III
HOW TRAINS HAVE BEEN USED IN CAMPAIGNING
For a number of years, with the co-operation of the railroads, state agricultural colleges, departments of health, and private state organizations have carried on educational and organization work through demonstration trains. The war propaganda which utilized practically every known form of publicity did not overlook train, truck or trolley. One or more of these was used in the campaigns for Liberty Loans, food conservation, and child welfare.
Descriptions of a few of these trains will illustrate the varied types of campaigns in which they have been employed.
Agricultural Trains
A Peach Demonstration Train started on a tour in November, 1919, for the purpose of encouraging and stimulating the peach industry in the East Texas Fruit Belt. The train consisted of two baggage cars containing exhibits of insect pests that menace the peach industry, life-sized models of diseased and perfect fruit, and actual branches of affected peach trees, and a box car containing a tractor, orchard plows, and various other kinds of farm machinery needed by an up-to-date orchardist.
Regarding this train Mr. P. T. Cole, Agricultural Commissioner, St. Louis Southwestern Railroad of Texas, writes as follows:
The cars were moved on local freight trains nearly all the time, although on a few occasions we were moved by a through freight. The cars were opened to the public at 9 a.m., and the farmers were taken through in groups of about fifteen and a thorough lecture given them with explanations in detail regarding the various exhibits. We usually let the school children go through, but did not allow them to interfere with the work we were giving the farmers. In the afternoon, at about one o’clock, we accompanied the farmers to a nearby orchard taking with us pruning tools, the power sprayer, and the tractor. In the orchard we gave lectures on pruning, and then pruned about a dozen trees, or sometimes as many as fifty, after which we gave them a thorough spraying. This demonstration usually consumed the greater part of the afternoon, but we would return to the cars and discuss the different problems of orcharding with the growers and in many cases they remained with us until dark.
The growers in most cases were very enthusiastic over this work, and we had some excellent demonstrations. Some of the very best were given in orchards where we had done the same work last year, and where it was an easy matter to point out the beneficial results of proper spraying and pruning. We have a number of fine demonstrations to go back to next year to show the results of the work we have just done.
As a result of this work a great many spray machines have been bought, and there is more pruning and spraying in progress now than I have ever seen before.
Interior of Exhibit Car of the “Peach Special”
A baggage car containing exhibits to show the diseases and insect pests that menace the peach industry, and the methods of destroying them. See page 13.
The following account[2] of a dairy train in Illinois is supplied by the College of Agriculture of the University of Illinois:
The first dairy train which we assisted in operating was on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad from Danville, Illinois, to Cypress. The equipment consisted of an engine, three ordinary coaches used for lecture work, an automobile box car with side and end doors, and a flat car. We had four cows in the automobile car and led them direct from this car onto the flat car for demonstration purposes. We had a railing built around the flat car and also a removable platform between the two cars. We also had a milking machine installed in this box car which could be observed in operation by opening its side doors. This was all the exhibit material we had, as our stops in the towns lasted only from one to two hours. We had a special train crew and a definite train schedule to follow. As soon as we would reach a town we would fill up the three lecture coaches, and three speakers would start at once to give short talks. After talking for about fifteen minutes, the speakers would trade cars. In this way each audience heard at least three speakers, and at the conclusion of these lectures the audience was conducted to the rear car where a cow demonstration was given. At the conclusion of the cow demonstration the milking machine demonstration was given in the automobile car. I might say that the dairy train was highly successful. This was due, I think, largely to its being well advertised previous to its operation.
Later, another dairy train was operated in a similar manner except that four lecture coaches were used instead of three. On account of the warm weather, it was found advisable to give a large number of the lectures out-of-doors. The coaches were used only during rainy weather or in towns where, because of congested passenger and freight traffic, they were not given a good location. In some places our audiences were so large that we could not accommodate them in four coaches. In that case all the lecture work was given from the flat car on the rear end of the train.
The Pure Seed and Home Power Special was the name given to a three-car train run jointly by the Soo Line, the Wisconsin Bankers’ Association, and the Wisconsin College of Agriculture in the interests of more efficient farm methods. The pure seed car contained a display of the finest Wisconsin grown seed grains, reinforced by explanations driving home the vital facts concerning the advantages of pure-bred seed. The home power and home convenience car showed gasoline engine, power churn, washing machine, separator, home lighting plant, and other conveniences. A lecture car and a tourist sleeper for the lecturers and demonstrators completed the equipment. Sixteen counties were visited and over seven thousand people came to see the train.
