The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-28
REMARKS.
AN INTERPRETING REVIEW.
Showing Railway Profits Versus Rail-
 way Earnings. rrho aUxuav UorId

Showing Railway Profits versus NaAA- way Earnings.
 The Railway World.
 During the past week there has ap- peared an important statistical state ment, presenting a situation which should be of deep concern to the American people. This is an estimate of railway earnings of 105 of the lead ing railroad companies in the United States for ten months of the fiscal year. published by The Wall Street | Journal. This statement shows that | the railroads of the United States have | earned in the fiscal year just closed | s1OS, ,00O, 900 less than during the year preceding, and further, that during the | months of May and June these losses are continuing and are now at the rate 1 of $500, ,000, ,000 a year in gross and $2OO- | 900 900 A year in net. In the two years | from June, 1905, to June 1907, the | railroads increased their net earnings $14S, 00O 000 but The Wall Streeet Jour nal shows that in the year ending June | 2O 1908, the decrease in net earnings will be S121. .0O0, ,000;. In other words. nearly the entire sum of the two pre- ceding years has been lost during a few months depression. During this | period, moreover, the railroads have issued $2.59o. .000, 900 of securities. the proceeds of which have gone into ex- tensions and Improvements, and on this vast sum the net income in net earn ings during the period amounts to only Il.2 per cent. Still more significant is the comparison between the increase of gross and net earnings. During the past three years, since July, 1905, gross earnings of American railroads have increased nearly $400. 100000, but the increase in net earnings as already shown is only 27,000.000 For every | af In rarafnfa .tE7 other words. the railroads have been able to save less than seven cents from 1 their operating profits.
 l Even the most hostile critic of the railroad will immediately conceive that railway profits on the basis of these authentic figures, are far below the average which have been earned by other industries during the past three years. Indeed, the average tradesman, or the small manufacturer would bit terly complain if a law or custom pre-
 vented him. even in dull times, from
 making any larger profits than the
 railroad stockholder, in a period of the
 greatest prosperity which the country
 has ever known, have been forced to content himself with The situation concisely stated Is this. the National
 income of the American people has been rapidly growing in recent years, but the share of the railroads in that income-looklng upon the railroads for the present as the owners of the rail roads has shown a much smaller rate of growth. The explanation of this is two-fold. In the first place railway rates have remained approximately stationary, and sharply contrast with l prices of commodities which have shown a marked advance
 The ton mile revenue of the rail- roads in 1897 was .797 cents and in 1907 1t was .7s2 cents; the average receipts per ton from 1897 to 1907 increased only from 9S.S cents to 1905 cents. Con- trast these rate changes with the move- ment of commodity prices which Is re-
 viewed in the 1907 Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor. Wholesale prices during 1907 were higher than for
 eighteen years, the average for 1907
 was 5.7 per cent. higher than for 1906: 44.4 per cent higher than for 1897, and 29.5 per cent above the, average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899 These
 advances of prices extended to almost
 every industry; breadstuffs. for ex- ample. according to Dun's review, dur
 ing this period advanced from IF to 1S1. meats from 73 to 96, clothing from 124 to 200, metals from 1S0 to ITS. and | miscellaneous commodities from 123 to
 192. As a result of these extraordinary price changes the gross earnings of every leading industry have increased | far mere rapidly than the gross earn ings of the railroads. Not only have l the gross earnings advanced at a more
 rapid rate. but they have been able tc retain most of these larger earnings aa