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CHAPTER VII
HOW THE RAILROADS HELPED
War Garden Activities of Management and Employes
As soon as America became a belligerent
the railroads of the country sought to help relieve the food shortage and the
traffic situation by encouraging the cultivation of all vacant lands along their
rights-of-way. They called on their employés to plant this unused acreage
wherever it might be found. To railroad managers the double value to be gained
was quickly manifest. The movement would not only add to the nation's food
supply but be an important and direct factor in relieving the demands on the
carriers for the hauling of freight. The result was that nearly all the railroad
lines ran through gardens of growing vegetables which were soon seen flourishing
everywhere, along the tracks, around the cosy little watchboxes of the crossing
flagmen and even alongside station platforms.
 ON
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD GROUND
This is a fine example of what was done by many of the employes of railroads in
raising vegetables on ground which formerly had been lying idle. The companies
aided by distributing garden books among the men, by placing war-garden posters
on bulletin boards directing attention to the value of this work, urging the
workers to apply for land, and in various other ways. This scene is at Pitcairn,
Pennsylvania.
The railroads furnished the land to their men free of
charge or at nominal rental, and in many cases further assisted them by
supplying quantities of seed and by aiding in the preparation of the soil. They
placed posters in their stations calling attention to this opportunity for
patriotic service, and distributed tens of thousands of copies of gardening and
canning manuals furnished them by the National War Garden Commission. The
Pennsylvania Railroad alone, on its lines east of Pittsburgh, gave out during
the season of 1918 more than 20,000 copies of these instruction booklets. The
division superintendents and their assistants acted as the distributing agents.
In addition they frequently assisted in other ways in helping to arouse the
entire local and community interest in this work. Through the posters, displayed
conspicuously on bulletin boards, the attention of hundreds of thousands of
other persons besides railroad employés was called to the urgent need of war
gardens and of conserving food. Local station agents were also a powerful factor
in the work. Not only did they encourage the company employés to engage in
gardening but they assisted in other ways to arouse interest.
As a sample of what the railroads did in this direction, here
is an extract from a general notice, signed by R.L. O'Donnel, assistant general
manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was posted along all the lines of
that road. This was addressed "To all employés of the Pennsylvania Railroad." It
said:
Owing to the interest shown, and the substantial results
obtained by employés of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the cultivation of war
gardens last year, the Management will renew for the present season the
arrangement by which vacant land belonging to the Company may be available to
employés for garden purposes, at a nominal rental. . . . All employés who are
able to do so, are urged to take advantage of these opportunities by cultivating
war gardens this spring and summer, thus assisting our country in the production
of food, and also aiding in a very essential manner to win the war. Employés
taking this action will, in addition, be helping themselves in one of the best
possible ways. It is for just such purposes as these that the Daylight Saving
plan was initiated. Last year the employés of the Pennsylvania Railroad lines
east of Pittsburgh raised crops of an estimated value of one quarter of a
million dollars. Let us endeavor to surpass this good record in 1918.
Many other railroads deserve special mention for their
activity in this line. Among them are the New York Central, the Union Pacific,
the Northern Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Illinois Central, the
Atlantic Coast Line, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy, the Long Island, the New York, New Haven & Hartford, the
Missouri Pacific, the Erie, the Boston & Albany, the Delaware & Hudson, the
Chicago & Northwestern, the Pere Marquette, the Louisville & Nashville, the
Norfolk & Western, the Seaboard Air Line, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and
the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis. The New York, Chicago & St Louis
Railroad Company reported that a number of gardens were planted along its right
of way in 1917 and that in 1918 all available land was applied for and assigned
for this purpose.
A report from the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway
showed that more than 2,100 bushels of seed potatoes were furnished to the
prospective gardeners, and that the men not only planted these but bought more
for themselves, besides buying seed for other vegetables. The resultant yield
was 28,000 bushels of potatoes and other garden products to a value of $15,400.
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy reported among other products 3,000 carloads of
beans from lands which hitherto had been considered of little value except for
grazing purposes.
 SOME
RAILROAD "SOLDIERS OF THE SOIL"
These are Pennsylvania Railroad employes planting potatoes. No class of workers
in the country better realized the value of saving transportation by producing
"Food F.O.B. the Kitchen Door" than did these men; and thousands of them availed
themselves of the opportunity to plant land offered them along the right of way.
Plans for the continuation and extension of this work in
1919 have been put into effect by the United States Railroad Administration on
all the lines over which it has supervision; and in urging the call of Victory
Gardens it coöperates closely with the National War Garden Commission. In
response to an appeal sent out by J.L. Edwards, director of the agricultural
section of the Railroad Administration, replies have been received from
virtually all the regional directors and other officials stating that they would
promote the movement to the fullest extent possible. A notable example was the
reply from B.F. Bush, regional director of the southwestern region. He said: "I
wish to state that the railroads in the southwestern region will again do
everything they possibly can in permitting their rights-of-way and station
grounds to be used for farming and gardening purposes. During the last season
this work was handled on practically every railroad in this region with much
success and it will be repeated." Alexander Jackson, agricultural agent of the
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, answered as follows: "We feel that the War
Garden is a permanent fixture in practically all parts of our territory where
gardening is possible." C.L. Hoffman, agricultural agent of the New York,
Ontario & Western, sent this message: "I assure you that I shall do all in my
power to have the coöperation of all the officials of our roads in an endeavor
to increase the victory gardens of 1919 over the war gardens of 1918." Similar
evidences of activity were received from many others.
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