Arizona republican., 1898-03-21
LABOR ON AMERICAN AND ENG
 LISH RAILWAYS

The results of the operations of the English railways for the year 1897 were on the whole favorable. There was an increase in gross earnings of 3.63 per cent but growth in expenses cut the improvement in net earnings down to less than 1 per cent. Still, there was an improvement; and the gross earnings were the largest in the history of the English railways.
 In the increase in expenses there is one item to which the chairman of we believe, every company, at the an- nual meetings which have recently been held, called attention in a more This is the increase in the cost of la or less apologetic and ominous tone bor. in the item of wages and salaries This increase> over the year 1896 for all the companies together amounted to only slightly over $5,000,000: but the fact of the increase is looked upon with apprehension, not only by the l shareholders and directors of the rail- ways, but by the railway press as a whole. It is universally spoken of as the one threatening feature of an oth- erwise favorable situation. Under these circumstances a comparison of the amounts paid to labor by the Eng | fish railways and American roads, re- spectively, will be of interest.
 | Collating the essential figures of the railway systems of the two countries, we get the following showing, the American figures being taken from the last statistical report of the inter- state commerce commission and the English figures from the tabulated statements of the nineteen companies just issued, which cover practically all the railway lines of England. The English pound is calculated at five dollars:
 Gross earnings, United States, $1,- 150, ,376, England, $368,190 900: op- erating expenses, United States, $772., 9S9,044, England, POS, ,4S5, ,OO0 interest and fixed charges, United States, s350,- 250.493, England, 99,625 900; dividends United States, $S7,6O3,371, England 63.060,0 900; expenditures for labor United States, $46S, S24,531, England S97 765 000.
 The first thing that strikes the eyt
 in the above figures is the enormau: disproportion of the labor account. w
 are familiar with the fact that labo
 is more highly paid in America thai
 in any other country, but even tha
 hAAo"iCuSC dIuly plSpdlSS us lOI ouCi
 a striking dissimilarity in the relation of the labor charge to other items a
 appears above.
 English railways justly pride them
 selves on the fact that they pay thei
 total expenses of operation for les
 than 57 per cent of the gross earning Qast year it was 56.62 per cen). and
 disposition at times makes itself evi
 dent over there to consider the Ameri can railways extravagant because. ol the average, they spend from 66 to 6
 per cent of their gross earnings in op erating. The above figures show, how ever, that the labor charge on EngliS
 railways is only 265 per cent of tn
 earnings, while in America it amount
 to 40.7 per cent-a difference of IA. per cent. Though American railway spend Il per cent more of their gros
 earnings than do the English com panies in operation, yet if we deduC the labor charge, all other expense
 of operation are conducted for 3 pc g cent less in America than in England 5 which, considering the greater volum l of traffic in England per mile of roat e is astonishing English railway y which complain now of the magnitud
 of the expenditure for labor, woul d find themselves confronted with yer f serious problem if the rate of wage S should ever rise to even approximatel d the American level