America’s Growing Railroad Freight Traffic
The enormous industrial activity in the United States at the present time is shown in the strenuous efforts now being put forth by the various railroad companies to furnish the necessary number of cars to move the produce of the country to market. One company alone, whose business is the manufacture of freight cars, has turned out an average of 6,500 cars a month during the year, and still that company is unable to meet the demands made upon it by the railroad companies for freight cars. During the year 1901 this one firm manufactured 66,000 such cars, and by the close of this year it will have manufactured 78,000 more. Other firms also are turning out thousands of cars a month, and most of them have orders ahead for six months’ work. During the year 1901 one billion and eighty-four million tons of freight were moved by the railroad companies of the United States. The estimated total tonnage for the present year is one billion and one hundred million tons. The railroads are unable to meet the demands of shippers for cars to move their freight, notwithstanding the thousands of new cars that are being built.