The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-08-29
GEORGIA. RAILWAY COMMISSION.

GEORGIA RAILWAY COMMISSION.
From the advance sheets of Poor's
Railroad Manual, the most reliable
authority on the subject in the country,
we learn the railroad values of the
United States aggregate one-fourth of
all the assessed values in the country.
Reviewing the railroad question the
Atlanta Constitution says: "1n 1888
Georgia added 430 miles, or more than
twice as much as the whole of New
England and only sixty-two miles less
than New England and the middle
states put together. The only states
that came up to Georgia were Kansas
and California; all the rest were far
behind.
Georgia was the pioneer in railroad
regulation, and she is leading every
thing east of the Mississippi in rail
road building. The truth of the mat
ter is that the enlightened and pro
gressive policy of the Georgia railroad
commission has impressed itself on the
whole country, and its beneficent eff
fects, first felt in Georgia, will extend
to the whole gigantic business on
which they threw so much light"
Here is something that sustains the
views of the Georgia commission: The
introduction of Poor's Manual for 1889
shows some interesting facts ON the
railroad situation. One of them is
that in New England, where the
charge per passenger mile is lowest,
the passenger receipts form the largest
proportion of the whole income.
There they are forty and one-half per
cent of the total receipts, while in
other parts of the country they are
only twenty-five to twenty-seven per
cent.
In freight the New England rates
average a cent and II half ton-mile,
which is higher than that of any sec
ton but the Pacific coast, where the
average last year was a cent and nine
tenths. The proportion of the New
England freight earnings to the whole
income was less than that of any
other part of the country, the Pacific
states being only little better.
The lowest freight rates, averaging
eighty-one to eighty-three hundredths
of cent per ton-mile, were in the
middle and north central states, where
the freight receipts were siXty-seven
and three-fourths to seventy-one and
one-half per cent of the whole income.
The freight rate in the south Atlantic
states was cent and one-tifth per
ton-mile, or n mean between the high
rates of New England and the low
rites of the middle states. The rates
OF the northwest were higher than
ours, and the southwestern rates
lacked only little of being as high as
those of New England. Out of eight
groups there were only three which
had cheaper freights than the south
Atlantic states. In the matter of pas
senger fares, however, we head the list
of high rates, with an average OF two
and eighty-one hundredths cents
mile, while New England foots it with
a two cent rate.
The cost and capitalization of the
roads are highest in the middle and
lowest in the south Atlantic states.
In the former the cost of road and
equipment is one hundred thousand,
four hundred and fifty-eight dollars,
and in the latter thirty-eight thousand
and nine dollars per mile. Thus,
though operating expenses are higher
in proportion to income in the south
Atlantic states than elsewhere, the
fixed charges are much less than else
where. The bonded debt, for instance,
is less than one-third of that in the
middle states.