Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-03-23
substriptiIn Rates
OLXMPIs. 1SHiNGTO\ TER.
OLYMPIA. FRIDAY EIE\ING. MARCH %. 1883
Railroad Progress.


As Il contribution Of the figures
given in al article Oh The Steel
Industry, III our last number, the
following compilation made bv. The
Scr!dJtc .inrrrnIt, will be read with
interest:
According to the census railway re-
turns for 1850, there were | ,l6Jcon
panies, having, IN round numbers,
81 1000 miles of railways III operation
In this coun'ry-an aggregate almost
equal to a track extendin, four times
round the world.
The cost of this gigantic system
was nearly five thousand six bundled
aud sixty millions Of dollars, of
which about two-fifths has bee II
paid for and the companies are in
debt for the balance. In the good
time coming, when this enormous
debt of over three thousand millions
of dollars is paid off, and the in.
terest thereon ceases, it is probable
that railway speeds will be improved
travelling rendered safer, and the
charges for freight and passage
reduced.
The mortality upon our railways is
frightful to contemplate. Accord.
ing to the census returns, the killed
and NAMED for the single year Of
1880 formed an aggregate of S,21l
persons.
The demand upon our inventors
for the discovery of new and better
means for saving life and preventing
accidents upon railways increases
every year, in a ratio even greater
than the augmentation of tracks,
because the population is more rap
idly increasing, and the present rail-
ways are not employed at anything
like their full capacity.
The freight carried in 1880 was
two hundred and ninty.one millions
of tons, for which the railways
charged sl.29 per ton per mile, and
made profit Of So cents per ton
per mile.
The number of passengers carried
was two hundred an seventy millions,
for which they each paid an average
of 2.33 cents per mile, and the COM
panies made profit of 0.62 cents
per mile. If the passengers are
counted by weight, allowing II pas
sengers to the ton, then the receipts
Of the companies for their two-legged
freight was $32.62 per ton per
mile and their profit was s3.GS per
ton per mile. This large profit,
when set opposite to the small
amount of So cents profit per ton
realized from dead freight seems to
indicate that o great field p open to
the genius of railway managers in
devising ways and means to en-
courage the people to travel.
The haulage of our railways now
employs over seventeen thousand To-
comotives, and the aggregate cost to
run them, such as fuel, water, oil
repairs, and engineers, is about
ninty millions of dollars, or not
far from five ousand dollars a year
for each machine. The item of fuel
alone is thirty-thrse millions of dol
lars. The larger portion of the fuel
is wasted; much of it is blown out
of the smoke stack unconsumed in
the form of smoke and dust. There
is a grand chance fer inventors to
improve the locomotive by discover
ing means to lessen it's wastes and
expenses. The same remarks apply
to the other branches of the railway
rolling stock, consisting of over
twelve thousand passenger cars and
about four hundred thousand freight
cars. . In the year 1880 i cost the
railway companies 6fty-five millions
of dollars for repairs for rolling
stock. Is it not possible for inven-
tive genius to study out some new
mode of construction that shall re-
duce this enormous loss
ENGLAND is excited over q dastardly
attempt to blow up Westminster
Ahhev the houaea Of parliament