The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-24
The Railway Industry.

The New York Financier says:
 Statistics are dry reading, but the man afflicted with pessimism may be cnter- tained for a few moments by glancine over the statistics of American railway industry. as given in the advance sheets of Poor's Manual for 1903. issued last week. The total resources of the sys- tems representing the 203 13t miles of rail: way trackage in tte United States are stated to be over $14.031 0oo.oo0. of which something in excess of $l3, 900. 900, 600 stands
 for cost of road and equipment and in- vestments. The capital stock of Amert- can railroads fs nearly S6,100 000 and funded and unfunded debt is 6 775, 800. GOO
 These reads earned gross nearly H, CO., 600, and their operating expenses amount ed to $f.16D, 75o,000. leaving approximately s5e0soO,ooo net. In addition $7s.0oo 900 ad- ditionai receipts are reported making $63S.- 00o,eoo net available revenue. In other
 words. railway capital earned over per cent last year.
 '"The freight and passenger movements involve figures almost beyond conpre- hension The number of passengers car ried was e55, ,130 236 and the passenger mileage was 10, ,706. 900. This Is equiva- lent to ride of 24s miles for every man. woman and child in the United States. The freight statistics are even more im- pTc01tV0s | u8 totB 0l kECIklt tA1OV6u dk- gregated 1,1D2, 000,0oo tons and the tons moved ono mile reached the stupenduous total of 156, ,624 000, ,00O.. Of course this fig ure is beyond comprehension, but an idea of what it means may be gained by say ing that 1t represents the passage of one ton of freight around the earth at it's largest circumference 6,265,000 times-in other words, f.1s5 tons started daily around the earth approximates the freight movement of the United States. Count ing a carload at thirty tons, which is above the commercial average, it would require nearly 600 cars, or thirty trains of twenty cars each. around the globe daily to carry the freight traffic of the United States. The average haul per ton on the railways of the United States Iasr year was approximately 199 miles. Since the tons of freight moved were 1,lgz to0,- 600. 1t follows that If all this freight had been loaded at once for its average jour ney, no less than ss,737.ss4 cars of thirty tons capacity would have been required. If these cars are figured at forty feet each the total represents a length of 303,06r miles, or a train reaching around tho earth more than twelve times. Every car would have to be moved about 200 miles to make up the traffic total of the coun- try.
 So much for traffic figures The gross earnings of the railroads of the United States, as stated. amount to $l. .721 0O0. 900 annually. This Is at the rate of over S4,- 700, 900 for every day in the year. or s. .264 every minute of the day of twenty-four hours. The railways pay annually s1.eSs,- sSS, 3SS in the way of operating expenses. interest. dividends. wages, etc. This means that they distribute at the rate of S462s,227 daily, or $s,214 every minute to bond holders, stock holders, employees etc. And these earnings are accumulated at the extremely low rate of .764 cents for hauling a ton of freight one mile, and 2.012 cents for carrying a single passenger the same distance. The average earnings per mile of railroad last year was 3S.69e, as compared with $s.z70 the year previous. while the net earnings were $2 S30, an in- crease of $62 per mile. Operating expenses were @.45 per cent of earnings. The av- craze interest rate on bonded indebtedness last year was 4.07 per cent. q decrease of .1a per cent and the average dividend rate was 2.s3 per cent, an increase of .31 per cent.
 '"rhat this magnificent industry is to be utterly prostrated, as Wan Street inn agines. seems extremely improbable. The railways are in a position to meet a de- cline in business without bankruptcy. They win not expend next year the mil- lions and millions of dollars that have been pouring into new track improve ments up to this time. but they do not need to continue Improvements as before When a man erects a home he does not usually begin the construction of another one. and that is the position of the Amer ican railroad industry today. They have finished, to a greater or less extent the Improvements required. and all that is necessary now Is to keep up the standard "a comparatively easy matter.