FREEING THE HIGHWAYS 187 



Here is a ready-made agency, already working in 

 harmony with the railroads and well known to ship- 

 pers all over the countiy, that could be mobihzed 

 into a great transportation agency. The govern- 

 ment could acquire these cars and merge them into 

 a single company under the control of a transporta- 

 tion director with power to compel their haulage by 

 the railroads, under arrangements similar to those 

 which prevail with the express and fast-freight lines. 

 No great administrative reorganization is involved 

 in such a transfer. A central office in Washington 

 Hke the Weather Bureau could collect reports as 

 to the transportation needs of different sections and 

 different industries. It could organize its car ser- 

 vice as a "flying squadron" to meet these demands. 

 It could use its cars as the refrigerator companies 

 now use their cars, which are utilized to their capac- 

 ity all the year round by being sent where refriger- 

 ator-car service is most urgently needed. It could 

 run its cars on any railroad. It could decide 

 whether the transportation of food, fuel, or other 

 commodities was the most urgent. Quite as im- 

 portant, it could use the cars to their full working 

 capacity. To-day a freight-car moves on an aver- 

 age only thu'ty miles in twenty-four hours, yet its 

 potential service ought to be from seventy to a 

 hundred miles a day. Undoubtedly the railroads 

 could carry a very much greater tonnage, possibly 

 double their present tonnage, if the motive power 



