The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1914-10-09
WHAT RAILROADS DO
WITH THEIR INCOME


thrift and industry Of the people.
At the end of the fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1913, the records at
Washington show that the railroads
Of the United States had collected a
gross income from all branches of
their service amounting to $3,11S,929,-
3l8. Of this sum, $l,373,830, 589 was
paid out for labor--or, to put it in
another way, almost so per cent out
Of every dollar they took in was i'm
mediately paid out to the hundreds
of thousands Of men and women whom
they employ in the conduct of their
business. For maintenance of way,
equipment, depots etc, they disburs-
ed 1929, 1877 ,49l-or, almost another
billion dollars and in this vast item
the reader can grasp what railroad
prosperity means to the great steel
mills, the lumber and coal industry,
the big car and locomotive building
concerns and other sources of railroad
| supplies. In taxes they paid out the
enormous sum Of Sl29,052,922, which
helped to maintain the public schools
public highways and other revenue
expenses Of every state, county and
Incorporated town and city in the
country. After the interest had
been paid on their funded debt and
all other characters of expense had
been met they had S153, 426.676 left,
out Of which to declare dividends and
to use as a surplus fund for emer-
gencies of one kind and another.
In other words, after the railroads
got through paying for their labor,
steel, lumber, coal, interest and other
necessary expenses the above little
more than S153,OOO,OO was al! the
surplus they had left for themselves
out Of an income OF more than three
billion dollars-and this, too. upon
properties worth the gigantic sum of
twenty billion dollars. Thus it can
be seen that on the basis of the pres
ent rates the railroads pay back to
the public in one way and another,
practically every dollar they receive
for serfice. As was stated in the
previous article, the operating income
of the railroads for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1914, was Sl20,J00,-
900 less than for l9l3-while eXpens-
es and taxes were $76000,000 greater.
II can therefore be seen at a glance
that unless the railroads are given
some increase in rates in the very
near future the time when many of
them will go upon the rocks of finan-
cial ruin is not far off-and yet the
slight increase necessary to save them
is so small that the average citizen
would not he conscious of it after it
had gone into effect In a future ar
ticle this question will be more fully
discussed.
A Barometer of Prosperity
1t is an old saying that when the
railroads are prosperous everybody
is prospcrous-and the manner in
which their income is disbursed, as
above explained tells the reason why.
In short. for years they have been re-
garded as the great business barome-
ter Of the nation. No other industry
in the country employs so many men
as do the railroads--and Furthermore
it is a high grade Of labor employed
upon as lucrative a basis as obtains
in any other large industry. Whcr
times are good. nearly two million
people, first and last, derive their liv.
ing from the railroads-and when
this vast army is working full time
and is contented the millions they pay
out for merchandise and for the liv.
ing necessities produced on the farm
cannot help but have tremendous
effect upon the commerce and agricul.
ture of the country.
But this is only half the story
Aside from the nearly two million
operatives directly employed upon the
railroads in normal times, the hun.
dreds of thousands of men who worR
in the great steel mills. the coal mines
the lumber industry and the big cal
and locomotive shops are equally vi
tally afFected-for when the railroads
are making extensive improvement
and buying heavily of these supple!
it means that these great industricg
are running full blast while when III,
railroads are subsisting only upoI
absolute necessities it means tina
many of them are only working hal
shift.
Why Men are Idle
Every man who reads the newspa
pers knows that our large cities hay,
been crowded with idle men for