The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-10-27
AMERICAN RAILROADING COM
PARED WITH EUROPEAN

|
Hartman lines, delivered an address
before the Graduate School of Bust,
ness Administration of Harvard Uni.
versity last April on Efficiency Of
Public Service of the Railways"
During the course of his talk, Mr.,
Kruttschmitt gave some very inter.
esting figures on American railways.
Among other things he said:
ITO form an adequate conception
of the magnitude and intricacy of
these great transportation machines
and of the. results of their ceaseless
operation, we must resort to Stats
tics. The railways of the United
States had in 1909 about 235,OO0
miles of main line, nearly as much as
the mileage of the railways of all
other countries combined, to which
must be added over 107, 900 miles
Of extra main tracks, yards and sid
ings. On these $4,000 miles of
track aggregating nearly IA times
the length of the earth's equator,
$1,000 locomotives are busy hauling
nearly $4,000 passengers and about
2,250.00O freight cars, covering
about 3,050,000 miles day, or the
almost inconceivable total of LOO
million train miles per annum.
The mind utterly fails to grasp
these figures. Some conception of
their significance may be formed.
however, by considering that if the
earth were girdled with a railroad
track at the equator and trains dis
patched on this track every IL min
utes, each would have to be sched-
uled to complete its $4,000 mile trip
around the globe in "a hours in or.
der that all of them in a year should
run up a train mileage equal to that
of the railways of the United States.
Measured in units of public service
performed, the passenger trains run
500 million miles per annum, carry
ing an average of 54 passengers in
each train and thereby performing
public service equal to giving every
man, woman and child of our 90
million inhabitants a ride of 325
miles during the year; and the
freight trains in their runs move the
equivalent of 17,169,413,224 loaded
and empty cars one mile"
After discussing the relation of the
public to the railways and admitting
the right of the people to discipline
the railway when it is in the wrong,
Mr.. Kruttschmitt argued for calm
and dispassionate action, saying that
passionate al resentful action and
wise action usually are incompat-
ible."
Speaking of the efficiency of the
American railways as compared with |
railways in other countries, Mr.. |
Kruttschmitt said:
Every dollar of capital which the |
owners of the railways of the United |
States have invested renders four and |
a half times the service that the same
dollar renders in the United King
dom; one and half times as much
as in Germany; three times as much
as in France and two and a fourth
times as much as in Switzerland.
1T will be noted that the net oper-
ating revenues per mile of road
that is, the net earnings or annual
rental paid by the public for the hire
of captain the railways of the
United States are smaller than those
Of any of the other railways with
which comparison is made. For ev-
cry dollar of net earnings the rail-
ways of the United States rendered
wv duu a AdIl tIllcS dS uluCu service | ,
% the public as did the railways of
he United Kingdom and twice as
much as did the railways of France.
rhe Swiss and German railroads are
'wned and operated by the govern I
nents, and yet for every dollar Of ,
let earnings the railways of the Uni.
ed States rendered from one and q
ourth to one and a half times as .
much service to the public as did
he railways of Switzerland and Ger
many. And they did SO while chars
ng the lowest average freight rates
\ the world. In other words, the
wners of the railways of the United
tates received less profit in proper .
lon to the amoutn of service, that
hey rendered to their patrons than
i'd the owners Of any OF the other
always; and the amounts that they
harged shippers for rendering these
ervices were smaller than the