The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-08
HALF CENTURY
OF RA|LROAD|NC
Remarkable Growth of Trackage
and Of Opera
tons.
SOUTHERN SHOWS EARNINGS
First Track Ever Laid in Ameri-
ca Was in Massa-
chusetts.
SOUTHERN SHOWS EARNINGS

a comparison OF tho number OF miles
in operation and the passengers carried
fifty years ago with last year ls of
interest.
In 1856 there were in operation 1885
miles of road and sos2s.t5O passengers
were carried
Last year there were in operation 2os,4S2
miles OF road and 715,654.051 passengers
were carried.
Mr. A. H. Plant, comptroller OF tho
Southern Railway Company, has issued
the following statement OF the earnings
OF his road for the fourth week In De-
cember:
Southern Railway Company. excluding
st. Louis-Louisville lines: This year,
S1,3o6.15 last year. s1.2i2993; increase,
$50. 159
Southern Railway Company, st. Louis
Louisville lines: This year, S115,4os; last
year, sl0I2T5; increase, 1914.
First American Road.
The semi-centennial number OF the
Railway World has just appeared. Tho
issue is full OF interest. containing as 1t
does number OF excellent articles writ
ten by well known railroad men.
Eight miles south of Boston, on the
Plymouth division of the New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad-a journey
of less than half an hour from the South
Station in Bottoms situated East Mil
ton, nesting comfortably beneath the
Blue Hills of Massachusetts and washed
by the waters of the Neponset River.
East Milton is a typical struggling viii
lage of the we'll known New England
type. with the residences set in large
and roomy plots of ground. and with the
activity of the town conferred around the
railway station, the Granite House. just
across the road, the postoffIce and the
few stores essential to the necessities
only of small population which draws
its greater supplies from nearby city
of the first or second class In point of
population.
East Milton has long since justified in
history Its existence. Passing over it's
early colonial period and the incidents
surrounding the event which gave to the
world the Suffolk Resolves-farnous In
history as the first expression OF an OPP
pressed peoples determined will to strike
for liberty and for freedom-the one con-
spicuous event for which East Milton
deserves to be remembered for all time by
a grateful people is that within its con-
fines was constructed the first railroad In
America.
Early English Roads.
Edward Pease. of Darlington. England.
is believed to have been the pioneer of
railways in Great Britain. He ia re-
ported to have stated as far back as 1878
that he saw the necessity of unbroken
communication by railway, and predicted
the extension of that SYSTEM He pro-
jected and carried to success the first
railroad. extending from the collleries
in the west of England through Darling
ton to Stockton- Upon-Tees. For this he
had been styled the Father OF Rail-
ways His active colleagues in the en-
terprise were Thomas Meynell and Jonn-
than Backhouse, and their law adviser
was Francis Mewburn, the first solicitor,
VINO IN 1873 carried railway bill through
the English Parliament. The first engi-
neer of this pioneer railroad was the
famous George Stephenson.