The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-02-20
LARGE RAILROAD EARNINGS.

The railways of the country earned
during the last fiscal year nearly ST.
500, 600, 900, or at a rate exceeding S1O,-
500 a mile gross. For the first five
months since July earnings increased
at the rate Of 1913 per cent. This of
itself indicates that the fiscal year
ending next June will reveal an i'm
mense gain in on the pyra.
mided increases of the last six years,
says the Drovers Journal. Nothing
stands on the doubtful side Of the &C.
count except the next crop. On this
score we have no anxiety whatever.
But the best Indication we have of a
prosperous year is found in the policy
of the great railways in granting
larger dividends to their stockholders,
larger wages to their men and making
immense additions to their capital in.
vestments. Already the corporations
OF the country have provided or taken
steps to raise within the next few
months about 81. 500, 600, 600 of new
capital for added facilities to do the
business that is pressing upon them.
This is q large amount of new
money, but it is not a dollar too much
to meet the pressing needs of the PEG.
pie for radical improvements in the
machinery of transportation. The
public will not long tolerate car fam
ines which entail suffering and loss.
II money will remedy the existing evils
the railways must spend the money:
and they will raise it by selling new
securities. If car and engine pools
are necessary to remedy the troubles
complained of the railways must es.
tablish them. In any event it is Ger.
tain that the carriers are coming into
a period of immense prosperity and
unprecedented earnings.
The Great Northern, Northern Pa.
cifc, St. Paul and Atchison companies
in the west and northwest are raising
capital on a very large scale. 1t a
be demonstrated ia every case that
these new stock issues will carry them.
selves under the traffic conditions
which these roads now enjoy, ever if
there should be no marked increase in
tributary population.
But there will be-in fact, is now-a
growth of population and production
in the northwest and southwest which
absolutely insures the success OF these
additions to the carrying properties.
The population in these western states
and territories is increasing at rates
ranging from four to forty per cent.
per annum. The freight production
in aud out produced by such growth
OF population is beyond anything the
lay niul conceives Of.
Taking last years interstate com
merce figures as the basis, we car
show that each head Of population
means $50 a year in railway earnings
One of the greatest immigration traffic
men in the service, after a careful
study of the conditions in the south
vest, declares that each family Of new
settlers in that territory means $500 IL
freight in and out the first year OF IT.
residence aud from $40 to $50 a yea
per person there after.
On the basis of the census a o
population increase the railways O
the country Ear count on a natura
growth in gross earnings large enoug|
to justify a far greater increase i
capitalization than has been an
nounced for the len two years.
Is there anything contained in tn
above able display of conditions this
would indicate any justification of tn
increase in freight rates proposed b
Mr.. Hill?