December 1953 page 4

Depression
and
Recovery

Thanks to the wise and conservative fiscal policies of its manage-
ment and to the excellent physical condition of its equipment and
properties the Piedmont and Northern was able to weather the Great
Depression of the thirties with minimum lasting effect. It was a
decade that at first plunged suddenly downhill and then turned
gradually uphill for nearly seven years. During the ten-year period
the railroad lost two presidents—William States Lee, its co-founder
and E. Thomason, its long-time executive head. When the forties
finally rolled around it was in a period of prosperity which was
clouded only by the war in Europe. Here is the fourth chapter of
of your railroad's history.

When the 1920's rounded the corner
into the 30's there was very little to be
thankful for, either in the nation or along
the Piedmont & Northern. The Great De-
pression which had begun with the stock-
market crash in October, 1929, had
plunged the American business into the
depths of moroseness, and the P & N
was fighting its last losing battle for the
right to connect its two divisions and
build northward.

In 1932 cotton went down to five cents
a pound; foreign trade fell off; factories
slashed production and some stopped
running entirely; new construction came
to a standstill; banks went bankrupt;
wages hit new lows; and when the de-
pression reached its low ebb as many as
13 million workers were jobless. This
was the backdrop for P & N history as
the railroad entered its twentieth year of
operation.

The decade of the thirties has ben ac-
curately described as the "Age of Roose-
velt." It was caracterized by the alpha-
bet agencies—NRA, CCC, WPA, RFC.
The New Deal, directed by Roosevelt and
his "Brain Trust," interjected hypodermic
after hypodermic into the sagging econo-
my until it finally began to show signs
of recovery after 1933.

Conservatism pays off

Fortunately for the Piedmont & North-
ern, its leadership had followed a wise
and conservative financial policy during
its formative years. Profits had been put
back into the roadbed, into locomotives,
and into buildings and structures. The
excellent physical condition of the rail-
road, more than any other factor, was
responsible for its ability to weather the
storm and recover sharply from the ef-
fects of the depression.

The railroad's operating revenue sank
from well over $2 million in 1930 to a
low of only $1.6 million in 1932. This
caused a corresponding drop in profits.
After 1933 business began to improve
steadily and finally passed the $2 million

DECEMBER, 1953 5