The age-herald., 1897-08-01


 
 as they obtained from hauling one bale ten ten CT fifteen years age. The cost of haul l pace with the decline in rates. While the interest mt which the rai;roads, haze. to pay sdgbts, they have lest thirty dollars in reve- I nue where they have saved one dollar In | interest charge. IL would take three. times l as much bus-ness now to pay off these I 1nertSages as would have been required in
 Tax Valuations
 With the exception of the mines, fur naces and cotton factories. Alabama's rail- reads have maee a grc3ter percentage on l Increase in their tax valuations than any other important Interest in the state. Ala 1 for taxation at Si5 .6l eco Twenty years 1 ago they were probably returned at slo,00o, i S9, o95,ey. in 1873, and nov they are returned l at si3,C00 coo. There has ben q gain of l Ssl0eO0oO in eighteen years or 475 per cent. Georgia's farms were taxed at SD ea1,009 l in 1879, end this year they will be taxed at l Sl209O'oCO. They show an increase of only l a3 1-5 per cent in valuation The railroads 1 have Increased in value fourteen times l faster than the agricultural lands. Geor- gla's railroads are rsying about one-tenth l of the total tax. The roads in other south ton. '''''' pay ," 'DY7' '''s
 Close to the Wind.
 All the railroads in the south are sailing
 
 bare living and that is all-jnst paying l fixed charges land operating expenses. fhere is noth!ng left over to be distributed among the stockholders. And yet the reads in the GcOrga-Alabama group are ntxtlto the lowest in point of capitalization l per inle in the United States. Our group 1 of states includes Alabama, Georgia, For i ida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. 1 This is the classification of the interstate commerce commission, Taking everything, honde- si cek ana ncating isedness, the | capitalization of cur roads averages $42,-. 766 per mile and S6 per cent of these he paid ,9, statistics have not been compiled officially l fer the last lewo years, but it is safe to say l that the non dividend-payng roads in the south have not decreased in number. The | railroads in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland are capi- l cent of them pay dividends. On basis of 5,G0o mile, there would be dividends for were capitalized at coo mile, there woul5 be no dividends for any. and not even all the bonds would pay interest; l We hear q great deal about our railroads | being over capitalized. If this were true, l it could not be charged that they were paying dividends on watered stock. This | The roads are not doing 1t. They are not | paying interest on S20000 mile as a rule l As a matter of fact, the railroads in the south could not be replaced for si50oo a l mile, with their valuable terminals, rights l of way into and through the towns and l cities, with their iron and steel bridges, | heavy steel rails, large and powerful en- l zines and elegant cars. We have railroads | which are really worth 25 per cent more l against them.
 About Watered Stock.
 l Let us examine the charge that the peo- l pie are being taxed to pay interest on wa | which th!s charge is made is the Central | Railway Of Georgia, which penetrates Ala % sss Der me ,s iySre i2 round S numbers. of f this | Sz0JV0 p'er mile is funded debt on which | it has to pay interest or go into a receiver l ship. Well, it is just making that interest | and neither the income bonds nor the com l mon stock is paying cent Could the Central be replaced for S5o.eOO oOO? Vel. Vel. 1 looking over the system, that its wharves alone at Savannah were worth S,00e, ,00O l Then figure in the terminals at Birming- ham. Columbus. Atlanta, Macon, Augusta and the other cities which it touches, and count the tracks. equipment and fran Take the Southern railway, and we find l that it's average bonded debt is about Sls,- l average bonded debt of all reads in the l United States is $3l,04S per mile, and the average in the Alabama group is SS, l5S l that the Southern s lines in Alabaiha. with l their terminals, rights of way, franchises 0oo per mile or for anything like that sum- l The same mileage now ooperdafed OPS da6 by the ne I Southern system earned $29000o more in | 1891 than in 1896. This was loss of Il per | cent in gross earnings, despite the fact | that the system handled per cent more business in 1896 than in 1891. There was a l loss of 15 per cent in net earnings between | 1891 and 1896. and the percentage of loss l was greater for the year ending June 30, 1 1897. The average rate per ton per mile 1 on the Southern railway system in 1891 was | 1h cents, or 11H mills In 1896 it was one mill and half lower , or decline of ,t of nsf | paying a cent of interest on it's stock, but | the stockholders have paid an assessment | of s10 a share out of their own pockets into
 Rates are falling all the time through | the forces of natural competition and they | are falling so rapidly that the time Is com- | ing when ail the roads will be in receiver | ships again unless this downward ten 1 dency can be- arrested
 | Last year the Southern railway paid | $5S4, ,0G1 taxes in eight states. That was an l increase of $93, 900 in five years. This is on | practically the same mileage. too. So while | the earning power is decreasing, the eX- l penses are growing.
 The Plant system is another which runs l through both Alabama and Georgia. Its bonded debt in Georgia is s15,663 per mile, and the property cost $25, 900 per mile. This | operating its Georgia lines. and my recol- | lection is that the Alabama division did | not make much more than operating ex- | penSeS
 The Georgia and Alabama had deficit | in 1896 of s62, ,196 in it's interest account, to | say nothing of it's stock.
 | The gross earnings of the Alabama Great | Southern for the year ending June 30 last | were BPS, S5 less than in the previous l year.
 l Cannot Stand Reduced Rates
 The Southern roads cannot stand reduc- | tions in rates. They are just making ex- 1 penses and interest on their bonds. They | have the lowest rates now in the world, | considering the population along their line. | The North Carolina commission refused to | reduce cotton rates because the roads l could not stand a loss in revenue. No
 more can the roads in Georgia stand a re- l duction in rates on cotton. And it happens
 that the North Carolina rates are almost | identically the same the Georgia rates. l If the commissions protect the roads, they will be able to get along very well
 the coming year, if they do not get to
 fighting among themselves. Every road Is | a free lance now. There are no agree
 ments to maintain rates, and if one road | goes to cutting the others have to follow l suit in self defense. They have situation 1 to face among themselves. The managers | realize it's gravity and are trying to irn- | press upon each other the necessity for
 conservative methods General demoralza- | tion would be as ruinous as order from
 the commissions to reduce rates :, In g | war the small weak lines usually ged l the best of it for a time, at least. If the
 cutting gets deep, the little fellows cannot | la.. 1or cn-c nr11z