New-York tribune., 1878-06-12

is over per cent These roads have In
operation greater mileage, however, than
they had last year. The roads which report
for May have in operation 13.6O3 miles,
against 13,OS7 miles at this time last
wear, and each of the six roads re-
porting an increased mileage also reports
greater pr0pOrtionate increase OF earnings
excepting the Central Pacific. or all the
roads reporting for May, only the Chicago
and Alton, International and Great Northern,
Missouri. Kansas and Texas, st. Louis, Alton
and Terre Haute (branches) and It. Louis,
Iron Mountain aud Southern report smaller
earnings since January 1 than during
the five months of last year. OF the
roads reporting for April, all have
gained in earnings except the Louisville,
Cincinnati and Lexington, the Philadelphia
and Erie, and the Philadelphia and Reading,
but the reported loss of the Latter road has
been heavy,
1t is not safe to infer from these published
returns of earnings that the railways generally
are improving in like measure in their bust
ness. On the contrary, it Is notorious that
many roads of Importance make known their
earnings only when they happen to be favora-
bic, but suddenly fail to get returns or
refuse TO make them known whenever they
are unfavOrable. Nearly all the roads OF the
first class refuse to report at all, eX-
ceptng to stockholders at the end OF
year. The Central and Kansas Pacific,
and the other roads west of the Missls-
sippi River, have traffic wholly unlike that
upon which roads east of the Mississippi are
forced to depend. Extension of branches and
feeders, and the rapid settlement of the
border or far Western States and Ter
ritorles, insure them an increasing traffic,
however far from probable 1t may
be- and whether the general business
of the country improves or not. But OF
the twenty-One roads reporting for May,
Only eeven are in the United States and
east of the Mississippi, and only one.
the Milwaukee and St. Paul, crosses that
stream. Two are in Canada, subject to
the different conditions there prevailing
and eleven are wholly west Of the
Mississippi It is obvious that these reports
give no trustworthy idea of the general course
of railway traffic. Reports of the four great
trunk lines would give very important infor-
nation; reports of the seven or eight Western
roads upon which the trunk lines depend largely
for traffic would be of great service; but the
meagre returns from seven roads out of five
hundred east of the Mississippi do not deserve
the attention usually given to them in the
neighborhoOd OF Wall Street.
1t is not credItable to the country that
this pitiful lack of information continues.
For years, the Stock Exchange and
the financial and railway journals
have been printing. week after week,
the same wretched apology of state
ment of railway earnings, and reporting
usually healthy gains by roads in
border States whose population is rapidly
increasing. But meanwhile the vast rail-
way property of this country has sus-
tanned enormous losses, and the shrinlsage
in profits has been beyond precedent. If Con-
gress had any real desire to help the country
by practical legislation, it might do much
good by an enactment requiring that
brief and simple returns should he for
wardcd frequently and regularly to some
clerk detailed to preserve and record them,
when they should be at all times open to
public inspection. A great service would be
rendered TO stockholders persons who are in
cllned to invest in railway stocks or bonds
would not then feel as If they were tempted to
play gambling game against marked cards
or loaded dice the number Of purchasers for
good properties would greatly increase; and
information of the highest public utility would
he gathered as to the progress of business IN
different parts 'of the country.