The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-11
A WONDERFUL STORY
SPEED OF 125 MILES AN HOUR REACHED UPON GERMAN Ex-
 PERIMENTAL LINE.
America Pre-eminently the Land of Misunderstanding Facts Con- corning Our Railway supre- macy-Speed Less Impor-
 tant Than Power.

New York World.
 The success of the German experimental railway at Zossen in making To 4-a mics an hour yesterday is dramatic event Ill the history of an invention not nearly century old. ~-.t= American railroads have not r1valied this record because they are not run by inc government, and such high speed does not pay. It means an expense tnat seems to preclude practical use. but III vastness and in rapid9ty of development our railways lead the world some or the facts concerning them that follow are condensed from Professor Emory k. Johnson's newly issued 'Americah Naii- way Transportation.
 In, 1850 there was not one mile ot rall- way in Wisconsin, Tennessee or Florida or anywhere west of the Mississippi River Even in 1870 half the area Of the country was still without railways.
 Tn igOO the United States had 19S346 miles of railway lines, two-hfths Of the mileage of the world. In round numbers there are now 100000 miles.
 single American system, the Penn sylyania, carries more freight than all the lines combined in any other nation In the world. ,,.
 The first American railway-not built for steam cars however-was made to haul Quincy granite for the Bunker Hill Monument. That was in 1S26 It was three miles long.
 The first railway built for steam cars was the Charleston and New Hamburg line in South Carolina. This was for some time the longest line in the world, 137 miles When the war closed in 1865 no American railroad had 1000 miles of tracks. Now there are eight great sys- t4rns with over ten thousand miles each.
 The Erie Canal made New York City The metropolis. When railroads came Pennsylvania went into them more en- erAticalIy than New York to combat this advantage. To get from Philadelphia to Pttsburg in three and one-half days the traveller went by rail to Columbia, by river and canal to Hollidaysburg, by rail to Johnstown by river and canal to Pittsburg. The line to Columbia was partly wooden rails with iron straps on top, partly short cast-iron rails laid on stone blocks, partly granite siils support ing fiat iron straps.
 A single modern rail, 60 feet. 100 pounds to the yard, weighs just one ton.
 In 1850 there were seven different com panies between Albany and Buffalo, pas sengers changed cars. fright was handled at every terminus.
 Roughly, our railroad systems are cap italized at $12,OOO,0 ,0OO 600, divided half and half between stocks and bonds A lit- tie over half the stocks pay dividends.
 The capital of the railroads is more than; twelve times as great as that of all the banks.
 Tne first locomotives weighed three to five tors. An imported English loconlo- tive weighing ten tons was too heavy. Twenty-Five engines of that day would make one of today.
 Five years ago train-load of 200 tons was heavy. Now loads Of 1000 to 2,5O0 tons are handled.
 Increase of speed has been less remark able than increase of power. Stephen son's first locomotive made twenty-nlne miles an hour in 1880.
 Palace and sleeping cars go back only to the close of the civil war, the airbrake to 1S6S and vestibuled trains to 1886.
 Railroad mileage Is not greatest in the Eastern States, but in the "trunklinC'' territory between New York, Chicago and St. Louis. New Jersey has most railways fin proportion. with Massachusetts, Penn sylvania, Ohio. Connecticut, Illinois. In- diana and Iowa following
 Europe has A miles of railway for