The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-12-14
THE REPUBLIC.
WASHIN GTON:
TUESDAY MORNING. DECEMBER "A, 1859.
Congress.

Congress.
In the Senate, yesterday, the standing COM
miltees Of the body were appointed. The
Kentucky Contested Election case was further
argued by Mr.. UNDERWOOD, who had not con-
| cluded at the adjournment.
In the House Of Representatives, the Navy
Pension and the Invalid Pension bills were re-
ported from the Committee on Ways and
Means. The debate on the subject of the tariff
was resumed in Committee of the Whole on
the state Of the Union on the proposition to re-
fer that branch Of the Presidents annual mes
sage to select committee. ~.
The Railroad System OF the United States.
An article in the curreat issue of De Bows
Revie,o affords much interesting information in
regard TO the railroad system as now being de-
veloped in the United States. The number
of railroads, it appears, is now 337, of an ave-
rage length of "a miles; the whole forming
eight routes of communication across, east and
west, and north and south. The aggregate length
in operation is IL sos miles, constructed at an
average cost of $50 900 per mile. The lines
in course Of construction amount to | ,22S
miles
The cost per mile is greatest in the New
England States, less in the Middle and South
ern, and least in the Western Thus in Mas
sachusetts, with 1853 miles in operation and
81 in course of construction, the cost is esti-
mated at $5l 1884, 572; Pennsylvania, with
| 1923 miles completed and 533 in progress,
$40 ,662, 9lS; New Hampshire, with 463 miles
at work and rs in progress, pays SD, IA, 1856;
while in Georgia, with s04 miles finished and
1871 in progress, the cost is but SIS, l00, $780,
Connecticut. with $40 miles in operation and
"a now being made, pays $l8, 1873 500; while
Michigan has Ala miles in operation at cost
of $S, $40; and Wisconsin, with smooth
prairies to traverse, has 90 miles completed
and 236 in progress, at an aggregate estimated
cost of 100000.
Comparing roads running through strictly
agricultural districts in this country and in Eng
land, we find that while the Southern Michi-
gan line, 245 miles IN length, was put into
operation at an expenditure Of $4,000 per
mile, the Eastern Counties line, an English
road 322 miles in length, including branches,
cost 1000 per mile. The receipts Of the
respective undertakings in September last
were $ll3,2l5 on the Southern Michi
gan, and on the Eastern Counties $780,.
OPS; the receipts on the American road being
considerably more than third Of the receipts
of the English road, while the cost was ten
times less The Eastern Counties Railroad
is, perhaps, one of the worst managed in Eng
L. - tho1o IL,
fact that there the roads run through districts
whose resources had already been developed:
while here they pass over ground which with
little exertion adds immensely to the floating
capital of the country.
The tendency of railroads to develop local
business and to equalize the value Of land for
agricultural purposes over comparatively
large surface, is strikingly illustrated in the
business of the Massachusetts lines. The
returns of the passenger and goods traffic
show not only that the distances which
they average are in comparison small, but
are constantly decreasing. Although the
number of passengers has more than doubled
from 1916 to 1851, the average distance to
which they are transported has diminished one
fifth. With the exception Of the Western road,
the average distance travelled by passengers is
less than two per cent. Of the aggregate length,
indicating clearly the rapidity with which
lateral connexions are formed with leading
lines, and the extent to which the means of
cheap and prompt travel multiply both passen-
gers and freight Not only have the rail
roads largely increased the radius of the coun-
try which pours its produce into the city marts,
but they have diffused the city population over
larger surface in both ways creating the
traffic on which the stockholders rely for pro-
fits on their investments. Boston affords a
case in point the increase of its population in
the ten years ending in 1850 having been
sixty five per cent, while that of seven towns,
each within five miles of the city, and accessi
BILE by railroad was eighty-one per cent. Great
as is the increase of passenger traffic on all the
railways, it is exceeded in proportion by the
increase of freights. 10 this respect the expe
rience of Massachusetts, TALES with that OF
road
The great advance in the value of land on
the line of railroads is nowhere more marked
than on the Illinois Central. where lands which
had long remained unsold at the Government
minimum price have realized SIS per acre, and
others which have been held at 81 and S.
now readily obtain purchasers at Sc and SO
Assuming that the value of improved land:
along the route has increased in the same ratio
it is difficult to fix limit to the benefit which
, every individual in the State will derive from
the undertaking. The increase in the proper
ty Of Massachusetts from 1926, 1878 ,329 in lS4(
to $597 1886, 1896 in 1850, is small in proportion
to the increase which the Central Railroad viii
, confer upon Illinois.
The wisdom of the policy on the part Of tn
Government in granting land to aid in the con
struction of railroads is placed beyond doubt b.
the course of events in connexion with thi
great western undertaking. Government,
is known, granted to the Illinois Central Rail
, road $500, 900 acres which in the course q