Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1909-11-06
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
property 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, 3d.
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 .000-giving an aggregate value of
rolling stock of more than s3.000.000.-
O00 The rails now laid-35.0 100000
tons-cost about 81 200. 100000. so that
rails and rolling stock represent up.
ward of S4.0OO,OO0. 000-
This four billions worth of steel
made products wears out rapidly I'M
der our heavy American traffic Age
adds no luster to the materials OF In
dustry on this side of the water over
in England when a 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
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 heap-
To keep rails and equipment up to
the American standard of use costs
upward of $4OO.0O0.000 year, while
additional equipment and new ran
mileage is now costing around $3oo,-
100000 year-that is, we have now
reached the point of putting $700,ooo'-
900 a year-as much as the whole COST
of running the government-lnto ralIs.
cars and locomotives. These are the
| big items of railroad steel consump-
! ton Steel bridges, structural steel tor
| buildings and block signals and otner
structures, steel tools and machinery
and all the countless minor products
of iron and steel used on the railroads
add, perhaps, $500, 100000 more
Here. then, we find the railroads
now on a prosperity consumption basis
| of 100000, 900 worth of steel products
| a year. Small wonder that the news.
The railroads are buying" vital1zed
| the steel industry this summer ana
lifted the cloud of gloom from Pitts
| burg Steel is a prince again; SIX
months ago it was a pauper-or
| thought it was.
| What the closing of the railroad
purse meant to the steel Industry IN
| the year following the panic OF lSoI
| is strikingly shown in the slump IN
| the output of rails and equipment. The
rail mills in 1906 rolled 100000 tons.
sold for SIP 100000; the car shops in
| 1907 turned out 290, 900 cars. worth up
ward of $500 100000; the locomotive
works output was 1900 locomotives.
bringing in something like $90.000,OOO
all told. 100000, 900. Last year the
output fell away to 100000 tons of
rails. $50. OOo, 900; 10000 cars. $8O.000.-
| 900. and $500 locomotives, $27.OOO.OOO
lin all. s16O, 700. 900, showing loss in
| business to these three branches or
| the steel industry of $340.OOO,0OO.
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
nv the closing of the railroad purse.
The steel Corporations sales were
s766 900 900 in 1907 and $4S2. 600, 900
in 1908. loss of $284. 100000. The
American Locomotive Company 8
gross fell from $50, 100000 to $19.OO0.-
600 One of the car works reported a
decline in income from s36,0O0.0OO to
Sc 100000. The car builders were the
worst sufferers. for the railroads al
| ways stop buying cars when traffic 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 Cen
| trail. predict that the railroad purse is
small compared with what 1t viii be-
Hill saws 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
ueyes that seven and a half billions In
Is years is a conservative estimate
But this is too low 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 30
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