In the postwar ride of the U.S. economy to peacetime heights, everybody seemed to forget the fact that the glittering boom was carried in the lowly freight car. Last week nobody could overlook the fact.
Across the U.S., loading platforms and warehouses were jampacked with marooned goods. Shippers of everything from cement to washing machines frantically called for freight cars; some were lucky to get 10% of their minimum needs. In the Midwest, grain belt farmers stared nervously at grain-choked elevators, wondered whether they would be cleared before 1947 crops came in. It...
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