Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-01-11
RAILROAD BUILDING.
More Than Six Thousand Miles
of Track Laid i'm 1888.
The Greatest Activity Shown in the
Southern States.

Since January l, 1888, GAO miles of railway
have been built in the United States. This
mileage was built. according to statistics COL
lected by the Engineering Ne,cs on 2S6 diff
ferent lines by 80 companies
The New England States are credited with
f67 miles of new track. Maine leading with
127. and Vermont following with 49, and Con.
necticut with L. New Hampshire and Massa-
chusetts had miles each. The Middle States
built 176 miles, the Central Northern States
S3S. the South Atlantic States 1l07. the Gulf
and Mississippi Valley States 49, the South
western States 1904, the Northwestern States
$50, and tire Pacific States 93I. In New ork
90 miles were laid
In Canada II companies built Is new lines,
whose total extent is $50 miles. In Mexico,
the Central and National the two principal
American systems built 495 miles of new
road.
The 643O miles laid in this country is only
half the record for 1897 and twO-thirds that OF
1886, but is still large showing for year in
which confidence in railway investments has
been so badly shaken Kansas leads the States
with 5=3 miles, California has 465 Georgia
4l9, Kentucky 33l, Washington Territory
800, and Alabama, 304. The South on the
whole, has shown more activity compared
with the North than ever before. In Iowa
there is no new mileage at all This fact IS
ascribed to hostile legislation and the dOlngs
or the State Railroad Commissioners, and
the anti-rallroad tendencies of other North
western Legislatures has also had depress-
ing effect upon railroad building
The Rock Islands extension to Colorado
Springs, 29S miles, was about the only long
line built during the year. Few of the
1888 extensions are important as COM
petitive lines, while in 1886 and
1887 the feature of the work was
the construction of lines to compete for the
traffic between Chicago and st. Paul and
Kansas City, and the road to compete with
the trunk lines via the Sault Ste. Marie.
There is great contrast between 1888 and
the two preceding years in the ownership
of the extensions. The 26 companies
that built 9O65 miles in 1897,
or nearly n per cent. of the whole
mileage, built only 251S miles this year, or
current belief, says the Ne1Os, that the inter-
State commerce law tends to force the local
roads to consolidate with the gre at systems is
hardly corroborated by the large number of
local lines built in 1888. 1t seems indeed open
to question whether the law, while it tends to
force the consolidation of competing lines,
does not handicap the great systems, which
are seriously affected by competition, and
leave almost untouched the small local roads
which in their limited fields are monarchs of
all they survey"
Among the large systems the Rock Island
leads with 1892 miles. The Santa Fe drops
from 1923 miles last year to ia
miles in 1888 The Northwestern
built 12) miles, the Burlington 102,
the Illinois Central 80. and the Chicago,
Milwaukee and ST. Paul only 5. The St.
Paul. Minneapolis and Manitoba built 312,
the Northern Pacific 80, and the Southern
Pacific 237. In Canada the falling off was
as marked as in the United States.