The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-19
RAILROAD NEWS.
Train Service and tIts Effect on
the Census.
Growth of Cities Due to En-
~ larged Facilities.
PASSENGER, FREIGHT.
Both Carry Their Influence of
Prosperity.
Other Items of General Inter.
est in Traffic World.
PASSENGER, FREIGHT.


the final returns of the census of 1910
IS the great growth OF the population
or the cities as compared with the
country as an entirety, and yet more
as contrasted with rural populations
outside of. the far western states says
writer in the Railway Age Gazette.
1t is a subject that has much food for
reflection in a number Of directions
sociological, political and economic. 1t
is in this last category, however, that
1T bears on the railways, and in sew
eral suggestive and interesting FORMS
Mutations of working populations
mean also industrial perturbations af-
fect1ng the volume both of consumption
ana production, which. in time, affect
radically railway freight traffic. More
directly also do the variations of popu-
Iat1on reflect the passenger business,
saying nothing of express and mails,
the former of considerable Importance
in railway returns.
Speaking in general terms, a city
and the same is true of the factory
towns the consumer of low class
freight large in volume. 1t takes coal
cotton, wool, breadstuffs, lumber, ore,
and metals in their secondary stage
from the ore. 1t sends out the higher
classes of freight in the form of finish
ed products in wood, metals. and the
textiles, but in diminished volume as
compared with consumption, securing
of course, a higher freight rate. For
purposes of illustration, just here. one
may almost take that small corner of
the country represented by New Eng
land and consider it, with its extensive
urban and factory populations, as one
great city.
Apart from its quarries and the great
potato crop of northern Maine. 1t takes
practically nothing for railway bust
ness out of the ground. 1t consumes
vast amount of raw material much of
which reaches it by rail. But at least
two-thirds and probably more of. the
cars that take in the raw material re-
turn empty, the rest being loaded with
profitably high class freight.
theoretically the growth of eastern
cities during the last decade, which
may be roughly estimated at nearly or
ton of the old ratio of ingoing and out
going freight business and the absolute
increase of both-a good thing for the
railways. Practically there may be
seen two forces disturbing the ratios
one the ocean export business; the
other the competitive growth of fac
tory business, with its high class
freight at the inland cities west and
south. Atlanta. Birnningham. Chicago,
St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit, with
long railway radiations toward all
points of the compass, get, as compar-
ed with the eastern city, new signifi-
canoe in this era of urban growth, es-
pecially in their relation to home and
local markets.
That the eastern cities under such
railway traffic conditions have SO well.
held their own in expa nsion in part
by their interrogation OF the flood of
foreign immigration, which still seems
to hold to the city rather than the
country. But, whatever the cause, 1T
remains true that the swift growth of
20 f,a1o nd cities their i'm
manufacturing already affects railway
rates.
The eastern manufacturer demands
as low a rate as possible both on on
going and outgoing freight, not merely
as a phase of human nature, but as
factor in holding the inland market for
factory goods west and south. In con-
nection with the growth of cities both
eastern and inland this is branch of
the subject into which we may yet see
the question of tariff duties on raw ma
terial enter as an intensified political
influence.
Simpler in its elements is the bear
ing of the rapid growth of American
cities on railway passenger business.
Theoretically urban population should
rise upward in something like even
ratios with the increase of passenger
traffic, though varying of course, with
localities. During the last census de-
cade it would probably have done so
DuL TOT certain eXITdIeOuS ulSturD-
ances. On the one hand there have
been during the ten years, in response
to the public demand, somewhat ex-
ceptional enlargement of train service
and station facilities, especially at large
terminals. On the minus side have
been the expansion of the competitive
electric lines, the use of long distance
telephone and the incoming of the au-
tomobile.
All three are more potential in the
case of city populations than in those
of the country regions, though they ex-
list in both. But, of the three, the rival
street railway and the long distance
telephone have already largely spent
their competitive power. The automo-
bile has not done so yet. But any
estimate of its effect on passenger BUSH
ness of the railways must be reckoned
in what may be called short distance"
values as a feeder. Like the electric
lines, it may be a long distance rival
but at the some time a lateral that
away within the old walking distance
measured in time. On this point, as
related to variations of populations we
shall know more with the census of
ten years hence
Ere long the full returns for all the
municipalities of the land of more than
10 600 inhabitants will be at hand, and
later we shall know not only what the
passenger business of the railway is as
compared with ten years ago, but also,
in a rough way, the character of the
railway business in terms of raw and
finished material and of rural and city
products. In both quarters the COM
PARSONS and contrasts promise to be
instructive.
NEW ROUTE TO PACIFIC COAST