The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-23
MI1lllf Eagle
OUR ROADS OF IRON.
INTERVIEW WITH AN AcCOMPL lSHED
STATISTIClAN.
He Is Employed by the Interstate Com
merce Commission at Washington and
the Figures He Gives and the Story He
TelIs"Are Marvellous.
Especial Correspondence.l

young man in this city who probably
knows more about American railways than
Jay Gould or C.. P. Huntington. He is
simply clerk in the Office of the inter
state commerce commission, at 81, 500
year, which is a smaller sum than Jay
Gould pays his gardener. This young man
is the statistician of the commission, and
what he doesn't know about American
railroads there is not much use of any
trying to learn. What struck me most
forcibly as | sat and talked with him for
an hour the other day was the remarkable
manner In which he carries facts and fig
ures in his memory.
an matter of training" he said.
statistics are my vocation, my avocation,
my duty and my pleasure. And here IN
this Office everything is before me. The
vast railway systems of the United States
are spread out before me as in a panorama.
l can tell you some queer things about our
railroads, their finances and their opera
ton. For instance, you wouldn't suppose,
with our railway system growing as it Is,
that any state in the Union would show an
actual loss of mileage, would you? Yet
there are two states which have fewer
miles of railroad this year than they had
laSt-Massachusetts and Delaware. The
first lost nine miles and the latter seven. l
suppose every one knows that Illinois has
g greater railway mileage than any other
state, with nearly 5000 miles, but doubt
if many people are aware that Kansas is
second, with $780, and Texas third, with
$3.50 The greatest railway center in this
country or the world is Chicago, where
twenty-five lines have termini, representing
ing about one-third the railway mileage cf
the United States. There are in all in the
country about $500 miles of railroad, and
about 40 per cent. of it is in Illinois, In
diana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and
Missouri, territory wholly or in part tribu-
tary to Chicago. New Jersey is the great
est state for railroads in proportion to its
size, as it has n mile Of railroad to every
four square miles of area. Massachusetts
comes next in this respect, with a mile to
fraction over four square miles Nevada,
now the widest state in the Union, has a
mile of road to every 119 square miles, not
railroads enough TO brighten the game
away"
Glow many different gauges have the
railroads of this country"
"About thirty-five This seems a sur
prising number, but a few years ago there
were fifty. The tendency now is all to two
gauges, one, the standard, feet 81 inches,
and the other the standard narrow gauge,
feet. We have roads ranging in width
from feet to feet inches, but three
quarters of all the mileage is 4 feet So
inches, and 20 per cent. of the remainder
is so near that gauge that cars and loco
motives can be exchanged. 1t is a fact
that 90 per cent. of railway mileage in the
United States is adjusted to what, for all
practical purposes, may be regarded as
two gauges of roadway"
How many locomotives are there in the
United States?"
Just about $1,000. One-half of these are
used for hauling freight trains. 1t is pretty
accurate to say that the locomotives in the
United States cost 1856, 600, 900. There are
100000 cars of all kinds, of which 26O00
are passenger cars, and the remainder
freight or road service cars. The passen-
ger cars cost about $3.50, coo, 900, and the
freight and other cars about $500, 0O0, 600.
So you see we have approximately 81 &c.,
100000 as the cost of the rolling stock Of
our railways, sum great enough to pay
the national debt and more.
'Now, suppose all these locomotives were
coupled together and started across the
country in one solid train, how long do
you think the train would be? Three hun
dred miles, Yes, three hundred miles of
locomotives; power enough to pull Jupiter
down to the earth, could we only hitch TO
him. Then add the passenger cars and
we should have three hundred miles more;
and if we wanted huge mixed train and
were to put in all the box, fat and every
other kind of freight car, our train would
be more than seven thousand miles long.
The passenger cars could carry more than
million and a half of people, and upon
the freight cars could be loaded the weight
of all the pyramids of Egypt and all the
state capitols in the United States
ITO every five miles of railroad in the
United States there is a locomotive. To
every mile of road there are six freight
cars. To every five and one-half miles
there is a passenger car. Each year a
freight engine hauls 5000 tons of load;
each year a passenger engine pulls 10000
passengers.
The railways of the United States en-
ploy 725, 900 persons, nearly all men. 1t is
estimated that the railway industry pro-
sons in this country, or nearly one-twen-
tieth Of the whole population. In think
ing of railway employees and the expense of
railway maintenance and operation, one
naturally thinks Grst of the conductors,
engineers and brakemen. You viii prob
ably be surprised to learn that the
care of the track requires a
greater number of employees on every
l., i.
every hundred miles Of railway line in this
country there are AGO employees One hun
dred and twelve Of them are section fore
men and other trackmen. Repairs of roll
ing stock and renewal of buildings and
bridges is next in number of employees, IS.
Running trains require 81, as follows;
Engine drivers, 20; firemen, p; conductors,
IA; other trainmen, 81. OF fiagmen, switch
men and watchmen there are p; telegraph
operators and dispatchers, II; station
agents, Is: other station men. IS; general
officers, 3; Office clerks, Is. and ali other
employees, 20. SO You see the men who re-
pair the tracks, bridges and rolling stock
comprise nearly one-half of all the en-
ployeS. Approximately there Is a track
man to every mile Of road and a shop man
as we'll
DO we employ as many men TO 100 miles
of line as they do in EUrOpe:"
Not nearly so many. While we have
but 400 employees to 100 miles, in England
they have 1850 They have some classic
cations over there which seem odd TO US.
What we call station agents are with them
station masters; they have brakesmen
and goods guards; their Jrackmen they
call permanent waymen; their dagmen are
gatekeepers; their switchmen, shutters
and pointsmen, and their conductors ticket