The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-12-30

OF RAILWAYS.
America Leads the World
in Their Building.
NEARLY 2g0,0 MILES NOW IN Use.
More New Roads Constructed in
Year Just Past Than Ever Be-
fore in Railroad History Of
the United States.

The announcement by the Railway
Age" that larger addition has been
made to the railway mileage of the United
! States in 1901 than in any preceding year
since 1899 lends a special interest to some
| figures just published by the Treasury
| Bureau of Statistics, regarding the rail
ways of the United States and of the
world According to these figures, the
| steam railways of the United States now
! aggregate practically 206o 00 miles,sand
those OF the entire world nearly 50e.0C0
miles
I To be more accurate, it may be said
that the figures of the Bureau of Stats
tics SHOW the number Of miles OF rail-
way in operation in the United States
at the end of 1900 as 1884, 21, and adding
the estimate Of the Railway Age 5,057,
the construction for the year 1901, brings
the grand total for the United States to
| 199,37S miles.
| Exclusion of Electric Roads.
This. it is understood, does not in
elude railways operated by electricity. OF
which the mileage, exclusive of street
e@--- ~+AA Se~AA ASf-A1i - NV IStiSkN+SA
and rapidly increasing, so that. it may
safely be said that the railway mileage of
| the United States. exclusive of those for
street and suburban service. is fully 2o0,-
| GOO miles.
/ For the entire world. the London Daily
Mali yearbook for 1902 estimates the
| total miles open for traffic al 4S4 34S of
which 220, 657 miles were in North Ameri-
I 90
Asia; 2S,364 in South America; $50 ii
/ Africa, and 15,2S2 miles IN Australasia.
/ More Than Third of Worlds Mileage
! Thus the United States has two-ffths
/ OF the railway mileage of the world. and
a larger mileage than any other single
! country Comparing the mileage OF other
nations with that of the United States.
the United States stands first, with 1se-
/ 37S miles; German Empire. 81. 934: Rus
/ sia, 1884; France, 26.613; India. -, 055
| Austria Hungary, p, 919; Great Britain
and Ireland, q, 200; Canada. J. So; Brit
| ish Australasia, Is .266; Argentina 10 .4I9:
Italy, $50; Mexico, 1903; Brazil Sis.
and Spain, $500 miles
Of this half a million miles of railway
in the world, it is estimated that about
one-third are owned by the Governments
of the countries il which they are located.
About nine-tenths of the railways Of Ger
many are owned by the national or state
Governments; about two-thirds of those
of Russia are the property of the Govern
ment. and nearly one-half of those of Aus
tria- Hungary are also owned in like man
ner- a large proportion OF the railways OF
France will become the properly of the
Government about the middle of the pres
ent century
Foreign Lines Under Governments.
In Italy nearly all of the railroads are
owned by the Government. but are oper-
ated by private companies. which lease the
lines from the Government In Australia
STA nearly all Of the railways are owned by
the governments Of the various colonies.
and in India a large proportion Of the 20
035 miles in operation is owned or guaran-
teed by the Indian Government
It is especially with reference to the
railways OF the United States that the
Bureau of Statistics figures present de-
tails suitable FOR comparative purposes
They show that the railway mileage of the
United States was. in 1880. % miles: in
1910. ISIS in 1850. 9.021, il 1860 so 626: in
1870, 50, 922; in 1880. 80. 262; in 1896. I66 654
and in 1860, 1882, and the addition of the
mileage construction for this year. esti-
mated by the Railway Age at 5,o57
miles, brings the grand total for 1901 10
9,37S miles.
some Interesting Figures.
It is only in more recent years that
statistics OF operation are available Ac-
cording to the Bureau of Statistics figures
the number Of passengers carried was, in
1887. 423 millions; in 1890. $50 millions; in
1885. 529 millions, and in 1900, 5Si mil
lions
The growth in the freight business is
shown by the figures which state the num-
Der Of tons of freight carried one mile.
These figures are: For 1888. So billions;
for 1887. 81 billions; for 1890 20 billions;
for 1895, IS billions. and for 1890, IA bill
lion TONS
While the length of railways and
amount of freight tonnage have been in
ereasing. the cost Of transportation has
greatly decreased. The average cost of
freight transportation is given by the Blu
reau of Statistics figures al LA cents per
ton per mile in 1882; 1.63 cents in 1887;
0 SO cent in 1890; 0S4 cent in 1895; 0S0
cent in 1897, and 0-T5 cent in 1900
NTEm oaTTrE ITO D"1