The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-09-29
Gtn0tteuiqeurpr.
The Railroad Question.

oSNuAty buhhlnb ~ hAAo sAN@N
the country, yet the public feeling in 70.
vor Of increased railroad facilities has not
materially abatcd. Over in Washington
aud Greene counties, In Pennsylvania,
they arc warmly agitating q narrow
gauge road between Washington and
WaynGsburg, and with every prospect Of
final success. Out In the interior Of
West Virginia tho agitation In favor Of a
road from Grafton TO Weston, via Buck.
hlnnon, still goes on. Coming nearer
home, we have seen that the panic has
not been able to kill of the Wheeling &
Lake Erie road, but that on the contrary
ii is still live project aud gradually tax.
ing practical shape. Whether our own
unfortunate p, W. 6 Ky. road has per.
manently collapsed, or whether 1t is only
temporarily under a cloud, remains to be
seen, but It Is not an unreasonable
supposition to assume that 1t will yet be
completed either by public or private en-,
tcrprise. Capitalists are not so much afraid
OF new roads in the thickly settled parts
otthe country, where business already ex,
lists, and where there is large travelling
population to pass to and fro over the line,
as in the far West, where these elements
OF prosperity are lacking. So many west
crn roads are now in default for interest
on their bonds that capitalists will be slow
to lend any aid to new enterprises. In
discussing this question Of new roads the
New York Nation dwells upon tho won
derlul history Of railroad building in this
country within the last few years. Speak.
ing Of the amazing growth Of the
railway system it remarks that 1t
requires some study ot the figures to
enable us to realize how all.sbsorbing the
mania for railroad investment in the last
six yeara really was. 1t was q simple
craze. Under the stimulus Of the land
grant system, It swept through the coun.
try like fitst.class epidemic, and is
probably in its effects to-day occasioning
not less quiet suffering, Kansas was the
very hotbed Of the disease, and a very
few figures, drawn from statistics,
will illustrate the madness which pre-
vailed as regards that region, which diI-
Tered only in degree from others. Ten
years ago Kansas had no railroad at all;
it now has little less than $500 miles
about SO per cent more than Msssachu-
sets, with one.third Of her population.
In other words, Massachusetts has seven
times the population OF Kansas in com.
parison with its railroad mileage. But
the Kansas railroads were built on
the sale Of their bonds, not on
their stock capital; accordingly, we find
them loaded down with over 10000, 900
oil Indebtedness. The interest on none of
this is now paid, but as long as money
could be borrowed with which to pay 1t
it did not average less than per cent or
$5,600.000 per annum. All that the
Kansas roads in their best condition ever
pretended to earn was about s., ,4O00 900,
or lees than 8 per cent on their bonded
Indebtedness. Nor indeed did they ever
earn that amount, or anything which sp-
preached TO 1t. The claim was that in a
business which averaged but $500 per
mile in gross receipts, the net receipts
were no less than 40 per cent Of that
amount. Kansas, like many other Of the
Western States, is poor and sparsely set,
tied. To It's railroad system It can con.
tribute but very sparingly even for Its
population. 1t is probably safe to say
that the cost Of operating and maintain,
ing the Kansas railroad system will con.
sumo foryears to come rs per cent Of its
gross receipts. The problem will then
be how TO make at most 100000 per
snnum pay 8 per cent interest on $7O,-
100000 Of principal, besides q large
amount Of accrued and unpaid coupons,
which are covered by the mortgages.
The simple truth is that madness has
ruled the hour; that the whole system Of
recent railroad construction in the West
was dishonest and rotten to the very
core. The only people who made any
thing by 1t are the people oI the West.
They secured their railroad system, and,
Curiously enough, It Is they who are
loudest in their complaints over the re-
suits. Tho hundred millions OF borrow.
cd capital, upon which not one cent Of
interest is now paid, have within the
last few years been applied to Western
railroad construction. It is all there, and
cannot be removed. Yet those who
have thus stripped themselves of
their substance to make these loans
are now fiercely denounced as 'grasping
capitalists by those who alone enjoy
an assured use of the wealth, without the
unpleasant necessity Of paying interest
therefor. The bubble, howeveris burst,
and 1t will probably be some years before
the hardy pioneer Of the West is again
burdened by too great esgerness on the
part Of tho East to develop his means oI
transportation.
The last New York bank statement Is
uniavorable to any prospect for an i'm.
provement in general business, for 1t in