Notes

On Aug. 29, the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. will move out of the Pennsylvania Terminal in Manhattan. Already a sweeping advertising campaign is telling travelers about a fleet of "Ritzy" parlor busses with special baggage compartments which will scurry from Pershing Square and the Waldorf Hotel to the B. & O. Terminal in Jersey City, N. J.

Now, busses may be the last word in transportation and they may have cozy seats of plush velour, but a terminal on the Island of Manhattan is still the thing. People wondered whether the officials of the B. & O. and Pennsylvania R. R. had ceased to be friends, whether the B. & O. would retaliate for being ousted from the Pennsylvania Station by running faster trains from Washington to Chicago than the Pennsylvania could possibly schedule (because of its longer and more curved route).

Traveling salesmen who swelter in upper berths have often jawed in stuffy washrooms about "these doggone high Pullman rates." In particular they suspected some sort of capitalistic iniquity in the item of a 50% Pullman surcharge accruing to the railroad.

Even the Interstate Commerce Commission poked into Pullman Co. finances. Its investigation report last week showed that the company had reduced its rates 20% in 1911, that it had increased them 20% in 1920, that in reality, "the general level of charges is no higher today than it was a half century ago."

Among other things, Henry Ford and his family own 100% of the securities of the Detroit & Toledo R. R. and 99% of the securities of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton R. R. Now Mr. Ford wanted to merge the two roads, to buy out that troublesome 1% of his partners. They persisted, he assigned lower values to their shares. The Interstate Commerce Commission made no ruling on the values of the shares, but said last week that Mr. Ford's method was, "not consistent with fair dealing." If more than a million freight cars are loaded per week, then the U. S. is prosperous--so say the financial prophets. A report just issued shows that 1,102,590 cars were loaded during the week ending July 31.