The Prescott daily news., 1914-12-30
RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION IN
 SOUTH IN 1914.

In it's annual review of railroad building in the South in 1914, the Man ufacturers Record says:
 Railroad construction in the South during the year 1914 shows great decline as compared with other years, the annual review by the Manufactur- CTS Record. and which is here present ed displaying nearly 50 per cent de- crease in comparison with 1913 and a much greater falling off when con trasted with the amount of work done when railroad conditions were normal. Indeed, the mileage for last year is much smaller than in any year during the last third of a century. 1t is less than half of the average annual mileage built during the last 33 years. In the South this year there have been built SS7 miles of new line, or 798 miles less than last year. With Miss ouri and Oklahoma included, as they always are in this yearly survey of what has been done, the total of con
 
 struction is 911 miles, falling off of SAP miles compared with 1913. It is also remarkable that the prospect of new line construction for 1915 is very slender, there being a total of only 52S miles which will probably be built in the South, or 576 miles, including Missouri and Oklahoma. Contrasting these figures with last years review, there is decline of 1006 miles shown by the first of the 1880 miles by the second grouping.
 "The wide depression existing in the railroad world is impressively re- flected in the results for the year. A year ago it was expected that in round figures 1850 miles would be built in the South and something more than 1900 miles in the entire section under consideration. Now the outlook for 1915 shows that hardly more than one- third of those estimates are now to be expected, and that, too, with small show of realization, this is after a careful cutting out from the summar ized figures of all propositions men, toned in the detailed reports of con struction here attached which although contemplated, appear improbable of execution owing to the pressure upon railroad enterprises and the more or less unsettled conditions in financial lines. The prospect is that 1915 will add much less than 1914-small as this has been--to the total of rail roads built in this country.
 "Florida leads the list of States with the largest amount of new mile age, displacing Texas, which has led the line for number of years, but which now, for one year at least, talk es second place The total in Florida | is 203 miles and in Texas 13S miles. North Carolina falls into third place with S4 miles. this having been her position year ago, and Tennessee IS | fourth but is it not worth while to ob- serve the rank of each State according to the amount of new track built, be- cause conditions have been so unusual that the figures are robbed of signiti- canoe other than they emphasize the disposition of capital to hold aloof from railroad enterprises until there is more prospect of the lines making money enough to attract investors. 1 Herewith is appended table showing the amount of new line built. Most of the data upon which 1t IS based as we'll as that for further de tails of construction which fill the ta- ble, came from official sources. Only new main lines and branches are con- sidered in the review, second track and sidings being omitted. The figures show in miles and hundredths of miles the work accomplished in 1914