The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-06
RAILROAD NEWS.
Serious Defect Found in Inter-
state Commerce Bill.
Failure to Provide for an Ap-
praisal Of Railways.
THE STATES WILL ACT
This Necessary Unless Federal
Government Aids.
Other Items Of General Interest
in Traffic World.

|
vide for an appraisal of American
railways probably is the most serious
! defect of the interstate commerce bill
| just passed by congress. says today's
issue of Contracting of
| this city. and such an appraisal is GER
tain to be made by all the states acting
! individually, unless the federal gov
eminent shall soon enter upon the
task. The mileage of more than 20
per cent of all steam railways in the
United States has been appraised, or
is now being appraised, by the rail-
road or tax commissioners of individ-
ual states.
1t has been argued by members of
congress in recent debates that the
enormous cost of a general railway APP
praiSal should be considered, and that
the Interstate commerce commission
would have power anyway to make an
appraisal, if one were needed, in any
particular rate case. This argument
will crumble under its own weight,
says the engineering periodical, when
it is generally realized that an ap-
praisal of every mile of railway in the
country can be made for less than
$4,000, 900.
The new railway law will soon re-
suit in hundreds of important rate
cases, in nearly every one of which
the shippers will contend that the
railways are seeking to make profits
on watered stock, while the railways
will contend that if present prices of
materials, land and labor be applied
to their physical property it will be
found that the annual returns upon
this cost of reproduction are less than
in any other large business
Based upon the experience in five
states that have made appraisals, it is
estimated SO per mile of railway
roadbed, or less than cents per 500
of railway property, will cover the
cost of a general appraisal, if prop
erly managed. The cost to individual
states is greater than it would be if
all the railways were appraised at
one time. AS it now stands, each state
must appraise all the rolling stock of
all the railways that enter the state,
for in no other way is it practica BILE
to prorate the cost of rolling stock.
This is no small part of the expense
of an appraisal.
While the time required for an ap-
praisal is so great as to make it al
most prohibitive if undertaken sole
ly to establish facts in one rate in
vestigation. it is small when viewed
as an undertaking upon which many
future decisions will rest. With an
efficient organization it should not be
difficult, it is commended, to appraise
every mile of railway in the United
States within eighteen months after
the preliminary conferences between
the commission and the engineers Sc
lected to manage the different divi-
Sions.
From $4,000 to $67 800 a Mile.
Much speculation has found it's way
into print as to the actual cost of the
average mile of railway in America.
In a recent magazine article it was
stated that $4,000 a mile would build
and equip the average railway. The
funded debt of the railways unques-
tionably represents the minimum
probable cost that should be assigned
to them, and that is $4,000 per mile
of roadbed. However, the total fund
ed debt and stock outstanding amount
to $67,500 per mile. Hence, between
these limits lies the cost of building
and equipping the average road.
The average for four of the states
which have made appraisals is $41,-
$40 a mile, and that for five states 1t
is $33,290; but the fifth, Texas, con-
tains such a large mileage of cheap
railway construction as not to be so
typical as the average of the other
of-way and station lands are enor-
mously higher than they were when
originally purchased by the railways.
The results of the appraisal now be-
ing made in New Jersey will be par
ticularly interesting, because New Jer-
sey is the first eastern state that has
undertaken to ascertain the cost of
reproducing the entire railway prop
erty within its borders. Doubt is felt
whether the highest railway officials
themselves appreciate the great incre-
ment in railway land values that have
occurred in the last generation, par
ticularly in towns and cities.