The daily gazette., 1881-06-14

THE PRoGREss AND Cosr OF RAIL
WAYS HERE AND IN EURoPE.-Tbe
immense amount Of capital that has
been invested in railway enterprises in
the United States during the ten years
from 1870 to 1880 is astonishing to
most readers. Il is not an easy matter
to compile statistics SO vast and com"
pare them with similar statistics OF
the countries Of Europe. But this has
been done, and the cost of construc-
tion and amount Of traffic also given by
an article in q contemporary which
we condense In a limited space that the
reader may see what the enterpnsing
men of the United States are doing in
this line:
The railways of the United King
dom carried $4,000 passengers and
1850 tons Of goods per mile, those
Of Germany 11,100 passengers and
7.450 tons of goods per mile, those of
France 10,700 passengers and 4,75O
tons of goods per mile, those Of Aus
tria-H Hungary 1850 passengers and
3,940 tons OF goods per mile, and those
Of the United States only 2,450 pas
sengers and 2,505 tons OF goods per
mile. 1t is clear, therefore, that the
developement of our railway system
has only begun.
Our railways now earn, according to q
leading English statistical, an aver age
of 81 per cent. profit on the capital in.
vested, while those of Russia earn 81 pei
cent. those of Austria Hungary 8 pei
cent. those of France 4 per cent. and
those of Great Britain Al per cent. As
we have nearly doubled our railway
mileage In the last decade it is hard to
SEQ In the light of these statistics what
ground there is for the very common
assertion that we have been wasting The
mosey invested in our railways or out
building the demand of the country for
increased facilities of transportation.
While this may be shown in isolated in-
stances IL certainly cannot be true of our
railway system as a whole. In 1870 the
United States possessed A, GA miles OF
railways, which carried 1l0,000,000 OF
passengers. In 1879 the United States
possessed Se,497 miles of railways, which
carried 19S, ,000, 900 of passengers. Aus
tralia, which in 1870 possessed Ito
miles Of railways carrying 100000 OF
passengers, in 1873 possessed 1850 miles
Of railways carrying 100000 OF passen-
gers, and Germany, which in 1870 pos
sessed 11,457 miles of railway carrying
l36, 900, 900, of passengers, in 1879 pos
sessed 21,275 miles of railway carrying
196, 600, 900 of passengers.
Furthermore, while we added 4l,sS3
miles of railways to on transportation
facilities between 1870 and 1879, against
30,s57 miles added during the same per-
iod TO the railway facilities of all Europe
we did this at much smaller cost. The
cost of our Al, 1888 miles of new lines was
in round numbers 81, 100000, ,09O, while
the cost of the 80, ,S57 miles of new line
built in Europe wss in round numbers
81, $50, 100000. 1t is also TO be remem-
bered that dr"ing these same years from
1870 to 1880, years which cover what we
call the great national prostration which
followed the panic Of 1873, the actual in
crease in the values produced by the az
gregate Industries of the United States
amounted in round numbers to the
enormous sum of 50, 1926, 100000, against
an increase of 81, OLE, 100000 in the ag-
gate industries of Great Britain. In 1870
this aggregate for the United States
amounted to 81 ,s95, { 10000; in 1870 10
$40, 1920, 900, 900. In 1870 this aggregate
amounted for Great Britain to $685.
O00, 1000; In 1879 to SIC, 900, 0,OO0.-
During the ssne decade our population
increased by 11,92o,000 OF souls and at a
rate three times as great as that of the
average increase Of Europe, beyond thai
of Australia, and double that of Eng.
land or Germany. Liberate American
commerce and we shall soon see wheth-
er we have overbuilt our railway sys.
tenn!