The evening times., 1899-01-13

The relief sought by the railways is, there
fore much more than exemption from the
antitrust law or repeal of the anti-pool-
ing section of the act TO regulate com
merce and the real question now is wheth-
er the carriers shall be granted right of
contract which they never possessed
The income account of railways in the
United States for the fiscal year ending
June 80 1898, as prepared by the statisti-
clan of the Commission makes an inter-
esting showing. The gross earnings OF
operating railways. the returns of which
were received prior to December l, rep
resenting Isl 1882 miles Of line, or ~
per cent of the operated mileage in the
United States, were 1,23S, 523, $50. The
operating expenses were SSIl.24l,45o,
leaving net earnings $427 PSI ,922. Income
from sources other than operation
amounting to S39, sos, 194 was received by
these railways.
The total income of the operating rail-
WAYS covered by this report for the year
ending June 30. 1895. was $466. $50, 1l6. The
total deductions from income, which term
embraces taxes (S41, ,699, ,34Sl, interest on
funded debt rents for leased lines, and
other charges against income, We're for
the same period 1858, 1922. The aggre-
gate of dividends declared by the oper-
ating railways was s65 995, ,915. The deduc-
stated shows surplus of So. 604, ,999 from
the operations of the year ending June
80. 1895 The corresponding items for the
previous year resulted in showing a defi-
cit of ST. 412 399 from the operations of the
year.
The present report, being confined to
operating roads. does not include the divl-
dends declared on the stock of lines operat-
ed under lease, and on this account does
not show the total amount OF dividends
declared during the year by all railway
companies. The dividends declared by the
operating roads embraced in this report,
as stated above, were Sc .S39 33I in excess
of those declared for the previous year
ending June go, 1897
The Commission granted numerous COM
petitive carriers an extension of two years
from January l, 1888, within which to COM
ply with the requirements of sections and
2 of the safety appliance act, and required
the companies whose equipment was in
complete TO make semi-annual reports
showing the progress thereafter made. On
Nav 10 the carriers were notified TO file
such a report for the six months ending
June l, 1898 Returns received from 2S3
of the 294 carriers which were granted an
extension of time show 1,156.6i6 freight
! cars owned, an increase of POSI- over the
number reported on December l. 1897. Dur
g ing the SIX months llS,9oo 1relSnL cars
{ were equipped with automatic couplers and
400 were fitted train brakes, making a
total of 795, ,z53, or So per cent, having au-
! tomato couplers, and 511,666, or Al per
! cent, equipped with train brakes, up to
I June /, 1898. On that date 29,1T5, or 90
per cent, of the total number of locomo-
/ tves owned by these reporting carriers
were equipped with driving wheel brakes.
The returns for the six months ending
! December l, 1898, are not yet filed, but it
| is believed that they will show reasonable
| progress and indicate the probability OF
| full provision of automatic couplers and
the required number of train brakes on
! January l, 1900, the date when the eXten-
sion order will expire Thousands Of cars
have been inspected during the year, but
comparatively few were found not to be
| in conformity with the law in respect to
drawbars and handholds.
An interesting feature of the report is
| found in statement regarding casualties
/ on railways since the safety appliance act
went into effect in 1888 There were l ,034
! fewer employees killed and 1862 fewer in
jured during the year ending June 80, 1897
+ than during the year ending June 30
1898. In the Spanish American war 29s