St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-08
SOME RAILWAY FIGURES.

lne TepUTC OF Tie interstate CON-
merce commission. which has just been
issued, would be of more present inter-
est If it it were not 50 far behind the
times. 1t brings the statistics of raj J.
roads down 10 June 80, 1895. 1t would
seem as ii the commission, with all the
facilities for obtaining data at its hand,
might lay that information before the
public more expeditiously. From it we
lealn that on that date there were
l76,46l miles Of railway in operation in
the United States, and that the mileage
increased during the year 1887 miles,
that being all increase of 1877 miles
over that of the previous year. The
number of employees was S73,092. of
whom 1854 were employed in the work
of general administration, 256,21 were
engaged in maintaining way and struc-
lures. IT'S, AGA were employed in keeping
up the equipment. and 397,9 l5 were en-
gagged in conducting transportation.
The aggregate property value was
SlO,506, 235, 40, making the average CAPT.
tai per mile S63,42l. The amount of
stock outstanding was 81. 06S, 935. AIS; the
funded debt was s., 225. 6S982l. The
amount of stock on which no dividends
were paid was 50. S59. 334, 572, which was
CLIPS per cent of the total stock out
standing. Stock dividends ranged from
to s per cent. the total dividends paid
being Sl00,929,SS5. Nearly IL per cen
of the mortgage bonds received no in
terest. aud over so per cent of the
income bonds defaulted in interest pay
mentS.
The total number of passengers car
ried was 593, 560,6l2, and the freight car
ried amounted to 745. 119. 1852 tons. The
passenger mileage was 1929, 101 ,084.
and the ton mileage was &c, 55S, III, 1888
The gross earnings were Sl,220, ,S74.
an increase of nearly S5O,OOO,OOO over
the previous year. The operating ex-
penses were 1927. 921 ,299, being an in
crease of nearly S47.000,000 over the
previous year. The gross amount
received from carrying passengers was
S301. SIC; from carrying the mail,
S2o, ,053. aud from express. S23, 631.-
394. The gross freightage was $780,
O53.S6l. An Interesting feature of the
report is that which gives the casualties
during the year. The number of rail-
way employees killed was 2,727, which
Is 173 more than in the previous year,
while the number of employees injured
was J, 1852 greater than in 1892, and num-
bered 3l,72I. The number of passen-
gers killed was 300. a decrease of II,
and the injured numbered 1929. being
but two more than were injured in the
preceding year.
The deaths among employees are dis
tributed as follows: Four hundred and
thirty-three to coupling and uncoupling
ears, 644 TO falling from trains, rs to
overhead distractions. PAT TO collisions,
and 153 to deraiiments. From these
figures we gain something of an idea of
the hazards of The occupation. 1t is
safe to assume that those killed
and injured were mainly among
the 397,915 engaged in the work
of transportation. This would give
one employe killed to every 146
men engaged, and one injured to every
twelve employed. 1t is much safer to
be passenger than an employee, as
only one of the former is killed in each
100000 carried, and only one injured
out OF each 184, 600 carried. The cost of
freight transportation was .SS of cent
per ton per mile, and the average
charge per mile for passenger traffic
was 81 cents.