The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-03-08
RAILROADS.
WORST WINTER
G. P. EYER SAW.
TT COST ROAD 81 100000 no FIGHT
THE ELEMENTS.
Increased Cost Of Maintenance, Loss
OF business and Depreciation of
Equipment Cut Hole in Profits
Outlook Is for a Good Business DUR
ing the Coming Summer.
Special to The Journal.

Special to The Journal.
New York, March S.--A prominent
Canadian Pacific official has recently
outlined the present position of the
road and its prospects as seen at Mont
real as follows:
This winter is the worst we ever
saw. but now the end Is in sight. I
should say the net cost to the Cana
dian Pacific of fighting the elements
this winter was about 81, 600, 600.
This includes the cost Of maintain.
ing the road. the actual gross loss
OF business and the depreciation Of
euulpmeEt--this last being consid-
cradle item. Y @
mo one In the United States knows
anything about our trouble on the
line. We have had everything from
snowslides that swept, away steel
bridges to twenty-foot snowdrifts on
the esplanade at Toronto. We had
over one hundred breakdowns of loco-
motives owing to the wear in keep
ing up power below zero, dozens of
minor accidents like broken wheels,
bars, ETC., any any amount OF trouble
with the trainmen who run the trains.
When trainmen and engineers work
for days at such low temperatures the
sick list grows with astonishing
rapidity
1--WE are in pretty bad shape. It
only needs a freezing spring to put
our line nearly out Of business. If
1t gets very wet in the hills Of the
west and the woods of the north it's
all up with US again. When the riv-
ers begin to flow along the middle of
our right of way in the daytime and
freeze up solid at night it plays havoc
with the work of the engineers. Our
fondest hope will be realized If the
snow mountains that are piled up
| twenty or thirty feet deep along our
| main line in places go away fast UNI
| thaw.
| Now, as to prospects. There is
piled up against us at nearly all i'm
| portant traffic points west and east a
mountain of bu2iness. The question is
! to get proper net earnings out of 1t.
When things get piled up that way
it Is generally expensive to move them.
The cost per ton per mile mounts up
wonderfully. There Is lot of wasted
power and energy. Generally there
are heavy expense accounts thru ac-
cidents and breakdowns. Men are
only human, and they can't do twice
their usual work and do 1t well. II
regular staff men get short there is
generally some incompetent labor en-
ployed. For that reason I don't ex-
pect anything remarkable for couple
| favor us, we won't be on our best
behavior for awhile.
1--WE see no signs of failing busi-
ness turnout the country at large. It
wasn't Industrial depression that
caused the trouble at the 500 or at
| Sydney. It was industrial imitation.
The real conservative business life OF
| the country was not even touched, and
there is as much, If not more, going
on In the same lines as there was in
the boom times Of 1902.
Neither has the practical failure OF
one or two speculative houses in the
big towns broken the nerve Of the
people. It has, luckily, curtailed the
fever of speculation that followed the
successes in the market Of a few big
men. It has changed us back again
into a sober, slow and conservative
country. I can't say whether or not
that is all good thing. Time, will
tell.
Canadian Pacific people are MOI
worrying about Grand Trunk, in spite
of Wall streets remarks on the sub
ject. BY the time the Grand Trunk
line is built in the northwest we shall
be double tracking our system, proba
bly, from end to end, to accommodate
; the business Of the great northwest
Take that as the prophecy of a sober
business man not given to dreams.
For next summer we hope for tn
!, best. Heavy snow in the northwest i
! generally good thing. Beyond tina
no man can say what is going to hap
pen. You can't tell the yield Of whea
!. much before the wheat is planted, yo1
, know. The mercantile business of tn
summer depends largely on the prom
Use of the wheat fields. At presen
: they promise nothing at all.''