The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-27
Interesting Railroad Facts.

The United States is better provided with
railroad facilities than any other country
according to the fourth annual report of the
.statisticisn of the interstate commerce
commission. In this country on June so of
this year there were only two states with
less than ten miles of railroad per 10, 900 in
habitants, and in the whole country the
mileage was more than twenty-six miles to
that number Of inhabitants. In Europe
only Sweden had more than ten miles per
10000 inhabitants. New Jersey was the
best provided state in the union, having
27.7l miles of road per 100 square miles of
territory.
The total railway mileage for the country
on June 30, 1892. was 16s. 4O2 miles. an in
Grease of nearly 5000 miles over the last
year, although railroad building during the
fiscal year was not active. except In the
south. where total Of 1871 miles of road
were built ..
peculiar feature Of the American rail-
road business was that although there we're
l.7S5 railway corporations in existence in
June, less than half OF them controlled the
remainder, did more than IS per cent OF
the business and received more than so per
cent of the money paid by the country for
railway service. The tendency toward con-
solidation is clearly indicated in the
report. ninetytwo roads representing
total mileage of 10, lie having disappeared"
during the year by merging or consolidation
with other roads. The result was that the
actual humber Of railway corporations last
year was less than the number which
existed the year before, notwithstanding
the fact that considerable number of new
lines were chartered during the twelve
months.
The magnitude of some of these consolida-
lions is something to be wondered at. Forty
two Of them controlled under one man-
agement 1000 miles or more OF
straight track, aggregating for the forty
two nearly half the mileage of the country,
and eight Of the corporations had gross
annual revenue in excess of S3,CC0,OOl.
Such combinations are classed by them
selves in the report, which gives the figures
of their operations as follows: Control
60. IS per cent. of the total mileage Of the
country, receive S2O9 per cent. of the
amount paid by the public Tor railway se.v-
ice, and perform S5.76 per cent. of the total
passenger service, and S2.CG per cent. OF tie
total freight service of the country"
The report furnishes lots Of flglres thai
may be used as bases for interesting cal.
culations by curious folks. For Instance,
there were 81, 139 locomotives and l,2i56l
cars in actual service in June. How far
they would reach, it coupled end to end.
may be ascertained in few minutes. The
increase in the number OF locomotives EN-
ploved last year was 1929 and of cars
1924. Next year, owing to the worlds
fair traffic, it is likely that these items will
be largely increased, probably doubled. over
the figures for last year. The number Of men
employed on the roads also increased. And
SO did the number OF employees killed, which
emphasizes the need Of better couplings and
hand brakes than are at present in general
use.
In money matters the last year was not
quite as good for the roads as the one pre-
cedlng it. The net income per mile was s37
less than the year before. The capital en-
pIoyed amounted to $3.50 ,475, 0l5-which
would probably have commanded premium
OF % per cent. or more had the populists
secured control OF the government and gone
into buying the roads by wholesale.