Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-10-17
NATIONAL INTELLlGEhCLR
RAILROAD INvEsTMENTs-HoW TO MAKE THEM
LESS UNPRoFITABLE.
BIZ CHARLES EILEr, Jr., Civa Engineer.

WASHINGTON OCTOBER 15 1857.
To the Editors of the National Iutslligsneer;
GENTLEMEN It must be admitted that the rail-
road in the present state of society," IS necessary
machine as indispensable as the steam-engne which
drives boat or mill, the cart which brings US
our coal or the furnace which converts ore into
metal piece of machinery which has become
absolutely necessary to populous and wealthy com
munities, if judiciously directed, ought certainly
to paw reasonable profits to its propretors People
aM pay for the things they must hare
Tt is not. clearly for want of adequate business
that the great American railroads are so unprofta
BILE There are numerous lines in this country of
which the stocks are almost valueess marketable
commodities, yet on which the business is great
that. when exhibited in appreciable shape, it
staggers credullty.
Let us take, for example, one of the great rail-
roads of New York, with the history and present
condition of which we are all familiar-a road
which annually transports more than million of
passengers and three-9adrters Of a million Of
tons Of freight-a road of which the stock is now
selling at prices ranging from eight to twelve cents
In the dollar.
Did it ever occur to you, Messrs. Editors, to try
to imagine what three-fourths of million of tons
really is BY reducing that quantity to some other
form with which the mind and the eye are more
familiars For this purpose, let us suppose the
threefourths of million Of tons to be represented
BY -four In barrels
alna4i isaiss .s ~ s,rsa iu,freieht is
about equivalent to eight milliSns of barrels of
-four. But stiH We are at loss to appreciate the
quantity. 4 million is toe large number for the
mind to estimate
Eight millions of barrels of -four, then, piled up
with the head of one barrel upon the head of the
other, viii form column long enough to reach from
the centre of Wall street to the centre of this earth
Laid side BY side in row, eight millions of barrels
would extend from New York to London
The transportation of the whole of this immense
mass, with the cars which contain it. distance of
about two hundred miles, is part of the annual
task of single railroad.
But this same road carries also considerably more
shan million of passengers per annum. A mil
hon of persons placed as together as soldiers
drawn up in order of battle, and occupying each
two feet IN file, will extend over space of about
four hundred miles, The mere passenger business
of this great work is equal to the conveyance of
the entire populations of Washington and George
town over road one hundred miles long twelve.
times year.
Now, to appreciate the force practically required
to move these vast quantities of men and things,
imagine column of thirty thousand locomotive
engines, each making single trip of one hundred
miles
The stock of the company which "enjoys" this
immense trade, to the great astonishment of the
public, is worth very little. To person compe-
tent to study its tariff of toll, and to compare the
charges levied with the necessary expenses of the
work to be done, the only matter of legitimate sur
prise Is that the stock under the actual charges,
can be supposed to be worth any thing at all
Yet, intrinsicay, the New York and Erie rail
road Is most valuable improvement, which only
does not pay because its managers unskilled in the
arrangement of tariff of toll, have never permit
ted it to pay. 1t is like noble ship driven, bow
on, upon the visible breakers No railroad can
possibly have command of trade so great or pos
sess monopoly complete, that it will not be in
the power of its managers to reduce it to bank
rupscy by adopting an improperly arranged and in
adequate tariff
Permit me to say that am broaching here no new
doctrine recently conceived, and now for the first
time uttered. An Essay on the Laus of Trade,
written nearly twenty years ago; professional COM
hunications 70 the railroad journals from time to
time, and every company with which I have been
connected will bear witness to the fact that l. for
one, have never failed to raise warning voice
against the prevailing but popular sentiment in
favor of the low and ruineus tariffs which have been
fastened, by indiscretion or negligence, or reckless
competition, upon nearly all the railroads of this
country.
Let US take another illustration There is rail-
road in Pennsylvania which usually transports
nearly every taco aoeeks Of coal sufficient to
fill up the achoLe breadth Of WaUstreet, from Broad
aosy donn to East riuer, and from the pavement up
to the eaces of e fUestoried buildings aoich line its
tootacaLks. Or to illustrate the magnitude of the
business of this road by comparison with things
more familiar to yourselves, Messrs Editors, let me
say that it transports coal enough euery sac months
to fill up the whole of Pennsylvania avenue to
depth Of forty feet from the base of the Capitol to
the Presidents mansion, with vast quantities of
merchandise and heavy travel in addition. The
stock of this road is selling for about one-sirh or
one-seoenh Of its par value, apparently borne down
by the magnitude of its trade
The true cause of the great depreciation of this
stock also is simply an inadequate tariff Fourteen
years ago, when this company-the Reading Rail-
road Company-declared its purpose to carry coal
at very low figure, | was engaged in the investi-
CATION OF the cost of railroad transportation and
publishing the results of my inquiries in this coun
try and Europe. In the course of those pub-
cations l announced the inevitable conse-
quence OF the policy which that company had
adopted, that they must look forward to the
necessity OF adding million of dollars per an
mum to their Investment to meet the losses which
their tariff would, directly or indirectly, entail
Fourteen years have nearly passed by since that
period, and the companys investment has swollen
from year to year, with singular uniformity, at the
rate of one million of dollars year ever since
The only possible means of arresting the evil and
stopping the growth of their aggregate indebted
ness IS now, as it was fourteen years ago, to in
crease the charge for transportation, and close their
construction account
Bear with me, gentlemen, while offer another
illustration larger scale.
There are four great companies engaged in the
transportation of the anthracite coal of Pennsyya-
MIA from the mines to the sea-board. The works
of these companies, with their outfits, have cost
about fifty millions of dollars They carry now, in
the aggregate of coal and other things on the four
lines about six millions of tons per annum-a mass
sufficient to form pile forty feet wide, forty feet
II nd mil lie. +l,<