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INTERESTING AND PERTINENT TOPICS OF THE DAY THERE ARE MILLIONS IN IT In spite of the fact that the United States government hus found railroading a most perplexing and expensive experiment our first years of gov ¬ ernment control being anything but a profitable one the railroad administration is beginning to get a firm grip on the situation and truly dp things in a big way And the scheme uiion which they are now working promises wonders along the line of conservation and economy as it will save the rail ¬ roads a matter of some 2 000000 a year on scrap material alone Due to war demands the rail ¬ roads as well as all industrial concerns will be re ¬ quired to get along with considerably less raw materials than they actually netd A 25 per cent shortage of steel is estimated for 1919 a 40 per iceflt shortage of zinc and about a 50 per cent short ¬ age of tin All other materials such as leather cloth oils wood in fact practically everything that the railroads use will show decided shortages shortagesRealizing Realizing the necessity of supplying the roads with materials and equipment the administration viewed this situation with grave fears and set about to find a remedy This was discovered in the railroad scrap pile for if new materials could not be had ojd ones would have to serve Saving 25000000 a year on scrap alone is a large order but figures prove that if the best utilization and reclaim methods of two or three different progres ¬ sive roads be incorporated into the operating prac ¬ tices of every railroad in America this amount will ibe saved besides putting back into service scrap that will replace at least five times that amount in raw materials materialsWhile While credit and recognition is due to the half dozen other roads that have gone far along the road of scrap reclamation nowhere in the world can a duplication of Corwith the Santa Fes Chicago scrap town be found During 1917 the Corwith yards received nearly 75000 tons of scrap from which they reclaimed over 1500000 worth of firstclass materials and tools besides Celling more than 3500000 worth of scrap most of it classified as assorted so as to bring about 50 per cent more than it it had been sold en masse or as unassorted junk junkWhen When received at Corwith the scrap is weighed in and the divisions stores forwarding it are given credit Then it is unloaded by locomotive cranes equipped with powerful magnets and dumped into a receiving pile preparatory to sorting As it is sorted an inspector carefully goes over it searching out material that is serviceable If any is found the division store from which it comes is notified and warned to see that all usable material is separated before the scrap is allowed to proceed to Corwith The usable material found is put back into stock and reissued The scrap is sorted into over 200 piles by experienced sorters There are in Scrapville for instance rows upon rows of neat pilss of scrap waiting their turn to enter one of the reclaiming plants the toolhouse the blacksmith shop the forge the hosehouse or the rolling mill W L Mack in Popular Mechanics
