Record Loadings

One encouraging indication that business is not, on the whole, as bad as it is sometimes painted, was furnished by figures of freight car loadings for the week ending Aug. 2. The previous "peak" of freight traffic in this country for 1924, measured by carloading statistics, had been during the week ending Mar. 1, when 945,049 cars were loaded. From that point, loadings declined until for the week ending July 5 they were only 759,942. From that point a great recovery has been seen. The next week the loading figure leaped upward to 910,415, and, after advancing steadily each successive week, established a new high record for 1924 of 945,931 cars in the week ending Aug. 2--an increase of 19,872 cars over the previous week. To date, loadings of revenue freight have totaled 27,658,938 cars--not far behind the sensational figure of 28,979,703 during the corresponding period of 1923.

Analysis of loadings for the Aug. 2 week discloses the fact that grain and grain products increased 6,741 cars over the preceding week to 56,702 cars; livestock was down 777 cars at 26,468; coal decreased 1,192 to 144,865; ore rose 121 to 54,644; forest products rose 1,137 to 66,812, and merchandise and miscellaneous freight increased 1,434 to a total of 239,804 cars.

Increased loadings were common to all districts, but southern and southwestern roads were alone in surpassing loading figures established at this time in 1923.