January 1957 page 4

stance, natural gas was substitued
for coal and fuel oil to a very substantial
extent. We did lose some traffic to
competitive modes of transportation for
various reasons.

Editor: Well, certainly factors such as
you mention are hard for your staff to
control. How about new business? Were
your people able to add many new names
to our list of customers to overcome the
losses?

Mr. Lawson: We classify our freight
into 18 commodity groups. Some of these
reflected nice increases while others
reflected deficits, percentagewise and in
carloads. For instance we had fairly
substantial deficits in automobile
carloadings and in building material and
forest products. There were smaller but
important deficits in machinery and coal
carloadings. Yet we evened up the year
with only an overall deficit of 1.1% in
cars. It is clear from this that our people
were successful in securing considerable
additional business in some quarters to
overcome most of the deficit.

New industry helps

Editor: How about our industrial expansion?
Wasn't that a help in replacing the losses?

Mr. Lawson: We were successful in
locating a number of new industries on
our railway. some were new industries
establishing operations in our territory
while others moved operations from old
locations to locations we serve. In 1956,
272,600 square feet of new warehousing
was completed; there is now under
construction 122,000 square feet more, with
206,000 square feet immediately in prospect.

Editor: It looks like from what you
have said that the traffic department has
a man-sized job to do in keeping the
traffic voume up. Is there anything that
employees outside of your department
can do to help your people?

Mr. Lawson: Yes, very definitely. The
local agents and agency forces are the

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most important employees on the railway,
closely followed by train crews and
others who come in contact with the
public. A majority of our employees are
very conscious of our traffic needs and
contribute materially to our overall
efforts. Every employee can contribute to
our efforts by being a good will
ambassador.

Importance of service

Editor: How about service, sir?
Haven't you been able to hold a lot of
traffic on the railroad by this factor
alone?

Mr. Lawson: Yes. We are constantly
on the alert to improve our service in
keeping with changing conditions and
the needs of our patrons, both in
over-the-road and terminal operations. Our
efforts are reflected, I think, in the
volume of traffic being handled.

Editor: How about price? Rail rates
were increased 6% a few months ago.
Has this tended to put more traffic on
the highways?

Mr. Lawson: We have lost some traffic
to other modes of transportation as a
result of the increase made in freight
rates, but as a general thing we have
been able to offset the losses to a very
considerable extent by redoubling our
solicitation efforts, and by having
industries establish operations at locations
we serve.

Editor: Mr. Lawson, it certainly looks
like you had your problems last year.
Henry Ford had such a hard time living
down his famous remark, "history is
bunk," that I certainly wouldn't presume
to imply the same. But 1956 is past and
we can't do anything to change the
record. What do your people think about
'57?

Mr. Lawson: From all indications
businesses will be reasonably good in 1957. Our
territory is growing very rapidly
industrially and that is also true of the
population. These conditions can only boost

JANUARY

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