The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-08-20
Railroad Interests.

Poor's manual of the railroads OF the
! United States for 1892 contains rs usual
q vast amount of information inaccessi-
BILE from other sources. Some OF the
figures are mere words, however, unless
comparison is made with familiar
amounts. It appears, for instance, that
there were 170.6o1 miles of railroad
track in the United States ut the close
! OF 1891. This would nearly encircle
the world seven times ii laid in straight
lines. If all the tracks were laid be-
tween Chicago and New York
there would be over 200 complete
through lines between the cities. They
would take up ground space over half
n mile wide and about 900 miles in
length.
The liabilities of these lines amount
to SO, 7G5, COG, 041 and their total assets
to $l1,110,335, 276. The railroads of
the United States owe moro than six
times as much as tile government but
hold property worth 1914, 709, 235 more
than their debts. According to the
Vanderbilt standard $1,000 is not a
great amount of money, but it means
comfort in old age to almost anyone. If
every man, woman and child of every
age, sex or previous condition of servi-
tude in Chicago were to make an out.
lis ut present each of 81 900 in cash to
the railroads, it would just about pay
their debts. Poor's manual doesn't say
SO but other figures show these vast
assets and liabilities involve the bread
and butter Of over six millions of per
sons in the United States. One person
in eleven in the United States gains his
living through railroads. They fur
nish employment to more persons than
any other industry except agriculture.
1t makes person wonder what in the
world this vast number OF people could
have done for living had railroads not
been invented.
It appears there was total train
mileage during 1891 of S31 ,202 $40. In
other words, if the running of all trains
had been done by one train it would
have travelled S31, 202,376 miles. This
would complete the circuit of the earth
i,G33 times year, or in the neighbor-
hood of a hundred times day. The
New York Central flyer between New
York and Buffalo made this distance of
43G miles in 425 minutes. Had the
Hypothetical mileage train started on a
parallel track with the New York Cen
trail train when il made its world-bcating
record it would have logged around the
world and passed the New York Central
train nearly forty times before the lat
ter reached Buffalo. The hypothetical
train would have made forty times
-, 900 miles while the more than a-nile-
minute flyer was making 436 miles.
Pretty fast travelling, that.
During 1891 there were 55G.O15,SO
people carried distance of 10, 316,825,-
$50 miles by railroad trains in tie
United States. That is equivalent TO
every human being in the United States
having Travelled 200 miles by railroad
during the year. Have you ridden
your share? Suppose every person ia
Chicago, including Capt. Strecter and
Commodore Yattaw, had each shoulder
ed ton OF miscellaneous stuff and |
started around the world with it. Grant |
that every centenarian and babe in arms
within the city limits was able to carry !
the ton equally with the balance of the
1890, 998 people. Grant also that they
could oil carry the ton nearly two and
y half times around the world during
the year. AS result of these two
drains on tho imagination you will have
the equal of the 81 ,210, 154, 1913 tons Of
freight carried one mile.
Railroads showed revenues of si57,.
50i, 06G, with q balance Of $40, 900, T32,
during the year. How much Of this
balance is profit is q question which
lie raymentos floating debts, vouchora
aGd rebates can alone
lecide. Probably not half aud possibly
not IL tenth Of the forty millions of
)al ,nco can be counted as net profit.