'Big Doddy' ol All Freight-Cor Shortoges Focing Lumber f,lills

Portland, Oregon, February 2-The granddaddy of all freight-car shortages faces Northwest lumber shippers this Summer. K. C. Batchelder, traffic manager of West Coast Lumbermen's Association, warned railroads recently that lumbermen are alarmed at the loss in one vear of 75.000 serviceable freight cars from the nation's alreidy short fleet.

This policy can only lead to disaster, Batchelder emphasized. We are losing 5,000 freight cars a month from the operating fleet of the Class I railroads.

Serviceable cars, he said, have dropped from 1,730,000 to 1,654,369 in one year, and we were short of cars last year. With major commodity shippers announcing plans for increased production this year, the situation becomes extremely critical.