The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-01

 chants and Manufacturers Rail and River Transportation Company has re- [ ceived overtures rom some company for | the handling of freight. The new com | pahy, which has just taken In the Vest | side belt line, Is in a deal with some oth- CT road to grant them terminal facilities. | They admit this. but say they are not working with the Wabash and have re- | ceived no ovcrtures from the Pennsyl- vania
 The greatest deal on rccord Is liable to ! be carried through when the Louisville
 and Nashville and Wabash plans are car l ried out. The Erie contracts with the Vanderbilts may be abrogated, the Penn | sylvania Is liable to cut loose from the Louisville and Nashville and another
 great road will reach Pittshurg,
 nation that plans for such gigantic ] consolidation are being prepared, and I that the West End belt line and the Bes- semer and Lake Erie'will be important factors in the new de.Lr>
 Louisville Courier-Journal | better demonstration is seldom given | of the benefits of a. railroad to the coun- try through which it runs than Is to be | found in the study of the history of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, made ' last week by The New York Commercial l Advertisers financial expert. As this l road Is primarily a Louisville and South | ern enterprise,twhat the writer has to say
 is reproduced as follows. I Tt appears that the Louisville and l Nashville was incorporated March B. 1850 l The first train was run in July. 1855. It | was completed to Nashville in 1869. The original capital stock was $3,0O0,0O0. The l capital stock is now $55,00G.0O0. almost | twenty times the original amount. In 1860 ] 1t represented 269 miles of road. It now | comprises 5.18 miles, extending from Cincinnati to New Orleans. with branches | to St. Louis. Memphis and other impor- tant points, and the mileage is about | ba m n | the parent company.
 | ss'The first train on the Louisville and 1 Nashville made about eight miles an
 hour. The earnings of the company for l earnings weSe 800: April, 1856 $1, 400: May,
 1S56 $l.5o0: June. 1S56 I,650: July. 1856 l $2.024. For the month of July. 1901. the | earnings were $2,2S7,930.
 This company has earned from its in- | corporation to June 30, 1901, $i6l ,9S2. | Of this vast sum of money It has dis | tributed for material and supplies, and | for all purposes embraced in the term l operating expenses, total of $29l ,0S3395. | In other words, over 6S per cent. of the total gross earnings of the company since | it's organization have been spent in a way l which. either directly indirectly, has | helped to increase the prosperity of the l manual laborers of this country. During
 this time 1t has paid in taxes to the I States. cities, counties and municipali- 1 ties into and through which its Ines run
 the sum of sloS5s.4lO In dividends to it's | stockholders the company has paid in l money S22 362. 959 and in interest on it's 1 bonded debt 1t has paid sill ,560. .4S0. It is | seen that the stockholders have received l less than one-fourteenth of the sum which | has been spent in ways that would direct | ly go to increasing the material pros | perity and the welfare of the manual la- | borers of the country. In other words for l every dollar disbursed in dividends, over | fourteen dollars have been spent for l wages. supplies, materials and general l Improvements. An amount equal to near l Iy one-half of the sum paid the stockhod- | CTS has gone for taxes. The money diyi- dends which Louisville and Nashville has 1 paid its stockholders since it was incor-
 porated in 1850, based on an average of it's l capital stock, are equal to 1.33 per cent. | per annum. The average return- the stock | holders have received is therefore seen | to have been less than. the yield given
 by many of the most gilt-edged secur- | ties. The story told by the companys | tl affic statistics is the same as that | shown by the rest of the railroads of | the country. In 1856 the company received
 531 cents for transporting one ton of
 freight one mile. During 1900 it received | 71-2 mills"
 l Everybody understands In general way that railroad is vast machine | for the employment of labor and the | transportation of products of the ter | ritories through which It runs. but the
 concrete figures of the results are inter- | escing. Had the money which went in.o the tr3chS, QepOtS ana equipment been | loaned out at simple interest or put in | government bonds at the beginning, the | returns would have beeen immensely | greater to the original investors but it | would not have given such employment | to labor, 1t would not have marketed products that would have otherwise gone to waste. and it would not have had | part in the great development of the | South which has followed the opening up | of transportation facilities. The railway | is one of the mfghtiest engines of mod | ern civilization, even if it does not in most cases pay its projectors. Succeed | ing generations of investors secure the
 profits if any, but all the time the labor | CT and the farmer. the merchant and the | manufacturer. along its lines are reap l ing the benefits of the enormous expend- | lures required to keep 1t going It is | also a source of great revenue to the | taxing authorities of county State and | nation, the taxes frequently amounting, | as in this case. to half as much as goes
 out to the stockholders in dividends. | The reduction in railway transportation | charges is one of the wonders of mod l ern times. Had those who began building | railroads had any idea that ultimately | the trunk lines would be carrying freight | at less than half cent per ton per mile | It would have been exceedingly difficult | If not impossible, to raise the preliminary l funds. Still it has been done, and in this
 day of scientific railroadug, with straight ened tracks. reduced grades heavy en- | zines and 400 and 500-ton train loads. there | Is even d chance to make the business l pay, while at the same time giving en- l ployment to over 1.000.O .OOO men and paying | millions of dollars in tayes