Workmen's advocate., 1886-07-25
NATIONAL ROADS.
ANOTHER LETTER FROM w.
 D. SOUTtiWORTH.
Increase of Population Along the Lines of Railway One Train per Minute-L0M Cost of Operation - Public
 Service.

When the people by their ballots cause the National Government to own and operate the railways at two and one-half cents per hundred
 miles or less, as proposed by the Grand Army of Labor. and cause accommodation trains moving at an average of six and one-quarter miles per hour, including stops at every crossing, to move over a division of one hundred miles in sixteen hours. and receive and discharge passen- gers at every crossing or wherever desirable to the passenger. i'll the same manner now in use by the street railways in cities, people will bulld houses and factories along the
 lmes Of railway throughout the land until the railway track will resem- bIe q street through a city, and peo- pie will be entering and departing from trains at every crossing to such an extent that the accommodation
 trains will empty and fill every
 mile. At that rate Il tram of twen- ty cars of sixty seats each. would re- celye and discharge on every mile l,2oo people, and on one hundred
 miles l:0, GOO people. who would each pay the conductor coin of
 three cents, five cents. or have a
 ticket punched costing them two and one-half cents per trip, l,2OO people at two and one-half cents
 would amount to S3O per train per
 mile, or s3, 1000 per 100 miles Der tram. Cost of operation. Sl,. 50; receipts, S3,O0O; profit. s2.9s2. 50.
 Some roads would run one such tram per hour; some one per mln- ute, or others every five or ten min utes, or say SIX or twelve such trains per hour. Between New York and
 Philadelphia and between other points where population was equally heavy they would run every minute or sixty per hour, or ,4io per day of twenty-four hours; .44o trains earning daily d net profit of S?.,9s2- 30 would amount to q daily profit to the government of s4, 294 500 over and above expenses on that one di- vision alone, and only counting the accommodation trains one way only each mlnntc, and not counting any other class of trains. The daily net profits on that one division would pay all the losses made on other di- visions by running accommodation trains on roads through thinIy set tied reglons once or oftencr daily. There would be no losses on any d. vision. for that low rate would cause people to settle along the line of every road very thickIy. and they would be travelling from place to place along their divisions hourly every day on various small errands for their family and business. If there were only sixty seats or one car empty and filled eactl mile it would make ~I.jO per car or SlJ0 per dlyIslon of 100 miles. Counting the cost of trans at Sl,. 30 per 100 miles, leaves profit of sl:}2. JO per tram of one car of sixty seats per di- l yislon of 100 miles, If there were one tram each way every hour that would amount to forty-eight trains | daily at Sl,. JO each, would make a total daily cost of sS4O per division. If trans moved each way every half | hour Oh the accommodation tracks | then the expenses would be double, | or sl ,6sO daily for those accomlno- | datiolf trans. if each tram han dies 'oO passengers at two and one half cents Oh the division of 100 ! miles fl will pay expenses, or if each traln averages seven passengers per | mile at two and one-half cents 1t will ! pay its way. If the forty-cight trains each average seven passen- gers per mile or 29G in all per mile
 [Contin"sd on third page.l !