The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Tapping Railroad Trunk Lines Outside Congested District and Transferring Cargoes to Barges is Plan Urged by Engineer yi. measure I propose to re- lieve the freight congestion in the port of New York is to tap the railroad trunk lines at convenient points. outside the district of terminal congestion and transfer to barges and perhaps car floats such kinds and amounts of freight as is necessary to release the present terminals and yards for their most effective use- fulness. Such freight would be classi- fed on the barges. and, if for city use, delivered at small piers con- venient to destination from which it could be trucked direct as is the case with building materials now or de- livered to 'ships. Such a program would call for a large number of barges, floats, un- loading equipment, tow boats and proper transfer yards and docks of 'temporary and emergency construc- tion, all of which could be built for less cost and more quickly than rail- road cars and locomotives which they would release and without diverting needed material and skilled labor from military requirements. Harbor Facilities No description of the present con- dition of traffic or facilities in the port of New York is needed here. A good description of port organization, equipment and operation is given in the New York harbor case: and while not primarily so intended it shows clearly the present extraordinary dis- organization and how it came about. . The report of the commission to in- vestigate the surface railroad situa- tion on the west side in the city of New York also gives a complete teview of the New York harbor sit- tation and outlines a plan for the comprehensive improvement of the port. This improvement, however, could not possibly be executed fast enough to help in the present emer- gency, The emergency measure I propose could never before have been applied. The country never before realized that the port of New York and its freight facilities is a great national question, The result is that its de- Yelopment has been left to the con- -flicting interests of the great trunk lines, the several municipalities and the two or three states concerned, Without any co-ordinating authority and apparently without the various interests and authorities realizing the vital necessity for subordination of. the component parts and organization of the whole. In the light of past events we can see the principal reason the national perience indicates from time to time 'An Emergency Measure Now to avoid a repetition of last winter's paralysis of. ter- minal and shipping facilities at New York is a problem claiming the attention of some of the country's foremost engineers since the federal government recognized the impor- _ tance of the question in connection with its war plans. The accompany- ing article is from the report of Benjamin A. Howes, New York, submitted to James S. Harlan, chair- man of the committee on congestion at the port of New York of the interstate commerce commission. The report is based on a prelim- inary survey made for the commut- tee. Its most important feature 1s the proposal to tap railroad trunk lines at convenient 'points outside of the congested. metropolitan dis- tricts transferring the freight to barges. It is understood that the remedy proposed is an emergency measure and Mr. Howes sum- - marizes his conclusions with this statement: "This program with modifications and extensions as ex- will in the most economical manner possible. meet the emergency until a properly authorized port board can plan, organize and execute a com- prehensive permanent port develop- ment." 'government had to take over opera- tion of the railroads was because the conflicting interests had been unable to get together and organize the port of New York for the mutual benefit of all concerned and _ with special regard for the -interests of the country at large. The vital in- terest of the whole country in the port of New York is now intelligently aroused. A port board can be ap- pointed and given full authority by the federal government to develop the 459 Se By Benjamin A. Howes Porton 4 comprehensive plan for its: great. future growth. <A «vast amount of most valuable preliminary | work has been done by various com- missions, individuals, associations and corporations, but to get any consid- erable measure of relief along the lines of permanent development of the port would take several years of planning, condemnation and construc- tion before results could be oper- ative. The urgent need is for emergency measures that can be made helpful at once and fully effective within a year without too much waste or ex- cessive cost. I have carefully. con- sidered the lines along which the permanent development of the port of New York should proceed as a national development and none of the emergency measures I propose will in any way hamper such devel- opment, but will assist it. The fol- lowing data gives some idea of the size and complexity of the problem, the data being based on conditions several years ago, tonnage now being vastly greater: Shore and pier line of port. of: New York, 921 miles: annual tonnage floated, 114,000,000 tons: 'coal for local" use, 16,000,000 tons; coal passing through to New England, 10,000,000 tons; coal for bunkers, 5,000,000 tons; tonnage of vessels entering and clearing, 30,000,- 000; wheat arriving, 3,000,000 tons; other tonnage passing into and through New York harbor, exceeding 40,000,000 tons. Relieving Congestion Any congestion that slows down the orderly movement of this enor- mous volume is, of course, cumulative, so emergency measures would look to. keeping the flow moving and to diverting tonnage from congested points. ; As to demutrage rates and free time, these remedies have now been applied -about to the limit and are not to any large extent constructive helps. I understand that the plan of pooling terminals is being applied as rapidly as-it can be worked. out and will be of considerable help. "Store-door delivery" of goods is now having careful consideration and its great promise in expedition and econ- omy will undoubtedly result in its