Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-11-04
THE EXPRESS BUSINESS.
Railroad Managers Think of Running
the Express Business Themselves.
Which Indicates Trouble Ahead for
the Old Line Companies.
Chicago Herald.


s'It is a great wonder to me-" said the
Chicago agent of one of the express com
panies, ''that some of our great railways
in the West do not handle the express
business on their lines instead of farm
ing it out to other companies. The ex-
press businest is immensely profitable.
Nobody knows how much money the
Adams, American and United States
make in year, They are the closest of
all big corporations in this country. No
public statements are made of their
earnings, expenses, capital or dividends
! Their stock is not even quoted in the
market, little or none of it being for
sale, There is no rivalry between the
great companies. They do not clash in
rates, or outbid each other for railway
franchises. Once a month the general
serintendents of the three big COM
panies meet in New York. They will
permit no one else to be in the room
with Tlthem. What transpires
at these meetings cannot, of course be
known, but it is always noticeable that
| just after such meetings the orders are
issued which may be necessary to put a
| stop to any inadvertent clashing between
| the companies in rates or otherwise. In
| fact, the big companies pull together
a great deal like brothers. The profits
run into millions-how many millions
nobody knows. I do not say that the
rates are too high-they are quite rea-
sOnable, considering tbs service rendered
in security and dispatch there are
big profits in the traffic, and, as I said,
am surprised that so few railroads take
steps to securing the profits for their
own stockholders.
''The Baltimore i Ohio has demon
strated that there is money in the single
railway express business. The Baltimore
81 Ohio Express earns a handsome profit
every year, Notwithstanding the cOmpeti-
ton at all principal points and the great
er drawback to be found in the character
of the country through which the road
passes. Look at the bleak and barren
region traversed by the Baltimore d
Ohio east of the Ohio river, and compare
that country with the states traversed by
the Burlington, the ST. Paul, or the North
western. The points at which the Bur
lington & Ohio has no competition are,
with few exceptions, points which pro-
duce very little traffic. Despite these dis
advantages, the express system has re-
turned profit to the company aggregat-
ing good deal more than the tolls paid
by the Adams people before the Balti
more q Ohio took hold on its own &C
count.
with few exceptions the express con-
panies arrangement with the railroads is
like this:
''The express company contracts to
ship SO many tons of freight year, and
to pay therefor fixed rate per hundred
pounds. If the traffic amounts to agreat-
er weight than the contract calls for the
excess must be paid for at the same rate.
The rate agreed upon is usually about IS
per cent Of the rates which the express
companies charge per hundred pounds.
For carrying a hundred pound package
from Chicago to Kansas City, for in
stance, the express company gets 80
cents and the railroad company S1.6O.
That is good enough for the express
company, considering the fact that the
railroad company not only hauls the cars
but buys and takes care of them and re-
pairs them when in ured. Remember,
also, that whereas the railroad gets say 65
per cent. of the charges on hundred
pound package, on a ten or twenty pound
package it gets only 80 Or 40 per cent
For carrying a twenty pound package to
Kansas City, for instance, the express
company will charge Is cents, of which
the railroad will get about 80 cents, or at
the rate of $1.65 per 100 pounds. On a
parcel weighing ten pounds the express
company's charges are go cents and the
railroad company's share would pc only
Is cents. It is in these small parcels that
express companies find their greatest
profits. 1t often happens that there is
more profit to an express company In
carrying a car load of parcels from New
York to Chicago than the railway COM
pany can make out Of an entire train load
of freight.
You ask how the railway officials get
their reports of the weights carried.
From the employees of the express COM
pany. Every messenger in charge of
a car or portion of a car has to make
out two reports for every run, one for
the railroad company and the other for
his superiors, each containing the num-
Der of, pounds of freight and number of
miles carried. The Burlington, [ should
Judge, gets about $6,000000 year out of
the express company. 1t could take
charge of the business itself, handle the
most of it with its own employees and
easily clear million a year, perhaps
81, 100000. [ would risk my reputation
as practical expressman on my ability
to so manage an express department of
the Burlington system as to make it earn
$1,2O0,00O, a year after the first year.
''The trouble is that our railroads are
not managed by the men who own them.
If they were, the express companies and
the Pullman company would have to give
up larger share of their profits to the
company which furnishes the track and
the motive power. The most outrageous
thing Of all is the imposition upon the
railway stock holders, compelling them to
maintain locomotives and tracks for
hauling Pullman's big cars around the
country, even keeping the cars in repair
in all respects save their arrangements
for sleeping purposes, getting no com
pensation therefor while pullman gets
rich out of it. There is nothing quite so
bad as this in the express business, but
the companies have what are called fat
contracts with certain roads, For in
stance, the life of the Adams company is
its very favorable contracts, covering the
entire Pennsylvania system, which gives