Las Vegas daily optic., 1907-04-04
large increase in Business,

thar the railroads WHICH have been
the great factor la bringing about
this Development. are constantly tax
ed 10 their utmost In coping With the
lrrpaexing problem Il handling this
enormously Increased tonnage
promptly With all lines of manutac-
turing plants constantly increasing
their capacity IL Is but ntHraI 20 ex-
pect that the railroads would be- con !
fronfed With shortage Of motive
gso@eF and equipment with which TO
transport the buSiness and made
qua'e terminal facilities Ia handle 1t
In recent article Mr. Richard II,
Edsno2dS. editor al the Mannfactur'
N:>' R"enrd Of Baltimore. discussed
III" difficulties OF the railroads In =
nss,rt interesting manner and produc !
I'd statistics showing why the rail !
roads have NOT hetn a''lr 10 catch up !
With IT." procession Of expansion In !
The United States
Nj Eimunds said that In the year |
lSt:' ne United States had - miles
OF railroad. and the following decade,
1850 the mileage was 9.02I. Will" in
1880. the trackage ~as 2.sl0 miles. In
1860 the mileage had increased over
~ .n00 miles. or la 30.n26 In 1877"
this Increase was still apparent. AMI
In about the same proportion as IN"
previous decade, and the mileage was
52.922. In lNs0 II was 92.267. and in
1890. lGC.7"3. while in 1909 II was
1922 In 1895 the mileage OF the
railroads In the United States was
2i7.350. and at the close Of the year
1906 Il was estimated tha; there
were 333."6O miles of railroad lines
being operated In the country These
figures don't tak" into consideration
the miles and miles Of sIdings and
double tracking In lhc country. hui
INCLUDE. only the mileage of main
lines
II Is interesting. when noting the
great increase in the mileage Of the
country decade hv aecade, to review
the almost incomprehensihlc figures
showing the additions mad" 10 the
cquipmrn, by the addition Of such an
enormous amount of rolling stock. In
1885 the numbers of cars. both pas.
scngcr and freight-in use In the Uni
tea States was | 2Gj.lnS and In 1890
the number had increased TO l.3S5,
253 In 1904 the number had incr"aS
ed to l.110.%S4, or greater than hal
decade preceding 1t. and In the year
1905 there were 1,79S,434 cars in use
showing an increase over the preced
ing half year of o93036 The number
of locomotives added since 1895, and
by half decades. shows that In 1900
the number had increased from 36.6l'
to 3s.0G5. and In 1905 there were 40.
GIG locomotives in use on the rail
roads of the country. far exceeding
the figures of the previous fiv'
years,
That all these cars and locomotive:
have not been idle will be seen by ;
glance at the vOluminous traffic han
died by them. In 1895 the ton mile
age--Or the number of tons transport
ed one mile-was SS,567 ,770.S01, an,
in 1900 this ton mileage had increased
10 141,161 ,109.413. While the increas'
of the last half decade was not a
great as the preceding one, the tol
mileage in 1905 reached 1S7,375.62l
537.
The passenger traffic of the Unite
States has shown increases. as viii
be seen by the following figures. Il
1895 the number of passengers hau
ed one mile was 1852 ,202,63l, and i
1900 these figures had increased t
1G,3l3,2S4,47l. During the next hal
decade the passenger traffic of tn
United States showed up better tha
freight traffic because there ha
been an increase of over seven bl
lions in the number of passenger
handled the previous half decade
making the figures 23,906, 6,42o.66s.
Owing to the constant improve
ments being made by the railroads
and the addition of more powerful II
comotives, and freight cars of mut
greater percentage than has eithe
the increase in the number of cal
and locomotives or mileage Of trac
While the railroads are ever tryin
to catch up in the way OF improv
ments the abnormal growth OF ous
ness is so great that it seems impo
sible to provide additional trackag
cars and motive power fast enone
to handle it in a way most ss'isla
tory to the shippers, the raliros
people and the public generally
1t has been estimated, and statistl'
will 20 great ways toward sun