The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-06
kAILkOAb NEWS,
Reason Railroads Are Decrease
ing Force of Employees.
Trying to Make Saving in Oper-
ating Expenses.
$4,000 MEN ARE OUT
More Men Likely to Be Employ
ed from Now On.
Decrease Mostly Confined to
Eastern States.
$4,000 MEN ARE OUT

Undue importance is being attached
by the public to the fact that railway
companies, particularly in the east,
are dropping some of their employees,
says the Railway Age. The number
of employees on every road constantly
fuctuates and the taking on and lay
ing off processes go forward, govern
ed chiefly by two conditiOns-the de-
mand of the public for transportation
and the voluntary action of the COM
pany in respect to making or ceasing
improvements and extensions. Every
important railway in the country has
been employing a large number of ex-
ira men on work which is now COM
pleted or can be temporarily suspend
ed; and hence these extra men are
being dispensed with. The long an
ticipated slackening in the industrial
boom has been followed by consider
able decrease in freight traffic and this
allows the railways to drop some of
the men engaged in the transportation
and traffic departments. The season
is now between grass and hay; the
forces that later will be needed to
help move the crops are at present
superfiuous- So far the crop prospects
throughout the country are excellent;
the farmers, unaffected by the drop
in industrialS and the suspension of
speculation in Wall street, are pros
pering and undisturbed, while the
general business of the country is
comfortably active. No financial panic
is in sight or feared.
Railway earnings have decreased
considerably within a few months
while expenses, owing to increased
wages and cost of supplies, are still
higher than in former years. In the
first quarter of 1904 the gross earn
ings of the railways showed a de-
crease of S3,160,0N0 compared with
the same period in 1903, while operat-
ing expenses were greater by 3d.
O92,OOO, making a comparative de-
crease in net earnings of SIG, 252,0 900.
Reductions in the number of wage
inevitable. How many men have been
dropped this spring is unknown, but
some estimates place the number at
from $4,000 to $4,000 for the whole
country. The number of railway en-
plOyes in the United States in 1902
according to the last figures of tn
interstate commerce commission, was
1,1S9.315, giving an average of 594
to each 100 miles of railway. Using
the same average to the mile and
adding for the increase of mileage.
the mum Der of employees in 1903 would
be about 100000, or perhaps $1,000
more than in 1902, the year in whfchI
there had been an addition of 118, 900
over the previous year. To drop 3d.
600 or 5000 men out of this grand
total, scattered over 100000 miles of
general calamity to the railways or to
the country. 1t would mean a de-
crease of from to per cent in the
total, but a large number of those
who have been dropped were taken
on for temporary purposes with I'M
certain tenure of place. The regular
forces of the roads, as a general thing
have not been greatly affected by this
pruning. The following table based
upon the number of employees, as re-
ported by the interstate commerce
commission, is interesting as showing
the rise and fall in the railway forces
from year to year: