The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1909-10-30
Cars Alone Cost
More Than the
Huge German
Army
One Third of the
Product of Our
Steel Mills
Used

for the big spenders-the railroads.
are pouring in orders. And Pittsburg
Is beginning to complain that the re-
bound is too sudden and the pace too
swift.
Some conception Of the relation be-
tween the railroad business and the
steel industry is had by taking an In
ventory of some of the visible railroad
made from iron and steel
the rails and rolling stock. the, re-
newal of which is the foundation OF
the steel industry. The rolling stock,
consists of 2.250,000 freight cars. So
900 passenger cars and $4,000 locomo-
tives. The locomotives are worth an
average of $4,000 each; the passenger
cars, $4,000; and the freight cars
81 ,OOO-giving an aggregate value or
rolling stock of more than $3.OOO,OOO.-i
900. The rails now laid-35. OO0,OOOl
tons-cost about $1,000. 100000. SO that
rails and rolling stock represent up
ward Of $4,000 00. 900.
This four billions worth of steel,
made products wears out rapidly UNI
der our heavy American traffic. Age
dOQS 10 luStSI " NuC AoeOAA s~AS - -
dustry on this side Of the water. over
in England, when locomotive gets
along in middle life. they begin to tie
ribbons on her. like pet COW. ana
proudly keep count Of her mileage
from year to year. This is nice for the 7
locomotive, but hard on the steel
mills and locomotive works. Over
here, to-day's giant OF the rails Is to-
morrow's candidate for the scrap neap.
To keep rails and equipment up to
the American standard OF use COSTS
upward of $400,000,000 year. wniie
additional equipment and new raii
mileage is now costing around $780,
600, 900 a year-that is, we have now
reached the point of putting 100000
600 a year-as much as the whole cost
of running the government-into rams.
cars and locomotives. These are the
big items of railroad steel consump-
ton. Steel bridges, structural steel for
buildings and block signals and other
structures, steel tools and machinery.
and all the countless minor products
of iron and steel used on the railroads
add, perhaps. 100000. 900 more.
Here. then, we find the railroads
now on prosperity consumption basis
of 5000. 600, 900 worth of steel products
a year. Small wonder that the news.
"The railroads are buying. vttalized
the steel industry this summer and
lifted the cloud Of gloom from Pitts
burg. Steel is prince again; six
months ago it was pauper-or
thought 1t was.
What the closing OF the railroad
purse meant to the steel industry IN
the year following the panic Of 1907
is strikingly shown in the slump IN
the output of rails and equipment. The
rail mills in 1906 rolled 100000 tons.
sold for 3112, 600, 900; the car shops In
1907 turned out 290. 900 cars. worth up
ward Of $500. 000,O 900; the locomotive
works output was $500 locomotives,
bringing in something like $90.000.000
all told, $500, 900. Last year the
output fell away to 100000 tons OF
rails, $50 900. 900; 10000 cars. 100000
900. and $500 locomotives, $27,00O.00O
lin all. 100000. showing loss In
business to these three branches OF
the steel industry Of $34O.OOO.O0O.
| One need go no further than the re-
ports of the big works to see the hav-
&C that was wrought in the steel trade
by the closing of the railroad purse.
The steel Corporations sales were
| $766. OOO, 900 in 1907 and $4S2. 000.0 900
in 190Ss a loss of 1884. 100000. The
American Locomotive Company's
gross fell from $50,O00.000 to $4,000
900. One of the car works reported
decline in income from $36,000.000 to
So 900, 900. The car builders were the
worst sufferers. for the railroads al
ways stop buying cars when trafhc de-
clines. In the dull times after the
bank panic the idle cars on American
railroad sidings would have made ten
solid strings across the country.
Railroad buying to-day is enormous.
but men like Hill of the Great North
ern. and Brown of the New York Gen.
| trail. predict that the railroad purse 10
small compared with what it will be.
Hill SAYS that the railroads haven't
grown as fast as the country. and that
we ought to build them twice as fast
as we are now. Five billions of new
capital ought to be put into railroads
!. in five years, he thinks. Brown be-
lieves that seven and a half billions in
Is years is a conservative estimate.
But this is too low a figure. We are
now on a half billion a year basis for
new railroad capital. Four billions OF
new capital has been put into Ameri.
can railroads since the panic of '93.
and half these years have been lean"
years.
One great industry that is just be-
ginning to feel the stimulus Of rail-
road buying, and that Is likely soon to
| be revolutionized by an era of new
construction. is the copper industry.
! Copper to-day is waiting for the rail-
roads to open their purses in electrical
reconstruction like that now In prog
raaa On the Nav York Canfral and fha