The record-union., 1893-02-08

ern Pacific Company is l2.l69 cents: the
highest except this is S.7S4 cents for the
Northern Pacific Railroad. The differ
ence in these rates is 1885 cents per car
mile. Thus compared with the system
least in contrast with the Southern Pacific
Company, the excess of cost for operating
expenses on this company's lines
amounts for the service performed to the
annual sum of S6,093, coo.
MR.. LEEDS STATEMENTS.
These facts are in direct contradiction
to the results reached by the proponant of
this constitutional amendment and upon
which the tariffs in the amendment are
justified. Mr.. Leeds has said They
the Southern Pacific Company claim
that operating expenses are higher here
than in the East owing to the high price
of coal; L believe l have shown that one
half the amount of coal here provides the
same service as in Kansas"
And again, he states the following sum
mary of his testimony: The operations.
earnings per mile of road, the COMPARE
son OF operating expenses, the informa-
ton that California is paying to this road
about twice or more than twice as much
per mile as is earned by roads in other
portions of this country, also the PROPOSE
ton that it is no more expensive here to
operate a road; or should not be, than in
that territory, should be quite sufficient.
necessity for some reduction"
This summary of facts deserves careful
examination, for if it contain errors, or
facts irrelevant to the issue, the demon
stration would fail and the Traff1c Asso-
citation amendment wonld rest only on
assertion. The statement resolves itself
into four propositions, which L will CON
slider in turn.
First-ORe-bay the amount of coal here
prOUjdeS the same service as N, KnnsaS.
This is point of the first Importance, as
the cost of fuel is the largest single item
of expense in the operation of railroad.
1t has been shown by Mr.. Curtis that the
proposition has no foundation in fact, and
that it was based on a blunder made by
Mr.. Leeds in his calculations. In his
comparisons of the relative economy in
the use of coal on the lines of the South
ern Pacific Company and the East, Mr.
Leeds has selected and has used solely for
the latter territory the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe system. This aystem
operated on June 30, 1892 annual Rep,
1892, PIP. 10, IL, 69) 7,l30 miles of road, in
Guiding in this the Atlantic and Pacific,
Southern California, and other railways
aggregating 1888 miles in California, Ari-
zona, New Mexico and Mexico Thus
covering for these part of the same terri
tories and where the conditions are the
same as for the Pacific system lines. Had
his comparisons, therefore, proven that
the cost of coal was greater on the Atchi-
son system than on the Pacific system of
the Southern Pacific Company, that re-
suit would have been irrelevant in a com
parison of cost as between California and
Kansas.
But taking even the Atchison system.
as quoting from the reports and the same
pages as were used by Mr.. Leeds, the re-
suits shown as to fuel are as follows (Re-
ports Atchison. Topeka and Santa Fe
Railway Company, 1912, page 81; re-
ports Southern Pacific Company, 1891.
page Co.:
a. 4. & $. f. s. P. Co. Pa
r., System. ciflc Syst'm
run .;,;::.: "a, ,38a,445 2o,a5e.eso
Cost per locomotive,
mile run for fuel. SOY cents 1912 cents
Cost of coal, per ton,
ayerage................. So So 70
The total cost to the Atchison system
for fuel consumed by locomotives was
thus S2,946,66l %. The cost to that COM
pany would have been, at the rate which
it cost the Southern Pacific Company,
1912 cents per locomotive mile, S.
5f4, ia IS, an increase of 50, ,627, ,453 45. or
l23 per cent. In other words, the fact is
that it costs to perform an equal service