The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-03-02
LIVE NEWS OF The
INDUSTRIAL WORLD
REVIEW OF CHANGES MADE ON
THE LACKAwANNA.
What Has Been Done During the
Year in the Way Of Organising the
Road in Accordance with Modern
Ideas-Make-up Of the D., L. & ".
Board for Today-Experiment Le-
high Valley Is Making with. a
View to Using Wires for Tele-
graphing and Telephoning.

"The superseding of an old-fashoned
railway management with a thorough
ly modern and up-to-date staff has
never been conducted under more
striking results than on the Delaware.
Lackawanna and Western. Railroad
managers. commuters and investors
have watched with unusual interest
for the tangible results which were
promised from recent sweeping changes
in office force and executive methods"
say the New York Evening Post.
Last weeks statement of earnings.
presently to be supplemented by more
complete details Of the annual report.
will partly. though not wholly, satisfy
this curiosity.
THE figures for the year make a re-
markable showing of profits, the bal
ances over fixed charges being in ex-
cess of is per cent. on the capital
stock as against a little over per
cent In 1898. AS the gross railroad
earnings were reported as decreasing
by $4,000 the enhancement in net
earning power is attributable to re-
ductions in the expense and to gains
in the revenue other than from trans
portaton. chiefly the improvement in
the coal department returns, which
We're $904. 900. against a deficit of ST.
126.100 in 1898. The showing as TO saw
ings effected in the operation of the
railroad is quite exceptional. being ST.
025.000 in transportation alone. This.
moreover. has occurred despite mate
rally enlarged volume Of traffic car
ried, the increase in the coal business
being 62% million tons carried per
mile. or 6.13 per cent. A saving of over
s.. 2.O0O0 900 was an impressive result of
the working out of the plans for the
new management for the rehabilitation
Of the property.
CHANGE Of METHODS.
But the apparent significance when
only the figures We're at hand. with
out any explanation as to the means
by which the results were brought
about. will be a good deal altered by
the explanatory text of the full re-
port. A good part of the apparent re-
ductions in expenses are assigned by
President Truesdale to changes in the
methods Of accounting. The compare
sons of earnings are also effected in
the same way. Thus. one of the SEEM
ingly noteworthy features of the re-
port. decrease Of nearly half a mil
lion dollars in receipts for transporta-
tion of coal, despite larger amount
carried. is. as has been already pointed
out. attributable to the fact that credit
was taken in other years for earnings
on coal carried for the company's own
use.
''One of the largest decreases in the
expense account, the cost Of locomO-
tive fuel, Is not so much due to a
change in operating methods as it is
to change in plan of charging for the
coal consumed by the companys en-
gines. Some general idea of the por-
tiOn OF the saving attributable to this
change. and the proportion brought
about by the readadjustment and re-
duction Of the train mileage, as related
to the traffic, might be arrived at II
comparisons Of the train statistics
were possible. These figures. however.
are now given for the first time in
the company's annual reports. No
comparisons are made, because as the
present officials find it necessary to
state in fOot-note to the statistics.
the train mileage and train-mile earn
ings prior to July /. 1899, We're incom-
plete and inaccurate. such n state
ment is sufficient commentary on the
manner in which this part of the COM
pany's affairs We're conducted.
AFFECT THE PAY ROLL.
Lack Of such comparisons Is unfor-
tunate, not only because these ar
rangements directly affect the payroll
of engine and trainmen, and the re-
vision OF this payroll account has been
ono Of the large problems undertaken
by the new management Engine and
trainmen are usually paid a specified
sum for each mile run by these trains;
that system has been put into force
on the Lackawanna in recent months,
but formerly these employees were paid
by the month and the Sunday suspen-
sion Of traffic gave many of them a
weekly holiday. Change from this plan
to the mileage basis may not have
brought a reduction in the aggregate
expenditures for such labor, but it has
brought about a considerable direct
economy, nevertheless, in that a very
much larger amount of work is now
being done for the same expenditure
of wages. In other departments of the
company's service it has been possible
to effect considerable economies in the
cost Of labor by the reduction of too
large forces. The full results of this.
however, will be a matter of the
future.
THE changes In this company's in
come account in the past year. there.
fore, favorable and creditable as they
are to the policy OF the new manage =