The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-12-10
Condition of the G. D. & M.
Is Very Good.
DEFICIT BECOMES A BALANCE
Property Has Been Great
ly Improved.
Better Service Is Afforded and the
Receipts of the Roads Have In.
creased I'm Proportion--NIany 9th
improvements are Needed.

Last weeks copy of Electrlc
Railway Journal. a publ alton which
is issued in New York y. contains
the report of Eli NJ. w [, receiver
for the Columbus, Delawf & Marion
properties, includi' ,ne line oG in
terurban railway he Marion street
railway and lighting liant, the Della.
ware street railway d the stratfori
power house.
The report shows that under the
| receivership the roads have been in
at the same time the properties have
been built up quite extensively. Last
year the improvements were all paid
| for, all operating expenses were paid
| and there was still nice little bal
ance on the right side of the ledger
The final figures show that while
there was a deficit of S1,925 in 1909,
| there was a net income of $4.2S3 in
1910. In 1909 the gross earnings
were $314,964 and In 1910, $359,137.
In 1909 the Marion railway and light
plants produced $S9,S45 and In 1910
$101,S31. The expense of operating
the Marion plants in 1909 was $46,-
$50, and in 1910 ii was $50.190. SO
that IL will be seen the Marion plants
had no small part in increasing the re-
ceipts of the company and turning a
deficit into a balance.
The report OF the receiver Is quite
lengthy. In y he calls attention to
the deplorable condition in which he
found the tracks when he took charge
of the road and of the repairs which
have been made in the tracks and the
rolling stock. He calls attention to
the fact that the Green Camp branch
has not been operated under the re-
ceivership and recommends that the
track be taken up. The bridges along
the line were unsafe and have been
repaired, but he recommends that
eventually the bridges should be re-
placed with culverts and filled. There
has been a great loss i'm current from
the Stratford plant due to the rails
not being bonded and the plant and
repair shops at StratfOrd are now too
small to meet the needs of the com
pany
The receiver calls attention to the
additional equipment which has been
provided for the Marion and Della
ware street railways and the better
ing of service on these lines. This
has greatly increased the earnings of
the lines.
The train service has been bettered
greatly by establishing and enforcing
rules for the tralnmen and installing
written train order system, instead
of the old verbal order system which
was in use when the recelvership be-
gan.
In his closing paragraph, Mr.. West
says:
"The court Is already familiar with
the apparent low operating expense,
prior to the receivership. This oper-
ating expense was kept abnormally
low by charging all sorts of expense
items such as coal, interest etc, to
betterments or additions to property.
In spite of the fact that the property
was being allowed to deteriorate and
was, In fact not safe for operation
the books for the year just prior to
the receivership showed charges Of
about $4,000 which were listed as
betterments. | am convinced that al
most every dollar Of this was properly
| chargeable to operating expenses,
and that this property is now being
operated at a smaller per cent. than
ever in its history"