RECENT WRECK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY STEEt, TRAIN NEAR POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 





The Wood Substitute Game 



THE STEEL CAR SITUATION 



The campaign that has been waged in Hakdwood Record diiriug 

 the past seven months against the frailty, weaknesses, extravagance 

 and generally unsatisfactory character of steel passenger and sleep- 

 ing cars is now bearing such fruit as to warrant the assumption that 

 there will be few, if any, additional all-steel cars built and put into 

 commission. The immense new supplemental plant of the Pullman 

 Car Company, built exclusively for the manufacture of steel <-ars 

 at Pullman, 111., on authoritative evidence, is being transformed 

 into a wooden car plant, and already many acres of contiguous 

 ground are piled with yellow pine and hardwood car materials. Pull- 

 man officials do not like to be quoted, and hence anything like a 

 concrete statement covering the specific plans in the construction 

 department of this company is not available, but it is commonly 

 reported that few if any of the ofScers of the company responsible 

 for car construction have at any time been favorably inclined to the 

 production of all-steel passenger and sleeping car equipment. 



It is currently reported and thoroughly believable that the Pull 

 man Car Company, owing to the purchase of the majority of its 

 stock by steel interests, was forced into the experiment of steel car 

 construction, and it is only of recent date that the appalling and 

 ■constantly recurring accidents that have befallen steel trains have 

 made it possible to loosen the tentacles of the steel trust on this 

 importanj; industry, and permit the competent car builders of the 

 company to return to the construction of cars that are only in a 

 -slight way modified from the character of those built previous to 

 the inauguration of the steel car craze. These cars will be made 

 essentially of wood, the underframes of which will be reinforced 

 with steel, and may contain considerable steel frame work. No 

 metal will be in evidence either on the outside or inside of the cars. 



Hardwood Record has waged this campaign against all-steel cars, 

 not primarily because the wood car involved an added' consumption 

 of lumber, but because it believed that the lives of passengers were 

 placed in extreme jeopardy by riding in this type of vehicle. The 

 reasons for this deduction have been fully explained in the series 

 of articles that have been carried in the publication since last Septem- 

 ber, and consequently the publishers feel highly elated in the win- 

 ning of a fight that it has waged practically singleh-indcd against 

 this typo of car, although it wants to thank many broad-minded 



—34— 



members of the editorial fraternity in materially assisting it in 

 reproducing the facts covering the frailties of steel cars. 



The basic trouble of the steel car is its inability to keep on the 

 rails, and the public has now generally awakened to the fact that 

 it is preferable to ride in coaches and sleeping cars which have a 

 reasonable certainty of staying on the track. 



The only points on which advocates of the steel car today con- 

 tend that it is superior to the former type are that in derailment the 

 fatalities are alleged to have been less than in corresponding acci- 

 dents to wooden ears, and that no passengers in steel car trains have 

 suffered by reason of fire. 



The New York Commercial comments on the subject in an editorial 

 in its issue of March 15 as follows: "Having demonstrated the 

 superior strength and safety of the steel passenger car by experi- 

 ments involving the derailment and wreck of a dozen fast trains in 

 the past few months, the raOroads might take it for granted that 

 the public understands and appreciates its superiority, and should 

 turn its attention to keeping these cars on the track." 



The New York Sun in referring to a recent steel car wreck says: 

 ' ' The passengers inside these impregnable steel boxes were tossed 

 ;>bout like grains of corn in a popper," but insists that if these 

 cars are going to be employed, many roadbeds will need attention, 

 and many pieces of track will have to be replaced with heavier rails. 



The Mankato (Minn.) Press, March 21, in referring to the investi- 

 gation of the Interstate Commerce Commission concerning the Twen- 

 tieth Century wreck, pictured in connection with this article, says 

 that the public wants to know if the magnificent steel cars are not 

 being built too heavy for the present weight of rail. 



The Minneapolis Tribune of March 18 says: "Every day brings 

 its report of a terrifying railroad accident. The resisting power of 

 steel cars reduces the mortality, but the list of injured is appalling, 

 and the harm done to the health of the country by the nerve-racking 

 shocks is incalculable. In this case, as in the case of quick or slow 

 murder by greed in industry, the dead are sometimes happier. Con- 

 tinued comparative search does not reveal a common cause, like rail 

 trouble, over-congestion, excessive economy in use of men or decay 

 of e()uipment. The discovered causes are as various as the effect is 

 deplorably monotonous. The only approach to a common denominator 

 is a predominating weight of evidence that the equipment has outrun 



