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Scientific Pernicious Publicity 



m All-STEEl TRAIN 



Hakdwood Eecord's clipping bureau service reveals the fact that 

 there was published in hundreds of daily newspapers throughout 

 the entire United States simultaneously between November 20 and 

 Xovember 26, articles of identical import, and with slight change 

 in wording, of which the reproduction on this and the following 

 page are concrete examples. 



The article reproduced on this page is from the Denison (Tex.) 

 Herald of November 23. while the one on the following page is 

 from the Philadelphia Item of November 21. It does not require 

 a detective talent to recognize these articles as paid advertising 

 matter, printed possibly at the expense of the 

 steel trust or the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany. This matter in newspaj)er parlance 

 is "straight editorial," but in the majority 

 of instances it appears in this great num- 

 ber of newspapers under news headings like 

 the first exhibit. Apparently the Philadelphia 

 Item couldn 't stand for literature of this 

 character as straight reading matter, and 

 hence it was published with some earmarks 

 of its advertising character. 



These reproductions are presented to the 

 lumber trade to forcefully illustrate the very 

 questionable methods to which the "big in- 

 terests" will resort to sustain in the minds 

 of the public the legend that all-steel and 

 concrete passenger cars afford increased 

 safety to the traveling public. 



The cartoon in this issue of Hardwood 

 Record pertinently illustrates the crux of the 

 real facts surrounding the steel car game. 

 The promoters of steel car building and use 

 are well aware of the frailties and the dan- 

 gerous character of this type of equipment. 

 They know that the danger to the traveling 

 public is increased by the use of these ears ; 

 they know that these cars represent an ex- 

 travagance in original cost, extraordinary 

 expense in maintenance and haulage; that it 

 is with the utmost difficulty that they are 

 kept on the track ; that they have frequent 

 derailments at switches and cross-overs; that 

 they are uncomfortable vehicles in which to 

 house passengers; that they are extravagant 

 in the use of steam; that they are inimical 



to health ; that they are deficient in resiliency ; 

 and that altogether they represent an unsafe, 



extravagant and fraudulent type of car. 



Still, the lives of the public and the extraor- 

 dinary cost to railroads are to be sacrificed 



in the interest of big Vjusiness. There were 



no articles of this sort issued by the steel 



trust and car and railroad interests at the 



time of the Pennsylvania-Fort Wayne wreck 



on Auguest 13; there is no mention in these 



.articles of the fact that the engineers and 



firemen were killed at the time of the Fort 



Wayne wreck or at the ^Monmouth .Tunclion 



wreck on November 17. The articles fail to 



state that if either one of these trains had 



been of the lighter weight involved in the 



former type of construction, in all proba- 

 bility they would not have even left the tracks 



at the crossovers; neither do they state that 



the passengers at the Fort Wayne wreck were 



saved by reason of Ihcir being in a wooden 



ear built on steel under frame with non- 



— 2fi— 



GOAL OF SAFETY IN RAILWAY 

 TRAVEL IS DRAWING NEAR. . 



Steel Cars Cost More Than Wooden 



EquipmAnt But Are Cheaper In 



the Long End. 



The (foal of safety rn railway travel 

 Is not very tar off, says the Ne.v York 

 Tribune editorially. Thousands of 

 lives nti''6 beSti sat'rlficed to the Ions 

 ■standing habit of transporting passen- 

 gers in wooden cars, Which in rase of 

 a collision Would telescope, split up 

 and quickly take fire. Inertia and false 

 ideas of ecpnoiny still keep wooden 

 cars in use nn many railroads, in spile 

 of the fact that the practicnbility of 

 using only metal cars, uncollapsible 

 and unburnable, has been fully dem- 

 onstrated. But the annual roll of 

 avoidable killings and maimings is 

 getting shorter; for there is no longer 

 a good excuse for a railroad's taking 

 chances with the old style construction 

 when the immense superiority of the 

 new is established to the satisfaction 

 of the traveling public. 



