Arizona republican., 1902-01-03
RAILWAY MILEAGE
 OF TIE LAST YEAR
The Accomplishments of the Year
 Just Closed.

Washington, Jan. 2.-The announce ment by the Railway Age that a larger addition has been made to the railway mileage of the United States in 1901 than in any preceding year since lS90' lends special interest to some figures just published by the treasury bureau oi statistics regarding the railways of the United States and of the world. According to these figures the steam railways Of the United States now az sregate practically 2G0.OOO miles. and those Of the entire world nearly 5O0,O miles. To be more accurate, it may be said that the figures of the bureau Of statistics shaw the number of miles of railway in operation in the United States at the end of 1900 as 194. .321, 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. This, it Is understood. does not include rail ways operated by electricity, of which the mileage. exclusive of street and su- burban roads. is now considerable 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
 
 the London Daily Mail Year Book for 1902 sontains the total miles open for traffic at zS4.34S. of which 22O,557 miles were in North America, 16S, eos in Flu rope. S5.5SO miles in Asia. 2S.364 sin South America. 15.S6O in Africa. and l5.2S2 miles in Australasia. Thus the
 United States has two fifths Of the railway mileage Of the world. and q larger mileage than any other single country. Comparing the mileage or other countries with that Of the Unit
 ed States. the United States stands first, with 199.37s miles: German Elm
 pire. 31, ,SS4; Russia, 29,S94; France. 26.
 613; India, 25.G35; Austria Hungary, 22, ,919: Great Britain and Ireland. 21.
 700: Canada, 17.s5T: British Austral
 asia, 15.266; Argentina. 1O.419: Italy. 9.S1O: Mexico. 9.6O3; Brazil S.71S. and Spain, $500 miles.
 Of these half a million miles of railway in the world, it is estimated
 that about one-third are owned by the
 governments Of the countries in which
 they are located. About nine-tenths of
 he railways of Germany are owned by the national or state governments:
 about two thirds of those of Russia
 are owned by the government, and
 nearly one-half O; those of Austria Hungary are also owned by the gov ernment. A large proportion of the railways Of France will become the property of the government about the middle Of the present century. h Italy nearly all of the railroads arc
 owned by the government. but are op- erated by private companies which lease the lines from the government. In Australasia nearly all of the rail- grn al hN a Of the various colonies, and in India a
 large proportion of the 25.CS5 miles in operation is owned or guaranteed 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 purpos- cs They show that the railway mile age of the United States was in 1880. s3 miles; in 1S40. 2.S1s; in 1s5O 9.12l: in 1860. 30 ,262; in 1870. g. 2.922; in 1880. 93, 262: in 1890. 166.654: and In 1900. 19i.-
 321; and the addition of the mileage construction for this year, estimated by the Railway Age at 5,O57 miles. brings the grand total for 1901 to 199,- SIS miles. It is only in more recent years that statistics of operation are available. According to the bureau ot statistics figures. the number of pas senEers carried was. in 1877, 42S mill ions; in 1890. 520 millions; in 1895. 529 millions; and in 1900. 5S4 millions. The growth in the freight business is shown by the figures which state the number of tons of freight carried one mile. These figures are: for 1883. go billions; | for 1887. 61 billions; for 1890. a billions: | for IS95 SS billions; and for 19G0. 1il billion tons. While the length of rail-
 ways and amount of freight tonnage have been increasing, the cost of freight transportation has greatly de-
 creased. The average cost of freight transportation is given by the bureau of statistics figures 1t PA cents per ton per mile in 1882; les cents in 1887: .93 cent in 1890: .S4 cent in 1895; SD cent in 1897. and .75 cent in 1900.