1958 - No Business Improvement Foreseen by N&W's Smith

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Roanoke Times - March 29, 1958

No Business Improvement Foreseen by N&W's Smith

  R. H. Smith said yesterday that he expects no immediate improvement 
in Norfolk and Western Railway's business.
  Smith, making his last formal address as N&W president, added, 
however, that the company has pulled through tough spots before and 
can do it again.
   Speaking at a luncheon opening the N&W's 33rd Better Service 
Conference at Hotel Roanoke, he said, "I like to look at things 
optimistically, but I just can't truthfully say that at the immediate 
present I can see any signs of a substantial upturn in the business trend."
   "We shouldn't forget, though, that we have been through a number 
of situations like this before and have always managed to work out of 
them in time."
   "I have complete confidence that we will do this again, and I just 
hope that the time won't be too long."
   The conference will end with another luncheon today. Speakers this 
morning will include Stuart T. Saunders, who will become N&W 
president Tuesday; H. C. Wyatt, vice president and general manager; 
F. S. Baird, vice president in charge of traffic; and C. E. Pond, 
general superintendent of motive power.
   Dr. Tennyson Guyer of Finlay, Ohio, a humorist, spoke last night 
to the 500 delegates from nine state attending the conference.
   In his address Smith said business last January was down 17.6 per 
cent from January 1957, and that in February it was off 28.5 per cent 
from the same month last year.
   Freight business increased 22.7 per cent in the last 20 days of 
March, he said, when compared with a like period in February, But, he 
added, business in the first three weeks of March was still down 26.5 
per cent from a comparable period last March.
  Smith, who has been N&W president almost 12 years, called 1957 an 
"excellent year" in which freight business and gross and net earnings 
hit new highs.
   "Particularly encouraging was the trend of our coal business," he 
said. The N&W handled 61,642,000 tons of coal last year, also a record.
   He said more than 19 million tons - almost a third of all coal 
handled by the road - went to other nations. That, too, was a record.
   The railway spent more than $32 million last year for 4,135 new 
freight cars, he said "as a result . . . the Norfolk and Western 
today owns more freight cars per mile of line than any other American 
railroad 250 miles in length or longer."
   Smith, retiring Monday after a career in which he climbed through 
the ranks to the top man, said that merchandise traffic - all freight 
other than coal - dropped a bit in 1957.
   At one point Smith, speaking of operating costs on the N&W, said, 
"We have one of the hilliest, crookedest railroads in the country."
   When delegates laughed, he added quickly, "I mean we have a lot of 
hills and a lot of curves."
   Smith said N&W's 1957 tax bill amounted to $47,472,000, including 
more than $30 million to the federal government. Taxes exceeded net 
income by nearly $3 million.
  "I suppose we ought to be willing and proud to contribute to the 
operation of our community and nation, but sometimes I get the 
feeling our government expects a little too much of us in that respect."

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link





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