The record-union., 1892-12-06
held in allegiance for more complete in
formation and analysis.


even an approximation OF the extraordi-
nary difficulties affecting the construc-
ton, operation and maintenance OF the
railways of California, but very critical
analysis of those difficulties and of the
cost of operating the roads are not essen
tial to this report.
lie here makes reference to Appendix
+, showing profiles of grades here and IN
other states.
PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL RAILROAD.
The Allegheny Mountain grades of the
Pennsylvania Central Railroad are be-
tween Johnstown on the west and AL
toona en- the east. From Johnstown TO
the summit of the range, twenty-seven
miles, the rise is 9Sl feet, and the grade
averages thirty-siX feet per mile. From
Altoona westerly to the summit, twelve
miles, the rise is gSf feet, averaging eigh-
ty-twO feet per mile, giving an aggregate
rise over the mountain, east and west,
OF 1865 feet in thirty-nine miles, the
average OF the grades being fifty feet per
mile. All parts of the line receive large
local business, and for the maintenance
and for operating the road abundance of
excellent timber, stone suitable for ma
sonry and ballaSting, crCSs-tleS, wood and
coal are delivered at low cost from the
forest, quarries and mines adjacent to the
line. As a rule, precisely the opposite OF
these economic conditions exist on the
mountain lines, and also in measurable
degree on all parts of the railways OF Cal
llOrnia, also the mountain grades which
they have to contend with are very great
ly more difficult.
For greater convenience, TO avoid repe-
tition. and because it has sufficient length
and is the most extensive and important
system in California and in the adjacent
States, the roads. conditions and rates OF
the Southern Pacific Company will be
made the principal basis for comparisons
with the other railroads in California and
elsewhere.
CALIFORNIA LROADS-SOUTHERN PA
CIFIC SYSTEM.
The total rise of the strictly mountain
grades of the main lines of the Southern
Pacific Company within California
north, east, south and VESTS 3O,556 feet,
in a distance OF 515 miles, an average
grade OF % feet per mile. In other words,
there is thirteen times the horizontal
length of grade and fifteen times the ver-
tical rise that the Pennsylvania Central
Railroad encounters in crossing the
Allegheny Mountains, which have long
been considered, in connection with rail-
way construction and transportation, as
the great barrier between the Atlantic
seaboard and the Mississippi Valley.
The Southern Pacitic's lines outside OF
California have mountain grades which
aggregate l0,SlS feet in distance OF l52
miles, or an average grade of 90 feet per
mile. On the main lines west of ii Paso
the mountain grades aggregate distance
OF 707 miles, and a total rise of Il, ,373 feet,
the grades averaging $50 feet per mile
about feet per mile greater than the
average of the Pennsylvania Central Rail
road in crossing the Allegheny Mountains.
Comparing the mountain grades of
these systems, the total rise of the roads
Of the Southern Pacific Company is
twenty-one times greater, and the hori-
rental distance eighteen times greater
than on the Pennsylvania Central.
GRADES OF OTHER ROADS IN CALIFORNIA.
The Santa Fe system on its extension
through adjoining States and in Southern
California; the Carson and Colorado; the
Nevada. California and Oregon, and also
other roads in California, have, in proper
ton to their length, to overcome mount
ain grades equal to those encountered by
the lines OF the Southern Pacific system.
If the railways in the San Joaquin and
Sacramento and smaller valleys, and on
the ocean table lands, could be considered
by themselves, and their rates established
by adopting the figures of the passenger
and freight tariffs of some other Stale,
solely because the surface of that State,
and those of the valleys and table lands
of California are similar; and If the eX-
tensions OF the railways north, east, south
and west, over the great mountain ranges
and across the broad mountainous arid
regions, which encompass the State, could
be disregarded, and the railways in the
valleys and on the table-landS could be
separated from the systems of which they
are integral parts, it would greatly sim
plity the problem of rate making.
REAsONABLENEsS OF RATES UNDER CON-
DITIONS.
But it surely must be manifest to every
Intelligent and unbiased mind, at all
familiar with the practical operations of
railways and the conditions affecting
these, that rates so established would fur
nish no sufficient basis to Justify any
opinion as to the reasonableness of the
present rates on these lines. Ii their ex-
tensions were discontinued and they
were cut Off and their termini were per-
manently established at the bases of the
foothills of the surrounding mountains,
lower rates to tidewater could doubtless
be easily made by such mere compari-
son as has been suggested, but it is more
than probable that tor many good reasons
they would be found to be unreasonably
low, and that they would have to be in
creased and made higher than those now
existing TO become reasonable and suffi-
cent To operate and completely maintain
the roads. Under such conditions they
would furnish to the people of California
but tithe of the facilities and benefits
now enjoyed. This statement is
UPHELD BY FACTS
And the practical opinions of fiuanciers
and business men, forcibly expressed by
their acts. More than 200 railroad com
panies have been incorporated to con-
struct railways in the areas spoken of,
and it cannot be doubted that, mainly
for the reasons briefly presented, but few
of them have been built. The field is still
open, railroads can be built and equipped
at comparatively low cost, because
money, labor and the materials that enter
into their construction are much cheaper
than ever before in this country.
The true reason why many of those
contemplated have not been built is be-
cause the existing railroads and the water
transit, by the san Joaquin and Sacra-
mentO Rivers and their tributaries, the
bays and minor inlets, and also the coast
wise ocean transit, are fully equal to the
demand and provide opportunity for
healthy competition.
IT Is \ FACT
OF great importance that about rs per
cent. of the local commerce of California
possesses all the advantages that free water
lines of transit confer. This competitive
force is eXerted mot for six or eight
months aud then suspended by winter
for four to six months, as it is in all of
the States east of California to the At
lantic seaboard, north OF the 39th parallel
of latitude, but, on the contrary, its intlu-
ence is continuous every day in each
year. Branch railroads and extensions
have been and are being constructed by
several of the railroad companies of the
State, doubtless fully as fast as justitiable;
but these branches are probably sus-
tanned as auxiliary lines. and by the ap-
plication to them of the principle of CON
structive mileage, or its equiv alent, also
by the economy of consolidation and not
by the excessively high rates which their
expenses and maintenance would require
il thew were indeDendent roads