Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-03-01


you once before ON the branch of the sub
ject which Is under discussion before you to-
night, ard have but little to add that has
not been already well expressed by the gem
tlenen who have preceded me. L come be-
fore you especially as representing an Iowa.
road. Our road is so much of it--all you
may say of the profitable part of the road
If there is any such part-iocated in Iowa.
What shall have to say to you is as plea
for an Iowa road before the railway commit
tee of an Iowa Legislature. | shall have to
refer, as | did i'm my remarks before, prob
ably to the book which l brought with me
at that time. The figures there are such as
were given to the commissioners. They are
sworn statements as to our affairs, and per-
haps il will condense the matter as much as
possible so you will readily comprehend II
and appreciate our position If | give you
these figures as they appear in the report
with some few remarks as | go along.
will premise by saying that the other
roads which are represented here are very
differently situated from our road in regard
TO the immensely of their traffic and of
course they earn large amount of money
very large amount as compared TO the
money that we earn, for the very reason that
they have such great traffic that In one
sense has no relation to the State of Iowa,
but is traffic which they carry across the
State, the business of Nebraska. Colorado
and all the Territories clear to California or
the Pacific, and the business to and from
those places and the far East, which give
them traffic ON which they earn somt
money, and which we do not participate in
We have at times carried little traffic into
the northwest, but the operation Of the inter-
state law has left us out of that, the line
being too long to compete successfully with
Ah.u hn,t It,,nu Go, hot
now almost entirely to our local traffic for
our income, from which we must pay our
operating expenses and meet our interest on
our bonded Indebtedness.
The first Item appearing in this report In
the debt statement to the Commissioners, is
the total amount of floating debt which is
$240, 130.51. would say that this indebted
ness is simply the current indebtedness from
month to month, pay rolls, supplies to the
road and its necessary expenses in operation.
This changes from month to month. 1t is
simply current account, which is about the
same in each month and is paid in one month
and accumulates the next, is paid that month
and aecumulateS the next. 1t is not stand
ing Indebtedness. Next we come to the liza
bility on bonds which amount to Sl4, 7S0, 600.
Interest on those bonds as shown further
along Is S761, 500. 10. This is probably the
lightest bonded Indebtedness of any railway,
certainly in this State, and l think in the
United States, which meets only its interest
on its bonded Indebtedness. We have an
issue of stock but that stock has never paid
dividend. There is but little, if any. prOba-
bility that it ever will pay dividend, and,
therefore, it enters into this calculation in
no way whatever. After paying our operat-
ing expenses and after paying the interest,
all that is left is expended ON the
property. You gentlemen that may have
been acquainted with this property in the
years gone by l think will give us credit for
the Improvement we have made in the prop
erty and for building it up to its present ca
pacity for business and enabling it to do
your business and to do it safely and salts
factorily and quickly. j know of no better
place where the earnings of road could
have been applied after paying this small
amount than into the property for the ben
eft of it. Having shown you the amount
necessary as a fixed charge which we must
provide for, we will next take up what is
named in this book as the earnings.
We earn from local passengers S3S0,777.
81 from through passengers $500, 551.79,
making total from all passengers of $751;.
329.06. We also earn from mails and ex-
press S12S, 0S7.52, which is about 10 per cent
of the total passenger earnings. 1t has been
suggested to me that In regard to this two
cent passenger fare, that the earnings of our
passenger trains would increase from the
fact that both mail and express were carried
on those trains, which is the case, and as L
say to the amount of S12S, 10000, but also L
would say that in the passenger earnings are
the earnings from all passengers whether
carried on passenger trains or freight trains
and l find that the amount of the passenger
earnings which are earned by freight trains
yyn hpinO n
the amount earned by the mail and express.
So that 1t really amounts to the same thing
SO far as the passenger earnings are concern
ed, the amount of the passenger earnings Of
the freight trains being about equal to the
mail and express earnings. These items
make together as total earnings of the pas
senger department $500, 616.5S.
We come then to the freight earnings.
j find that we earn from local business $685.
$685.; on the through freight we earn,
81, $40, $3.50. will say in regard to these
two items, the local freight earnings are the
earnings that are entirely on the line, ship
ped from one station on the line to another
station.on the line. The through earnings
are composed of business originating on the
line and shipped out of the State, or origi-
mating out of the State and shipped to sta
ton on the line in the State, and the small
amount OF through business which was both
shipped from out and carried out of the
State, and of course which was not of inter-
est to Iowa, but the earnings are included
in the S1,5i2, 533 10, which is called the
through freight. The total earnings from
the freight department are 1926, 531.44.
Some miscellaneous resources have been en-
tered in here, which form no part of the
earnings, so to speak, as having been earned
through carriage of freight and passengers,
as for instance, lots sold, ETC., 81, 054.45. For
the sale of old material, scraps and one thing
and another of the road amounted to $685.
1888. That is all put in so as to make the
total income. The money which we had
earned and the money accumulated, in this
way shows the amount we had to spend,
which amounted in total to $3,074, 531.45.
The next page here has reference to the
expenses of operating the road for the year,
showing the cost of maintenance of way and
buildings, cost of maintaining cars and mo-
tive power, cost Of transportation, including
the repairs of the road, renewal of rails, ties,
fences and bridges, locomotives, passenger
and freight cars, tools and machinery,
fuel for locomotives $196,05s.S5 was
paid out for fuel The other items
include cost of train service, damage
and loss of baggage and freight, damage to
cattle and personal injuries and so on. The
recapitulation of these expenses is as fol-
lows: Maintenance of way and buildings
1854, 69S.9 maintenance of motive power
and cars was S26S, 92s. 25; conducting trans
portation $500, 1856. 20: general expenses in
Guiding taxes which were for Iowa S74, 1885,
ca, taxes of other states S3,623.96, making
total of ST., 10000 paid as taxes. We in
nIt .faIf fl.af al