The Hessian Fly Special, as described below, is an example of a highly specialized effort toward accomplishing a very definite purpose:
Since its first appearance in Kansas as an important factor in wheat production, the Hessian fly has alternately disappeared and reappeared. During the forty-four years of its known presence in the state it has produced seven different out-breaks, the last and the greatest of which destroyed not less than fifteen million bushels of wheat of the 1915 crop. Believing that not only the attention of the farmers could best be called to the seriousness of the infestation, but also that more interest could be created in the control methods and that a larger number of wheat growers could be reached within a short time, the Kansas Agricultural College decided to request the Santa Fé Railway Company, which had a large mileage in the infested districts, to run a Hessian fly train....
A chart of the infested districts was furnished the dean of the Extension Division who met with the officials of the Santa Fé and prepared a schedule consisting of sixty-two stops. It was left entirely with the college to decide as to the best time to run the train and it was felt that, inasmuch as the methods of control of the fly should begin as soon as possible after harvest, the best and most opportune time for the train would be the week just before the beginning of harvest.
The train consisted of a baggage car, two modern steel day coaches, each with a seating capacity of eighty-eight persons, which were used for lecture cars, and a private car, consisting of parlor and observation, dining and sleeping compartments. It was understood at the beginning that the train was to be an exclusive Hessian fly train and thus it was advertised as the Hessian Fly Special, operated by the Kansas State Agricultural College in co-operation with the Santa Fé. The speakers consisted of three entomologists of the Agricultural College, one entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, the head of the Department of Agronomy, the superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes of the college, and one county demonstration agent. In addition to the lecturers, the company consisted of the agricultural agent of the Santa Fé, the publicity agent of the Santa Fé, the publicity agent of the college, and representatives of some of the principal newspapers and farm publications. The divisional superintendents and roadmasters accompanied the train over their respective divisions of the road.
Addresses were made at all of the sixty-two places scheduled. In fact, at nearly all the places the attendance was such as to require two speakers and, on several occasions, it required a third speaker to accommodate the large crowd. If the attendance did not exceed two hundred, the two speakers took care of them in the lecture cars, but where the crowd was over two hundred the over-flow was taken in the waiting room of the depot, where a speaker was provided. Where there was not an opportunity for the insect train to stop, a lecturer was dropped off to hold a meeting at the depot or an up-town place. Later, the man would be picked up by one of the regular trains and left at a station where the Hessian Fly Special was scheduled to stop. Or a man would be sent ahead on a regular train to hold a meeting and would later be picked up when the Special came through. In a few cases speakers were taken to neighboring towns in automobiles. During the entire trip every speaker on the train gave practically the same Hessian fly talk. The entomologists and the agronomist of the college prepared the speech, copies of which were furnished not only to the speakers but also to all the railroad officials and publicity men who accompanied the train. The publicity men prepared beforehand all the articles to be used by the newspapers in the places where addresses were made. In other words, every address given and every newspaper article published had just one message and that was the seriousness of the infestation and what should be done to protect the crop of the next year. It is the opinion of the writer that much of the success of the Hessian fly train and the good accomplished were due to the fact that all departments and all persons concerned were together, and that nothing was said or done but what met with the approval and recommendation of every one. The fact that the very methods advocated for the control of the fly were in keeping with the very methods recommended by the Agronomy Department and which the progressive and successful wheat growers knew should be practiced for maximum yields, appealed to the better judgment of even the most skeptical ones. The time allowed for each stop was about forty minutes. The speakers usually arranged for a few minutes’ discussion before closing the meeting. Specimen cases, charts, and illustrated material were used in nearly all lectures. As the men left the lecture cars or the waiting room they were given circulars on the Hessian fly and the preparation of the seed bed for wheat. The Hessian fly circular was printed primarily for the occasion. It was simply a timely article emphasizing the methods of control and closing with a brief life history of the fly.