An all-steel and concrete car train 

 on the Pennsylvania Railroad jumped 

 the tracks near Monmouth Junction, 

 N. J., on P^iday. while running nt tho 

 rate of .''lO miles an hour, and, instead 

 of the familiar spectacle of wreckage 

 and suffering, not a single passenger 

 was even badly shaken up. The cars 

 stood every test perfectly,, the rails 

 yielding first to tho enormous pressure 

 and beiVig twisted apart, while ihe 

 coaches stood firm. 



Steel cars cost more than wooden 

 ones, but when the great crises In r.UI- 

 roading come they well repay tho ex- 

 tra cost. It is better economy to have 

 all-steel e(|ulpment than to pay out 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars in 

 damages for loss of life and Injuiies to 

 travelers. Safety is the highest ideal 

 in railroad trnnsportatlon. It i.s also 

 the mo.1t profitable policy. The rail- 

 road which can show a train diTall- 

 mcnt like that at Monmouth Junction 

 without the slightest injury to a pas- 

 senger needs no other advertisement 

 to win the patronage of a discriminat- 

 ing public. 



collapsible ends, and that the steel cars in front and in the rear 

 were crushed like paper boxes. These stories indulge in wicked 

 half-truths only. 



It is hard to sec why the steel car should be hailed as a saver of 

 life, when the lives of passengers are ,ieopardized by their use, any 

 more than a hold-up man would be entitled to acclaim for his 

 bullet missing his victim. 



The observation of H. U. Mudge, president of the Chicago, Rock 

 Island & Pacific, as recounted in last issue of n.\RDW00D Record, 

 is worthy of no little consideration. He modified his observations 

 of the general sentiment in favor of steel cars 

 by stating that they might eventually be- 

 come the economical and logical type for use 

 "if we can keep them on the track." This 

 difficulty is not a suggestive one only; it is 

 ,a patent fact as evidenced by practically 

 every wreck that has occurred with steel cars. 

 With this heavy rigid type of construction 

 the cars are absolutely deficient in tortional 

 resiliency. The old type of car when on a 

 curve or track irl-egularity would "give," 

 and accommodate itself to track contour. It 

 would stay on the track. .\ rigid steel car 

 does not perform this important function, 

 and hence derailments are coming about with 

 alarming frequency. 



There is another important consideration to 

 be noted in connection with this dead weight 

 equipment involved in heavy steel and con- 

 crete cars. The Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission in its report on the wreck on the 

 Lehigh Valley train near Manchester, N. Y., 

 i)u August 25, where a heavy passenger train 

 was derailed on a bridge and plunged into 

 a stream, by reason of which twenty-nine per- 

 sons were killed, alleges that a rail failed, 

 which failure was developed liy the heavy 

 rolling stock. With the old methods of rail- 

 road bed, tie and rail construction, it would 

 be impossible to run a steel train a mile with 

 safety. This new and heavier and more sub- 

 stantial roadbed and rail equipment was in- 

 troduced by competent railroad men to 

 jirovide for increased safety to 'the public, 

 and was insured so long as the type and 

 weight of cars then eniployed were used. The 

 element of safety was increased but now it 

 has become demoralized by adding this ex- 

 traordinary and unnecessary weight and 

 rigidity to passenger cars, and the danger in- 

 volved in railroad travel has been nMiIti|ilieil 

 many times. 



Of course, it may be recognized I hat pri- 

 marily the steel trust has much at slake. It 

 Ills spciil liundreds of thousands of dollars 

 ill manufacturing equipment to produce the 

 various parts of steel ears. It has taken over 

 the control of such an important industry 

 as the Pullman Car Company, and has let 

 this institution in for such a tremendous in- 

 vestment in steel car production and in 

 extraordinary cost of maintenance as to re- 

 duce its normal earnings during tho last year 

 by about nine millions of dollars. Of course, 

 tho steel trust, wants to get this money back, 

 but the wickedness and fraudulent character 

 of the enterprise is so nuinifest that there 



