CARRIERS: Tons per Typewriter

To its more than 23,000 employes, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad is “Old Reliable.” Conservatively operated, and not overloaded with the fixed charges that have broken the backs of many Class I roads,* efficient “Old Reliable” has never been in receivership, has passed only one dividend on its common stock (1933) in the past 40 years. “Old Reliable’s” president is peak-nosed, Cumberland Mountain-born James Brents Hill. Like his predecessors, he likes to keep his employes on the job in L. & N.’s constant drive for courteous, economical operation, sends out frequent “President’s messages” to every worker on L. & N.’s 5,000 miles of track.

Last month President’s Message No. 51 laid facts & figures before L. & N. employes to dramatize Jim Hill’s constant plea for small savings. To get the money to buy one lead pencil, said he, L. & N. (a lucky, coal-hauling road) must haul 1,887 pounds of average freight one mile; to buy one track bolt, eleven tons. Other figures: one typewriter, 11,552 tons; one brakeman’s lantern, 162; one fireman’s coal scoop, 128.

To pay Mr. Hill’s 1938 salary ($51,777), it could be calculated that the road has to haul 6,472,125 tons of average freight a mile. Considering the fact that L. & N. has made money year after year while most other Class I roads are in the soup, he is doubtless worth it.

*L. & N.’s capitalization: 65% bonds, no preferred, 35% common stock. Its ratio of fixed charges to operating revenues in 1938: 12%; average ratio for all Class I roads: 18%.