The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-23

crease and more. In North Carolina we
have. I believe. only a single short line
OF electric road outside of city limits
In the North there are already 20. 600
miles, and the steady increase of such
lines indicates their success. and hence
their early advent here. This matter mer-
its attention, especially from young men
who are yet hesitating whether to select
electricity or some other course of study
In this stubbornly fought contest
against the steam engine, the trolley, the
electric road, is steadily gaining upon its
rival. In Massachusetts last year four
times more passengers were carried by
electric roads than by steam. In the
last seven years the number of passengers
carried by electric roads in that State
has doubled While the number carried
by steam railroads has actually declined.
AS the city trolleys were practically com
pleted at the date named, this immense
increase must be due mostly to the
country electric roads which cover as well
all southern New England, and every
part of that section is readily accessible
by trolley. In Connecticut, as far back
as 1900, there were 20 per cent more
people carried by trolley than by steam.
Unable to stand the competition, many
steam railroads are adopting the trolley
as the more profitable and convenient
system. In September last the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad announced that hence
forth it would send it's passengers from
Philadelphia to Lancaster and Whining
ton by electric roads; and the Connect
cut Railway, the Boston and Maine and
other railroads have paraIleled their own
lines with an electric road
The speed of these electric roads is re-
markable. On the Buffalo and Lockport
line it is fifty miles and hour, while con-
tracts for machinery have been placed to
make it seventy-fve miles per hour-a
speed which, if kept across the continent,
would take one from New York to San
Francisco in less than two days. The
Albany and Hudson and the Indianapolis
and Frankfort both work on a sixty miles
to the hour schedule, and there are many
others with similar speed
There is already a continuous trolley
line from New York to Boston, and
from Maine to western Massachusetts.
The filling in a few gaps will very soon
give a continuous electric line from the
Atlantic ocean at Portland, Maine, to be-
yond the middle Of Nebraska. The longest
of these gaps-91 miles-between Roches-
ter and Syracuse, New York, is now I'M
der construction.
The cheapness of the new system makes
it a most dangerous competitor, as the
returns show that these lines are con-
structed at about half the cost of rail-
roads, and that their operating expenses
are also about half as much. Their
fares average about one cent per mile,
whereas the railroad fares throughout
the Union average two cents. This COM
petition is nowhere more needed than in
North Carolina, where the powers that
be still allow the railroads to exact the
highest rates in the Union IA cents per
mile for passengers and freight rates in
proportion. In South Western Missouri
the electric system charges nine-tenths
of cent per mile, and the railroad rates
have come down to the same figure, rath
er than haul empty coaches.
The electric freight service is flexible,
reaching into all parts of the country
districts. and in many places already
cars are transferred from steam to cleo
tric lines, and vice versa, and run through
without breaking bulk. The comfort and
of trolley transit, without
smoke, CEndeTS, or the TdlllluS VI ucdNy
engines, render it infinitely more pleas
ant than travel over
steam railroad. Trolley sleeping and din
ing cars, palace and private cars are al
ready in use, some of them most luxuri-
antly fitted up. Trolley lines run cars
instead of trains, and hence have more
frequent departures and arrivals At no
very distant day every town in the
whole country will be connected with its
neighbors by an electric road
There are many other advantages in
this new system besides those above
stated The development Of it will have
the same relative effect upon transpor-
tation that Free Rural Delivery is hav-
ing upon the mail service, and it's growth,
once fairly begun, will be as rapid Space
forbds further treatment here, but those
who wish to consider the subject more
fully will find much adj
information in the article "The
War on the Locomotive" in McClure's
Magazine for March, 1908, which is well
worth perusal.