In nearly all cases large crowds met the Hessian Fly Special and the total attendance for the week was approximately seven thousand.[3]
Health Trains
In the early days of the tuberculosis movement cars were extensively used in traveling health campaigns. A pioneer in carrying the message of health over a state on exhibit trains was Dr. Oscar Dowling, President of the Louisiana State Board of Health. His health train made its initial trip in 1910 and with many changes since that time has continued in service. After the first tours, made with cars loaned by the railroad, had demonstrated the popularity of the train, the State Board of Health purchased two coaches. One was fitted up as an inspection car with a part of it given over to living and office quarters, and the other as an educational exhibit car, containing displays of models, charts, and laboratory specimens. Later, two more cars were purchased for living quarters and the inspection car was turned into a laboratory car.
A practical application of the lessons taught on the tour was made by inspectors who accompanied the train. In each place visited they inspected and scored buildings in which the sanitary conditions imperilled public health, the reports of their findings being given publicity while the train was in town. This train attracted the attention of health workers in other states and has made a number of trips outside of Louisiana in response to their requests.
Health Cars of the Louisiana Department of Health
Showing the garage end of the laboratory car. Here a Ford is stored ready for use by the inspectors in a quick tour of each town visited.
The Board of Health of Kansas has used a Pullman car to carry exhibits on child welfare, tuberculosis, and other health topics. A woman physician and public health nurses traveled with the car and gave health talks and explained exhibits. Sixty-nine cities and towns were visited, the stops varying from one to four days. The purpose was chiefly educational, but an attempt was made to discuss their health problems with individuals.
Another example of the Health Special was a car sent out by the West Virginia Board of Health during 1919, and described in letters sent in advance to the newspapers as:
A fine, vestibuled coach, equipped with electrically driven models, health posters, exhibits of living bacteria, exhibits of Red Cross work, a moving picture machine, and a small but complete chemical and bacteriological laboratory in one end.
War Propaganda
During the war, trains were used in several states to carry the message of food conservation and more especially to encourage home canning by simple methods. The Pennsylvania Food Administration, in co-operation with the Pennsylvania State College of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Railroad, ran a train of three cars during the first and second summer of the war. The train included an exhibit car containing posters and graphic devices showing why food conservation was necessary; and two cars where skilled demonstrators illustrated methods of baking with wheat substitutes and the canning and drying of fruits and vegetables.
A Save the Surplus Special of two cars toured New York State encouraging home canning and helping practically to increase it.
During the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign exhibit trains were used in some districts for displaying war trophies, and during the Fifth Liberty Loan several shiploads of war equipment and trophies were distributed over the whole country for display on trains which were sent into the rural districts and cities. Each train included several flat cars and a baggage car loaded with captured cannon, German aëroplanes, machine guns, trench mortars, gas warfare apparatus and gas masks, and thousands of other interesting trophies. One of our own tanks, dressed up in its fighting clothes, was an interesting feature of the exhibits. Each train was accompanied by an armed guard of returned soldiers, sailors, and marines.
In Missouri a Women’s Patriotic Special made a two weeks’ trip carrying women speakers who gave talks on the Red Cross, food conservation, and other war topics.
A Government Safety First Train
Probably the most elaborate exhibit train that has yet been sent out was the Safety First Train of the Department of the Interior, which toured sixteen states during a period of four months and was visited by over a half million people. This train, which was furnished by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, consisted of twelve steel cars, including a sleeper and diner, and was hauled by two powerful passenger locomotives. Six governmental departments and the American Red Cross had exhibits relating to safety work, the purpose of the tour being “to acquaint the people with the work that the Federal Government is doing every day to protect its citizens against injury and death, and with the measures it takes to promote the health and comfort of the people.”
Trolley Tours
Campaigns have been conducted on interurban lines in several states. For about three months the Woman’s Committee of the State Council of Defense ran a Children’s Year Special over much of the interurban trackage of Michigan, in the interests of better babies everywhere, and as a help in saving Michigan’s quota of the one hundred thousand babies the Children’s Year was to save.
The car was divided into three sections—the first part contained an exhibit, the second a compartment in which babies and children brought for tests were undressed and dressed, and the third a model examination room where tests and examinations were made by skilled physicians and trained nurses.
The Woman’s Committee of the State Council of Defense in Massachusetts also ran a children’s welfare car. The interior of the car was given over to exhibits of literature and posters on food conservation and child welfare. The front and back platforms were enlarged and surrounded by arm railings. On one platform a kitchen was arranged, where a lecturer gave actual demonstrations of the various food substitutes; on the other a trained nurse instructed mothers upon the care and feeding of children in wartime.