AN AMERICAN VIEW.

Grey River Argus, 8 March 1918, Page 4

AN AMERICAN VIEW.

' In the New York Metropolitan, Mr. William Hard has been writing on "How the English take the War," and his articles have been reprinted by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton in Lon don, New York, and Toronto. Under the caption, "The English, Hate to Talk about their Efficiencies," the writer cites the case of the railways. The English, he says, will commit efficiencies but they hate to divulge them. In support* of his theory he continues: "I happen to be a collector of train speeds. English trains, on certain types of runs ar eextraordinarily fast. You can go from Bristol to Londoun in exactly two hours. The distance is 117 miles. The rate of speed is, therefore, 58* miles an hour. The most comparable run in America is from Philadelphia to New York on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The length of that run is 92 miles. The fastest train on it does it in two hours It srate of speed is, therefore, 46 miles an hour. It s a high rate. It is not so high as the rate from Bristol to London, but it is high; and the Pennsylvanian' s fast trains are fast trains, and you know that they are fast trains, because the Pennsylvania Railroad provides you with a thrilling little folder which tells you that they are fast trains. Would the Great Western Railway Company, on the run from Bristol to London provide you with any similar information and elation. Certainly not. If you happen to be a bit soft in your wits on the subject of train speeds, you dig the running time out of one big, fat uncomfortable book, which you buy with your own money at. a news stand and you dig the railage out of another big, fat, uncomfortable book, which 3 r ou likewise buy for yourself with your own money and you put these two figures together, -and you may discover by your own exertions that you are riding on one q£ the. fastest trains in the world. .Otherwise if you are normal sane person and no collector of train speeds you simply ride on one of the fastest trains in the world and neve'rknow it." Further, Mr. Hard tells the story of how he called on the President of the Board~ of Trade^ — then Mr. Walter Runciman — and confessed to him his infirmity in the. matter of train speeds and from the Board of Trade records he was shown that durng the first seven months of the war — that is during the time of the greatest congestion and confusion — not one train carrying troops or supplies officially on official schedules was as much as ten minutes late in arriving at is destination.