Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/113

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CONSERVATION OF RAILWAY SERVICE

will have not only double tracks, but you will have four, six, eight, ten, twelve tracks. We are at that stage in England to-day, and yet the railroad problem in England is nothing compared with the United States. Here your distances are so great, you have so far to move your traffic to get it to water, that it will become so dense that you will wonder why you talked about double tracks at all.”

Those of us who believe in the great growth of the United States realize that Mr. Acworth has not overdrawn the picture, and we realize how tremendous the problem is to get the money with which to do all the things that should be done in the way of giving safe and adequate transportation facilities.

Mr. Samuel W. Fairchild, Chairman of the Committee on Internal Trade and Improvements of the New York Chamber of Commerce, recently presented a very luminous report about the railroad situation. He says:—

“It is estimated that it will require in the next five years, to maintain railroad facilities equal to the enormous traffic of the country,

85