32 HARDWOO D 



lais, to which the passengers were originally required to transfer 

 from the wooden cars, the Pennsylvania Company conceived the 

 possible advertising value to be derived from the use of all-steel 

 ear construction on its suburban trains. It pushed this class of 

 construction and gave it the broadest kind of publicity, with the 

 result that the demand was soon apparent for steel construction 

 in its Pullman and through-car service. The natural consequence 

 was that competing railroads were forced to immediately adopt 

 the same steel construction, with the result that they were obliged 

 to spend millions and millions of dollars for this type of car. 

 Originally the steel ear was but sheets of steel, cold and forbidding 

 and uncomfortable in the wintertime, and hot and poorly ventilated 

 in the summertime. It offered nothing pleasant for the eye to 

 look upon, and was but a box in which the passenger was con- 

 veyed as rapidly as possible from one point to another without 

 any pretense of breaking the monotony of the journey with attract- 

 ively designed and constructed interiors. 



The railroads have seemingly admitted that the all-steel car is 

 here to stay, and they have recently made efforts to make this 

 type of construction more attractive to the traveler. The fact 

 that they are doing so is attested to by the statement emanating 

 from the offices of the Pullman Company to the effect that the past 

 year has marked a record in the demand for fancy woods entering 

 into interior construction for Pullman coaclies. This statement 

 would appear anomalous without some explanation. The explana- 

 tion is seen in the fact that practically all of the so-called all- 

 steel cars aro now equipped throughout with handsome interior 

 linings of such fancy woods as mahogany, English oak, etc. This 

 has led to an actual increase in the demand for those woods for 

 interior Pullman car construction over any figures yet recorded. 

 Thus it is seen that the so-called all-steel ear is really not an 

 all-steel car at all, and that the figures offered hV the American 

 Railway Association are not absolutely authentic in this par- 

 ticular, so that the lumber trade should not be unusually discour- 

 aged when it reads these statistics. 



As a matter of fact, wooden ears, as considered by the railroad 

 oflScials, are those built entirely of wood with the necessary steel 

 and iron parts; steel underfiame-cars are those with steel under- 

 frames and entire wooden super-strut'tures, including sides, etc.; 

 all-steel cars include all cars not included in the two above groups. 

 The last type includes cars with a steel under-frame and a steel 

 super-structure made of sheets of steel riveted together and either 

 painted on the inside or finished in imitation of some of the cabinet 

 woods otherwise used. It also includes steel cars constructed in 

 this way but finished on the interior throughout, including panels, 

 etc., with mahogany, English oak and other kinds of handsome 

 interior wood. The latter type of car, however, is not considered 

 in making up the statistics aliovc sl\c)\vii or in i-mnpiling tlie con- 

 ilensed statistics following: 



""■ ACQUIRED 



steel 

 Tnder- 

 Tofac Sliil Frame Wood 



Xumlirr IVrCt. I'or Ct. I'cr CI. 



1908 1.880 26.0 .22.6 .51.4 



1910 3.03S .^5.4 14.8 20.8 



1 911 ' .S,7.=i(i -'Od ■ 20.3 20.7 



,91o'' 2,660 liS.T 20.9 10.4 



.I:innary, 1913 iunder construction) . 1.fi4'.i s.-.-j 11.5 3.3 



.\ circular letter was sent out liy the .Vnicricau Railway Associa- 

 tion to all the railroad companies operating in the United States, 

 and to eleven railroad companies operating 24,718 miles of railroad 

 in Canada. The following is an approximation of part of the 

 information resulting from this circular letter: 



Steel 

 Un \r- 

 Stecl Frajp 



.lauuary 1, 1909 «29 673 



January 1. 1910 l-H" l-""** 



.Tanuary 1. 1911 3.133 1.636 



.Tannery 1.1912 5,347 2.399 



RECORD 



.Ian\l:uy 1, 1913 7,271 3.296 



Increase 1913 over 1909 6,642 2,623 



Per cent Increase 1913 over 1909 1,055 389 



In addition, between January 1, 1913, and July 1, 1913, orders 

 have been placed by railroads for 1,140 passenger vehicles, of 

 which would indicate that the construction of wooden passenger 

 ing the cars with the wooden interior, and 76 or 6.7 per cent with 

 the steel under-frame. No orders were placed for all wood oars, 

 which would indicate that the construction of wooden passenger 

 cars has practically ceased. 



It is encouraging to note that so far there has been no united or 

 organized effort to prevent the country-wide adoption of the all- 

 steel railroad equipment with the exception of the successful efforts 

 made by the railway mail clerks which, on August 24, 1912, resulted 

 in the passage of a bill making appropriations for the service of 

 postoffice department for the fiscal year ending 1912. 



Under this act and the act approved August 4, 1911, the law 

 on the subject of steel under-frame and steel super-structures 

 states: That after the first of July, 1911, no payment shall be 

 allowed on full wooden railway postoffice cars unless constructed 

 in accordance with the niQst ap]>roved plans and specifications 

 of the postoffiee department for such type of car, nor have any 

 full wooden railway postoffice car run in any train between adjoin- 

 ing steel cars, or between the engine and a steel car adjoining, ami 

 that hereafter additional cars accepted for this service shall be of 

 steel, or with steel under-frame if used in a train in which the 

 majority of cars are of like construction. 



It is provided further that after the first of .July, 1917, the post- 

 master-general shall not approve or be allowed to use or paj' for any 

 full railway postoffice car not constructed of steel or steel under 

 frame, or equally indestructible material, and that not less than 

 twenty-five per cent of the railway postoffice cars of the railway 

 company not conforming with the provisions of this act shall be 

 replaced with cars constructed with steel annually after June, 

 191.3, and all ears accepted for this service and contracted for b.v 

 the railway company after the passage of this act shall be con- 

 structed of steel. 



Thus it is seen that one organization has effected the elimina- 

 tion of wood from car construction, and judging from tlie policy 

 evidently being pursued by the railroads, the steel car with the 

 wooden lining is now an assured and permanent fact. 



Four bills are pending in Congress requiring the replacement 

 of wooden passenger equipment with steel. The period suggested 

 in which this is to be done varies from .January 1, 191.'). to .Jan- 

 uary 1, 1918. 



It does not necessarily follow that the construction of steel 

 passenger cars will be compelled by legislative enactment. If such 

 condition does come about it will probably be based on the policy 

 of the railroads themselves, but it behooves those interested, sup- 

 plying the railroad construction companies and the railroads build- 

 ing their own cars, to make everj' effort to prevent the enactment 

 of such legislation, and to effect the minds of those placing orders 

 and making car statistics to the extent that wood will, as formerly, 

 continue to be an important factor in railroad passenger car 

 construction. 



The above figures, which, it is believed, are authentic, surelv 

 bring the question to an issue in that they give concrete evidence 

 of the startling progress made by .all-steel car construction. If 

 some satisfaction can be seen in the fact that there is actually 

 an increased consumption of wood for car interiors, this fact 

 .should not f,o allay the fears of lumbermen that they will not 

 n.rtke due effort with the hope of securing for the lumber industic 

 the continuance of this market, which in the past has offered such 

 a broad field for the consumption of their product. 



JIakers of and dealers in pianos and other fine veneered product.^ 

 are now doing some good boosting for veneered work. The general 

 policy today is to point to the laminated and veneered article as 

 something superior instead of fighting shy of the subject as was often 

 the case in the past. 



