The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-01
Decrease in Net Operating Rev
enues Each Month in 1911.
A Loss of $4,000 a Day in
Roads of United States.
AN INCREASE WAGES
Rail Lines Obliged to Resort to
Rigid Economy.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.


The net operating revenues of the
! tSallWays OF the United States, that is,
the receipts from their operation less
the expenditures for maintenance, con-
quoting transportation. taxes. and gen
era1 expenses show q decrease for each
lHohtn or the fiscal year beginning
Juiy, 1910, as compared with the cor
responding month of the previous year
except Tor the month of December
When there was a slight increase. The
| decrease Tor the month of May, 1911,
was TOUR ana eight tenths per cent for
lhe eleven months ending with May
and four~tenths per cent.
Ihls decrease in net operating rev.
ehnes averaged SIS per mile for the
month OF May, which is about so cents
per nile per day. For the 100000 miles
or railroad in the United States this
decrease or DO cents per mile per day
means a total decrease of $120, 900 per
day, which is at the rate of nearly
three million six hundred thousand dol
lars month, or over 43 million dollars
a year, which is over one-seyenth of
the amount Of net dividends paid by
80 1910.
A passenger carried one mile counts
IN railway statistics as a passenger
mile, a ton Of freight carried one mile
counts as ton mile. Although these
are dissimilar units and their proper
ton varies at different times and in
dlfferent places, a passenger mile plus
as q traffic unit for purposes of COM
parison. In 1909 the railways received
and eight-tenths per cent more per
traffic unit than in 1900, but they paid
out in wages 8 and five-tenths per
cent more per traffic unit.
Taking the railways OF the United
States as a whole, the compensation
received by the railway employees rum
ming on trains has increased for each
mile train has run, that is for each
train mile, not only as rapidly as the
revenue of the railways for each train
mile, but in some cases much more
rapidly While revenue per train mile
was 80 and six-tenths per cent higher
in 1909 than in 1900, the compensation
of conductors per train mile was 81
and eight-tenths per cent higher, and of
other trainmen SO and fiye-tenths per
cent higher.
For the period 1892 to 1907 the in
creases in wages for nearly all classes
of railway employees were either in
excess of the increase in the retail
cost of food, practically equivalent
to that increase. For Is typical rail-
ways the increase from 1901 to 1910 in
the average daily earnings of en-
ployees was in excess ofTthe increase
In the wholesale prices of food. To
pay the wages of the same number of
the railways were obliged |
to haul IS per cent more ton miles in |
1909 than in 1900
The increase of wages has contin- |
ued in 1910 and 1911. The increase for !
1910 over 1909 in railway wages was
2 and six-tenths per cent greater than |
the increase in the number of en- |
Dloyees. Reports from a number of
typical railways Indicate that the
wages Of employees are higher in 1911 |
than in 1910, as follows: Trainmen. ) +
and SO hundredths per cent; station |
men, and 16 hundredths per cent; |
shopmen, 6 and SO hundredths per cent; /
8 and 80 hundredths per cent; |
operators and dispatchers, 4 |
and IS hundredthS per cent.
Because of the increase in their ex-
oenses and the falling off in revenue,
he railways are being obliged to re-
sort to economy in every direction in
which it can be effected. Returns from
| number of typical railways show that
he average number of employees per
nile of line was 776 on April 80, 1910, |
ana T06 on April so, 1911, a decrease of /
TO- While the miles of line operated |
ov these railways had increased dur |
ing this period by 1000 miles, or I
md fve-tenths per cent, the men en- |
11oyed in operating the increased mile /
age had decreased by nearly $4,000, or
and six-tenths per cent.
Reports covering so per cent of the
1urfng the year from April 80. 1910, to
April 30, 1911, the labor force of the
ALWAYS was cut by nearly one-tenth /
is a result of effort to reduce expenses
and effect economies at every point /
The retrenchment in process has not |
)nly affected the maintenance forces,
which are always the first to suffer
when retrenchmept is necessary, but is
beginning to cut into the transportation
'orces, which are maintained at full |
1uota until rigid economy is demand