The Accomplishments of the United States Rail road Administration in Unifying and Stand ardizing the Statistics of Operation

THE standardization of statistics of operation, which has been brought about by the centralized control of the United States Railroad Administration, was intended primarily to aid the Director General and his staff, the Regional Directors, and the Federal Managers of the individual railroads, in keeping closer check on the efficiency of operation, as measured by units of transportation, equipment utilization and operating costs. Railroad officers, as a whole, now know more than they knew before about the details of the operation of their own properties, and they now know very much more than they knew before about their relative performance in comparison with neighboring roads. The publication of the monthly summaries by roads and by regions makes possible easy comparison of the results on one road with those of other roads operating under similar conditions, and enables each Regional Director to measure the efficiency of his region with that of neighboring regions without uncertainty or qualification as to bases and methods. The value of the information made available by the new plan is not confined to railroad managers. The published summaries have opened up to the public regulating authorities, economists, investors and other students of transportation, a wealth of data which heretofore have not been available in comprehensive form or on uniform bases. This phase of the subject is of interest to the readers of The Annals, and it will be largely from this viewpoint that the following description of the plan, and the discussion of its underlying principles, will be undertaken.