Bisbee daily review., 1911-09-07
TaE TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY
Operations of the Last Fiscal Year
 Not Al All Satisfactory.

The well-defned slump in railroad shares which has developed on the ex- changes during the last month is doubt less based on the returns from oper- ation for the fiscal year ending the last few weeks.
 In a growing country both gross and net receipts ought to regularly in crease each year: and if they do not do so, and especially if net receipts from operation fall off, the business does not lock good to investors and they endeayor 10 sell out
 As the majority of railway shares are probably always pledged for loans. those most heavily interested cannot afford, If they can help it, b allow too great a decline. and it is that class and the speculative element which absorb the shares which are offered on the market It has been the sup porting orders" of the larger interests which have prevented a still greater decline in shares.
 While the returns even of the large systems are not yet all in, and many of those furnished are subject to finai l correction, the following rough state meEt is approximately correct:
  1 About 600 railroads, operating from i one mile Co several thousand miles, { make returns to the Interstate Com ' merce commission. Nearly all these loads show increases of gross receipts and also of transportation expenses | which are mostly wages of tradesmen Of the 800 more or less roads we count 155 which showed for the year an actual deficit from operation, leav ! ing nothing for interest on bonds ol dividends on shares There are 2Sj roads, however, which show net re ceipts. available for interest, dividends or bettermeuts, in excess of the pre- vious year. so that. roughly, there arg over eco roads, which. although most
 iy having gross receipts greater thaI
 last year, have deficit, as compare'
 with last year, in the amount available
 for interest and dividends.
 The great majority Of the railr6ad are small concerns, operating less thai
 100 miles Of line Of the roads operat ? ing 100 miles of line or more, theT } were but eight which showed a defici ? from operation, and eighty-eight a
 which showed larger net incomes thal Inc previous year.
 These figures include gross and ne income from all souroes-includin
 rentals and income from stocks an londs owneG-but only the larger syi
 tems have outside sources Of incom
 and those are not yet fully Teportes
 Of the larger systems operatin
 2000 miles or over we can count b.
 eight whose ret income for the las
 year exceeds that of the year befOr
 and twenty-one or more whose incom
 is less. or the transconunental road the Santa Fe (main line. with an e E cess Of y2,024.7l4 over the preyiol q year. is the only one which does m
 show a falling off in net income. an
 the returns for the whole system al not yet available. The Southern r s cifie shows a loss of net income, |
 compared with the previous year, k s4,620.233; the Union Pacific and Or Fl gon Short Line combined, of Si.7sl H 591, and the Northern Pacific. of 8 ' 1sS,722.
 \ It is such figures as these. whit Fl are only approximately accurate, \ gether with labor troubles and the ; f tisude of the general public and q authorities, which Is turning capiI 3 from American railroads to other cou tries or other forms Of fnvestmei Inc Ameriean railroad situation do < moi f3ok good to investors.
 This does not mean that the ests 4 Iished. dividend paying railroads V not pay, for the most part. the full rs E niar dividends this year. and expect \ do SO ia the future What it do f mean is, that investors are bccomi
 uncertain whether expectations
 the future will be realized. Railroa E are not owned by a few multi-milll'