The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-02
OUR RAILROADS in 1898.
1SG,5OO Miles of Track Worth SILL
91,GOO,OOO.
New York Commercial Advertiser.

New York Commercial Advertiser
Duane Doty, Of the Pullman Car Com
pany. has been studying the railroads Of
the United States as a whole, and has deveI-
oped some comparative figures which are
of interest.
IAN instantaneous photograph Of any do
main of human activity" says Mr. Doty,
constitutes an instructive study, and es-
pecially so when it includes our own field
of effort. From twenty-five miles of rail-
road in 1880, and in less time than the
biblical span of threesccre years and ten
allotted to the life of man, our railroads
have reached their present magnitude
though still in the morning time of their
evolution. Had our country to-day, exclu-
sive Of Alaska, as many miles of railroad
proportionatefys as the State Of Illinois it
would have 6CO.O00 miles of such roads, or
considerably more than three times its pres
ent mileage, or, really, a greater mileage
than that of all the existing railroads of the
world. a good laborer able to earn 81 a
day, working as a carrier of freight does
in Africa, could transport one ton, say Of
lead, one mile by working hard for four
days. In other words, eight dollars ($S)
would be a fair price for the work that
would have to be done. But our railroads
now carry one ton of freight one mile for
eight-tenths Of cent, or for one one-thou-
sandth of the cost of doing that amount of
work by muscular effort alone.
Had the whole population of the globe
the same amount of railroad mileage pro-
portionately that we have in the United
States, the worlds railroad mileage would
be four and a half millions a, O000), in
stead of one-tenth of that amount, as noW
Our periods of existence may well be looked
upon as the childhood of the face. A re-
Prospective review of our railroads, a glance
at their present condition and glinpses af-
forded of possibilities fully illustrate the
truth that we are only in the dawn of our
material development. The habitable por-
tions of the earth's surface, comprising
only about two-fifths of its land MASSES
even with our present very imperfect agri-
culture, can easily afford four times the
present population of the world, or $780,
100000 human beings, and this number will
be reached $50 years hence, or by the year
215O A. D.
Miles.
Length of roads now owned by 1000
corporations. $50. ................... lS65OO
Double, triple, Quadruple and yard
tracks, sidings and turnouts.......... $1,000
Total of all tracks in the United
States to-day. .............,..-.... 244,50O
1.-The average value of our railroads is
usually placed at 100000 a mile, though it
is a little more than that; at this rate
1S65O0 miles of road is worth $11, 191, 900 00O.
The investments in these roads, including
capital stock funded, unfunded and current
debts, can safely be placed at Sill 5O0, UUO, UUO.
Our population is now 73,OO0,OO0 Ii the
wealth of our country has increased in the
past eight years proportonately with the
increase between 1880 and lS9O, the Wealth
of the whole country to-day is $4,000, :
COZ eco, or 81, $50 for every man, woman ana
child of the population. The average
wealth in 1850 was only sos per capita, the
increase being nearly fourfold since then.
The wealth of our country is now lncreaS-
ing at the rate of six millions or dollars a
day. One-seventh of our wealth is In rail-
roads, or $3.50 for every member oil our popu-
..The railroads of the United States now
employ $4,000 persons, and the average an
nual pay OF each is $565. A few officials
receive large salaries, but the $4,000 station
men and track repairerS ana the lO,OOU
switchmen, ttagmen and watchmen all get
small wages, though their pay is sure and
their employment is. as a rule, unlnter-
rupted. There are now $50 employees to
every one hundred miles Of road, or four
and a half to every mile.a
Exclusive of sleeping cars, our railroads
now have ,UU0 cars of all kinds, or thlr-
ty-seven cars to every locomotive or seven
cars to every mile of road. inclusive OF
sleeping cars, there are now oo,OW paSsen-
ger mail and express cars in use. Con-
sidering the life of a freight car twelve
years., and its earnings after that length
Of service will barely keep 1t in repair, 1t
is clear that about 100, 900 of these cars now
annually go into scrap. In otner words,
100 OC0 new freight cars are needed every
year to replace those which are worn out,
to say nothing of the additional cars re-
quired for new roads and for the natural
increase of freight business. There are now
&c 900 locomotives in use, lOcW or them be-
ing in passenger service. All these passen-
ger engines are fitted with train brakes
and over half of them with automatic
couplers. Each passenger engine handled
upon an average over $1,000 passengers dur
ing the year and ran nearly a million and
a quarter of miles, Each freight locomotive
on an average drew 81, 900 tons of freight.
Our freight trains for the year ending
Sept. / carried 7G0,000O00 tons of freight,
and every ton was carried on an average
l25 miles, making in all $1,000, 900 tons
Qf freight carried one Tlile. While the aver
age cost of carrying a ton of freight one
mile was eight-tenths of a cent, IL was only
six-tenths of a cent in some of the States.
The cost of carrying freight has steadily
fallen from cents a mile per ton in 1861
to its present low rate. Our railroads last
year had to carry ton of freight 1880 miles
10 make 81, and the freight work done was
equivalent to carrying one ton 800 miles
for every man, woman and child of the pop
uIation. over three-fourths of the receipts
of our railroads are for freight.
"Our railroads, with their 10000 passenger
engines and IS 900 cars for passenger trains.