The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-12-31
Against the Scalpers O.
Tickets
TRAFFIC BOUND WESTWARD
BIG ENOUGH TO SURPRISE THE
OFFICIALS
The List Of Railroad Receiverships
and Insolvency the Smallest
for Many Years
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated FresS SpeclaF wire
CHICAGO, Dec. 30.-Next week COM
mittee of Chicago business men will &c
to Washington for the purpose of APP
pearing before the senate committee ir
behalf of the bill prohibiting the scalpine
of railroad tickets. The delegation vii
be heard before the committee on JAN
uary and 1t is expected that the dele
cations of business men from other
cities will be there at the same time. The
members of the Merchants and Travel
eys' association are eager to make a
strong fight on behalf of the bill on &C
count of circular circulated among the
members of congress saying that their
stand in favor of the bill was not in good
faith.
The volume of westbound freight that
Is passing over the western roads. is SO
great as to astonish the traffic officials
There is usually little traffic at this time
of the year, but now the roads are hav-
ing all the trade that they are able to
handle. The amount of business will
cause an increase of earnings Of nearly
every western road. Notwithstanding the
demoralized condition of the freight
rates, both east and west from Chicago.
A meeting of the executive committee
of the Western Passenger association
was held today but nothing was trans
acted except routine matters.
1t is expected that general meeting
of the Western Passenger association
will be held in the near future to induce
the Union Pacific to become a member of
the association. The officials Of that road
have not been in a position to say what
they will do, but now that the presidency
of the road has been filled, and with a
man who is generally supposed to be
favorable to associations. there will be
as little delay as possible in making in
ducements to the Union Pacific to be-
come member CT the organization.
The Railway Age makes the following
statement of the receiverships and fore
closures for 1897:
No year since 1887 has shown so few
roads of so small mileage confessing
insolvency, while compared with the
record for any one of the five years i'm
mediately preceding 1897 the list of new
receiverships in the last year is sur
prisingly small in respect to the number
of lines, mileage and capital involved.
In 1898 no less than seventy-four COM
panies with 29,340 miles of road and ST.
7S1, 900, 900 of bonds and stock defaulted
In their obligations and were turned
over to the control of the courts. In 1897
the number of similarly unfortunate
roads was eighteen, their mileage was
1887 and their capitalization was less
than $93,O0OOOO. In 1896 the number of
roads was thirty-four, the mileage 5441,
and the capitalization $275,5 ,000
THE SIERRA ROAD
JAMESTOWN, Cal. Dec. 3o.-Con-
tracts We're awarded today to Chas.
Erickson, who built the most of the
Sierra railroad for the construction of
two highways from the present terminus
of the road at jamestown to Sonora and
Stent They will be four miles long each
and will be built with rock base and
top dressing of gravel. With the road
just finished of the same character be-
tween jamestown and Rawhide, James
town will have three of the finest noun
tain roads in the state connecting her
with three thriving towns of the vicinity.
Work on the two new roads will be COM
menced next Monday.
WILL WORK FULL TIME
OMAHA, Neb., Dec. 30.-Notice was
served at noon today in the Union Pa
cifc shops, notifying all hands that after
Monday next, the full time of eight hours
here would be in force. Eight weeks
ago the time was cut to seven hours
per day. The order affects more than
1000 mechanics.
A special from Cheyenne says: The
Union Pacific shops here, employing
400 men, will be re-opened Monday with
the full force employed at the time of
closing down on December %.
NEW YORK, Dec. 30.-The Trustees
of the Union Pacific Railway Company
announce that the Omaha Bridge first
mortgage bonds, heretofore drawn for
payment, will be paid on and after jan
uary 1st at 10 and accrued interest to
that date. This includes all outstanding
bonds of this issue.