled and that a rule be provided under which a reclaim or free time for short lines will be sanctioned whenever the short haul or low revenue accruing to the short line or other local circumstance justifies it or that connecting lines be left free to agree with non-subscriber roads on free time or a reclaim whenever the circumstances justify it. The short lines also contend that short line car owners, whether subscribers or not, are entitled to just as much compensation for the use of cars they own as is paid to subscriber owners, whereas some roads compensate short lines for the use of their cars only on a mileage basis.

The hearings were begun in Washington last March and during the past year hearings have been held at Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Ogden, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans, and Atlanta, at which a large number of short line witnesses have been heard.

At the Washington hearing additional testimony was given by officers of short lines and L. S. Cass, vice-president of the short line association, gave a general summary of the position of the short lines, while Ireland Hampton, a statistical witness for the short lines, presented an exhibit to show that short lines are operating at an economic disadvantage and that while an individual readjustment of their divisions or general rate increases would require a protracted procedure, a revision of the car service rules for their benefit could be promptly effected. This was to be followed by testimony of represen tatives of the A. R. A. and of individual roads.