RIPLEY DENOUNCES POPULAR NOTIONS ABOUT RAILROADS

"Nothing is more important to the industrial existence of the United States than the preservation and rehabilitation of the railroads as such," said W. Z. Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, in an interview yesterday.

"Much has been said about the ultimate probability that cement roads will supplant rails as the cheapest means of transportation. Such a possibility does not exist; one freight train carries as much coal as could be transported in a thousand trucks, each of which would necessarily require a driver, with accompanying high costs. Only one tenth of the transported commodities of the country are handled by motor trucks.

"The traffic which the highways could bear, even if no passenger traffic were allowed on them, would be an inconsiderable fraction of the whole now being taken care of by the railroads.

"Owing to the tremendous fixed costs which the railroads have to bear, they are hit especially hard by a depression; their operating expenses fall only slightly in response to a great reduction in business.

"Inasmuch as the railroads are the greatest consumers of national industrial output, their failure would entail a tremendous falling off in the production of large industries, such as coal and steel. Also, the railroads are among the largest direct employers of labor in the country, and the number of men thrown out of work by their failure would be far from inconsiderable."

"Few people seem to realize that, although industry is at a low ebb, it is nevertheless still a fact, and is dependent on the railroads for its existence, now as in good times. On these grounds, no one can deny that the credit which is being extended to the railroads by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation is being directed into the best possible channels."