Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-10-02
THE COUNTRY NEEDS
MORE RAILROADS
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR UP-BUILD-
ING CRAFTSMANSHIP
United States Railroad Builders Have
Slowed Down, Because of Rising
Cost of Railroad Business and
Question of Securing Capital.

B. F. Yoakum, chairman Of the
board Of directors of the Frisco sys-
TEN the empire builder of the South
west says that our railroad building
has about stopped and that it is time
we did something to make our rail-
road facilities keep up with the grow
ing demands upon them.
In the October number Of the
Worlds Work he says:
For thirty years past, we have
added an average OF about six thou
sand miles of new railroad a year to
the American transportation system.
To build and equip these lines we
have drawn from the markets of the
world about two hundred and forty
million dollars a year in new capital.
Today those who figure on the build
ing of new lines have to face two
very serious problems. The first is the
question whether or not, with the
rising cost Of doing railroad business
new railroads can be operated with
profit. The second is whether or not
Under present circumstances, as there
is a grave uncertainty about the ans
wer to those two searching questions,
the builders Of railroads in the Uni
ted States have slowed down. Most Of
us do not care to undertake the res
possibilities of spending the money
that is now necessary to brild new
lines, and then face the even great
err question of operating them at a
living profit.
Therefore, under present condi-
tions, the average mount of new
railroad in this country in the next
few years will fall far short Of the
average for the last thirty years. No
new lines of Importance are being
projected. The only expansion going
on is a very minor matter, a matter
of little extensions into rich sections
of important spurs and feeders. The
builders of the railroads must wait
until the problems Of today are set
tied before they can plunge ahead
and give their ambitions and their
constructive plans free rein.
what that can may best be
illustrated by a few facts. Suppose
that the check in railroad building
cuts down the average yearly new
mileage to 1000 miles. In steel rails
alone this means a decrease of 500,-
900 tons Of steel rails and will ac-
count for the loss to the railroads of
about 1000, 900 car loads of freight
every year-enough to make up q
train 1927 miles long-and it cuts
off many freight crews TO man these
trains. The production Of the mater
ial and the movement of the freight
employs an army Of men, all drawing
good wages.
1t is not necessary to carry this
Illustration onward, to trace it
through the payrolls of the car and
engine building companies, through
the lumber camps, the paint factor
les, and other industries that live
largely on the railroad industry. Once
stated, it is self-evident that, if the
economic conditions of the next ten
years make it impossible or unpro-
fitable to build this 1900 miles of
new railroads that otherwise would
be built, labor, industry, trade, and
commerce alike will feel the effects
of that curtailment. You cannot
wipe out 100 million dollars worth
of construction without paying for
that curtailment in nearly every
branch of industry in the country.
] write as a railroad builder. The
railroad | helped to plan and helped
to build is today employing more
than fifty-thousand men. Their fami-
lies make up an army Of a hundred
and fifty thousand people who draw
the support and education of their
children from our payrolls. In the
part of the country where my work
has been done, railroads are still
needed. East Of the Mississippi River.
there are less than five thousand
acres Of land to every mile of rail
road, but in the West there are more
than thirteen thousand acres. Okla
homa is only half supplied with rail
roads. Arkansas is barely prospected,
Louisiana is short of transportation
properly to develop the state. Texa;
needs very badly at least 10000 mile:
Y Rew line. Arizona New Mexico, and
in fact. almost all the Western state;
need a large amount Of railroad build
ing in the next ten years. / know
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