Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-11-24
THE PEOPLE OWN THEM.
The Millions Who Are Directly Inter
ested In American Railways.

The Millions Who Are Directly Inter.
ested In American Railways.
"In one way or another the people
of the United States own the railways
Of the United States, and something
like 100000 persons, through wages,
interest and dividends, divide two
thirds of their gross earnings of ST.
726, 3S0,267 (1901-2} among them, and
the other third goes for fuel, taxes, sup
plies and equipment" This statement
Slason Thompson, head Of one OF the
bureaus and the General Managers as
cociation, with headquarters In Chica-
go, was led to make as a result of re-
plies to the question, Are there mil
lion owners of railway securities in the
United States?" received from thirty
nine of the leading railway companies
of the country. These roads represent
1O7,64O miles out Of the 2O2,471 Of sin
gle track mileage in the United States.
They gave the total number Of stock
holders on their books as 191,387.
"This Is pretty nearly equal to two
stockholders of every mile Of railway"
says Mr.. Thompson. "The ratio on the
Illinois Central, as given by Stuyvesant
Fish, is little over two to one. On
some Of the railroads the ratio rises
to three to one, and in. two cases as
high as eight to one, while in one case
the ratio swung as far as one to six the
other way. Applying two to one as the
ratio; would give 100000 stockholders Ill
round numbers of the 100000 miles OF
railway in the United States as owning
I$6,O24,2O1,295 of capital stock. as re-
ported June 20, 1902. Assuming That
the s6,1O9,9S1,669 funded debt is as
widely distributed among bondholders,
the railway ownership would appear to
be held in something like 100000 hands.
But, large as these figures are and ap-
preaching the total Of railway employ
ees G,1S0,315) as they do, they by no
means represent the total Of those in
terested in railway ownership. The fig
ures given are for registered STOCK
and as the comptroller Of one of the
largest systems wrote: 1T is very PROB
able that the number of actual stock
holders is twice as great as the number
of registered stockholders Then there
is the holding Of railway stock by in
surance companies, savings bank and
trust companies, extending their own
ership among thousands. And what is
1f ;rc stocks
is also true as to railway bonds-only
more so.'
President Stuyvesant Fish, of the
Illinois Central railroad, at the recent
annual meeting of that company, pre-
sented statistics showing that one year
ago the company had total OF 7,l2S
stockholders, and among them were
$500 persons who owned less than 100
shares each, and who, combined, owned
S13.1 900 of a total capital stock is
sued amounting to s95,O3S,4OO. During
the year the total number of stock
holders increased to S.647, out of whom
G.72S owned collectively sl5,947,SoO.
This shows that the increase of l,5lS
in the total number OF stockholders
came mainly from the small investor.
1t is a matter Of considerable i'm
portance that the people residing along
the lines of large railway systems are
beCOniing more and more financially IN
tereStel in these companies, as evil
Genced by the fact that 2,21S OF the
Illinois Central stockholders reside In
the twelve states in which the COM
pany has lines, and 1924 are residents
Of the state of Illinois, the home of the
company.-From Railway World.