The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-14


Australia ......'..'....... 1924 LniIes
Africa .......... ...............-.... SloS mics
4s3 $50 miles
Street railways .................... $4,000 miles
Total .................. $50 miles
Exclusive of the street railways, which
probably represent an additional investment
of ST. SOC, 600 900, the cost of the worlds rail-
ways up to the close of 1895 has been $685.
6S5, 900 900, a sum representing more than
half the aggregate wealth of the United
States. AS these RAILWAYS directly employ
about 1912 persons to every mile of road. we
have in the worlds railway problem an
army of 4,S1S,750 persons actively employed
and an investment representing $685. OO,-
600 of the worlds accumulated wealth. The
methods which each country in the world
has adopted for the administration or car
rying on of such vast undertakings, affect
ing as they do, the existence of hundreds
of millions of people, would seem to be or
intense interest to the student of human af-
fairs. In looking over the whole field, you
find, with some minor notifications, two
distinct policies, namely, state and private
ownership. In certain countries railways
are looked upon from both strategic and
commercial points of view, and have, there
ment control, if not absolute ownership and
operation In such instances the question OF
making these great agencies prosperous has
not been so pressing as in the two great ma
tions-the United Kingdom and the United
States-which have not nationalized their
railways.
ENGLISH METHODS.
1t is with some phases of the railway
problem as found in these two countries
that propose to briefly deal in this article.
Great Britain and the United States con-
tain about half the railway mileage of the
world, while of the enormous sum men,
toned above nearly half has been used in
the construction of the railways of those
countries. Though private capital and en-
terprise have brought these two great rail-
way systems-both far in advance of the
state railway systems of other countries
into existence, the governments of the re-
spective countries have in various ways
undertaken to shape the policy, and, in
certain directions, control the actions of
the railway companies. In doing this the
most superficial observer must be struck
with the widely different treatment accord
ed railway enterprise by the legislators of
the two countries. In England the railways
have been treated with reasonable intelli-
gence, and, while Parliament has insisted
Upon equal and reasonable rates, they have
not, as in this country been tied up by an
interstate law which forbids freedom for
the purpose of unitication of charges at
competing points, nor haraSSed in a thou
sand different ways by almost half a hum
dred legislatures, with unlimited power and
great inclination for local mischief. The
English railways though held to a strict
accountability have only one body to deal
with, and, as a rule, Parliament has treated
them with fairness and intelligence
AS result of this policy, the returns of the
British railways for 1896, which l obtained
last month when in London, show these
properties to be in exceedingly prosperous
condition, nearly all the stocks bringing
fair dividends. the interest on the loans and
bonds promptly paid, the wages of the en-
ployes on some roads-notably the Midland
voluntarily increased and, instead of re-
duction of working force, of nearly 100000,
an increased employment both in the shops
and on the tracks. BY this prosperity half
a million employees, who; with their fami-
happy and contented. Another million or
more of small investors and their depend
ents, who have come to look upon the stocks
of these prosperous and dividend-paying
railways as good investments, and the
bonds as safe as the Bank of England, feel
the benefits of this prosperity.
RATES AND WAGES.
But English rates are high, some mfly
reply. 1 am fully aware of this. English
rates per ton per mile for freight probably
averaged in 1896 I'D, or 2.25 cents, while
according to Poor's Manual, just issued, the
rate per ton per mile for 1896 on American
railways was only O.S21 cent, or decrease
of 0.018 cent from 1895. In England you
hear railway managers declaring that it
does not take coal and iron ore and gravel
and the lowest class of freight for less than
a half penny or 1 cent per ton per mile.
And yet our great trunk roads do not aver
age over half this rate for their entire
freight traffic While this is the receipt
side of the ledger, the American railways
pay in every department more than double
the wages paid by the English roads. Eng
lish rates are high because the service
given, aside from the price of labor, is an
expensive one and one that can only be pro-
vided over a line constructed at great
initial cost. In the mad desire to reduce
rates and reduce the profits of our railways
we have overlooked an important factor in
the railway problem, namely, that Ameri-
can railways are at this present moment
being called upon to meet a condition which
the English companies as a rule met at the
beginning The rOadbedS, the masonry, the
bridges and the old rails must be replaced
by more costly material and far better
work Tracks which heretofore ran through
the main streets of cities must now either
be elevated above or sunk below the streets
and literally millions must be spent upon
the termni of our great railways and the
two or three miles of track entering and
passing through important cities. Think for
a moment of the improvements in this re-
spect during the last few years on the
Pennsylvania Railroad the New York Gen.
trail the Erie, the Baltimore & Ohio, the
New York e. New Haven. and the Illinois
Central with it's tremendous piece of work
on the lake front. Chicago. Add to this
the vast sums still to be expended before
all cars are equipped with safety appliances.
and we have some conception of what must
be done This is merely the beginning of
the sort of work that the principal Ameri-
can railways would do if their vitals were
not being gnawed by rates which hardly
enable mana gers to make ends meet and
their properties jeopardized by legislators
who are apparently blind to the fact that
healthy railways spread prosperity through
out the land and give employment TO hun
dreds Of thousands of artisans and laborers:
by legislators who are ignorant of the fact
that a railway company never boards
money, but distributes it. and who cannot
realize how crippled many of our railways
are not alone because they have not the
funds available for these needed improve
ments but because railway securities have
been so depressed that the public, both at
home and abroad will not invest capital IN
not even be borrowed. Thus the industrial
army which would otherwise be put to work
remains idle, while the railway manager Is
struggling with the problem how he can
make his road pay and only spend such
sums in the maintenance OF the roadbed as
may be necessary to prevent the destruction
of human life.
The facts show that when compared with
the English railway the American railway
manager does not make his road pay and
doubt If he ever will until something can