The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-19
STREET AND ELECTRIC RAILWAYS Interesting Statement From The Census
 Report.

open cars, while 2S9 were combina- tion passenger and express cars. There
 were 1.114 cars devoted solely to ex-
 press, freight, and mail business.
 Y An interesting development in cleo
 tric railway service is the construo-
 tion and equipment of sleeping cars for
 ue on long distance lines in Ohio and
 Indiana.
 The largest number of cars of all
 classes for any state was reported for
 New York, the number being 14.040.
 About half of all the cars in the Uni-
 ted States were equipped with heating
 apparatus, 19,021 being heated by elec-
 tricity, and Il ,13S by stoves, hot water,
 or other contrivances. Many railways,
 however, have two sets of cars-one
 for use in summer, and other in winter
 80 that in winter the proportion of
 the cars in operation equipped with
 heating apparatus Is larger than these
 statistics would at first glance indi-
 cate.
 The report shows also that 62.362 cars
 or 934 per cent of the total number, were lighted. Of these 55.303 were furnished with electric lights. Number of Rides and Fares.
 The total number of passengers car ried was 5,S36, ,615,2 ,296, of which 1.062,40 3s2, or 1S.2 per cent, were transfer pas- sengers. The average number of rides per in- habitant advanced from 82 in 1890 to 63 in 1902 for the country as a whole, while the advance for the urban popu- lation was from 9S to 168. The pro- portion of rides to the total population is greatest in the District of Colum- bia, where the whole population is ur-
 ban, and is next greatest in Massachu- setts, while New York ranks third. California has the highest proportion of
 rides to the urban population, largely as result of the hilly streets in San Francisco, which compel general resort to this method of travel.
 Five cents Is the almost universal rate of fare for the urban lines in the United States, although more than one third of the companies offer lower rates under certain conditions. Frequently six tickets are sold for 25 cents, but occasionally a larger number is re- quired to be purchased in order to se- cure low rate. Some companies give
 reduced fares to workingmen during certain hours of the day and to children going to and from school. while few other companies carry children between certain ages at a reduced rate. Competition With Steam Roads. Considerable competition has arisen between the steam roads and the cleo tric interurban lines. While the steam
 roads have the advantage of greater speed, the frequent service, convenient stops, and low fares of the electric roads have, in many instances, serious ly affected the local traffic of steam
 railways Statistics show that in 1902 the street and electric lines of the Uni ted States carried more than seven times as many fare passengers as the steam railways. Such a comparison. however, means little. since steam rail- way journeys are, as a rule, much long, CT than those on street railways. In 1902 the average distance travelled by passengers on the steam roads was 30.3 miles. No definite average can be giv- en for the distance travelled by passen- gers on the street lines, since no re-
 cords have been kept by the street rail- way companies relative to this point
 The receipts from passengers were $392, ,963,2 PAS. for steam railways, and $233, 3,S21.54S for street railways. In 1902 the passenger earnings of the street railways were 94.5 per cent
 of the total receipts; the remainder of the revenue was derived from the sale of electric current, from freight, mail, and express service, and from advertis- ing and other miscellaneous sources. Employees, Salaries, and Wages. The average number of salaried off, cials and clerks employed by the street
 railway companies of the United States
 in 1902 was TIPS and the average num-
 Der of wage earners was 133,641. The salaries paid amounted to $7,439,716,
 and the wages to $so,770,449. The
 wages alone formed 5e.S per cent of the total operating expenses of the street railway companies.
 By far the most important groups of employees are conductors and motor
 men. These two classes which are ap- proximately. equal in number and in wages received, constituted about three
 fifths of the total number of wage earners. The most common rate of pay was $2 per day.
 The highest wages were reported in Montana and the lowest, in Alabama,
 Arkansas. Georgia. North Carolina and Tennessee.
 Accidents.
 The accident statistics shows that
 during the year 1.21S persons were kill ed and 47,429 were injured by street