The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-12-06
RAILROAD EFFICIENCY.

! Louis D. Brandeis' scientific man
agement" schemes for saving the rail-
roads million dollars a day pale into
iinsigniicance when compared with
what the roads have actually accoplish-
ed by their own efficiency and to save
! themselves from bankruptcy, accord
ing to the Railway Age Gazette, which
publishes in it's current issue COM
pilation to show the enormous econ
omies the railroads have effected in
recent years by increasing their av-
erage loads per freight train.
| Zone OF the most effective ways OF
improving railroad efficiency says
the Railway Age Gazette, us to in
| crease the number Of tons Of freight
per train" It then shows that out OF
/ IS important roads whose annual re-
ports for the fiscal year 1915 are
available 20 have succeeded In in
creasing their trainload as compared
with the previous year, in spite OF de-
clining freight traffic, bringing the
average for the IS roads from 4S2 tons
in 1914 up to 504 tons in 1915, or
gain Of % tons. and that the railroads
OF the United States as whole In
| creased their average trainload OF
| freight from 1913 tons in 1894 to 3o7.S
tons in 1904 and 451.s tons In 1914.
| "Ip other words the Railway Age
Gazette says, 'to have handled the
traffic of 1914 with the average train
of 1894 would have required running
| / coo. 900 train mile instead of $685.
! 900 900" or $50 per cent more than
the train mileage actually run in 1914.
Even the average loading of 3o7.s
tons In 1904 would have required run
ming 100000 900 train miles in 1914 in
stead of 63S.0OO,OO0 In 1894 the rail-
roads of the United States handled
SO.335, 900. 900 tons of freight one mile
and in 1914 a total Of 2SS,319,OOO,OOO
tons one mile. This is an increase OF
go per cent, but it was handled with
only AZ per cent more train miles.
The 1914 ton mileage represents an
increase of 65 per cent over that OF
1904. which was 1882, 200, but 1t
required an increase of only a2.5 per
cent in train miles.
"The average cost of operation per
train mile for all trains. as shown by
the interstate commerce commission
treports. was $1.31 in 1904 and $1.77 in
1910, The cost per train mile In
freight service is considerably higher
than the average for both freight and
Messenger service. While 1t Is I'm.
possible to state exactly the cost OF
!oneration for a freight train mile II
=. evident that saving of 962,600,..
900 train miles means a saving OF
hundreds of millions OF dollars an
InuaIly in operating expenses.
Handling q greater tonnage WITHOUT
a proportionate increase in the num-
Der of trains has been for many years
one Of the most vital factors In en-.
ablinr the railroads OF the United
States to stand as we'll as they nave
an almost continuous reduction OF
rates In connection with constantly
increasing expenses. This has been
ACCOMPLISHED both by using larger
cars. by loading more tons OF freight
into a car and by running more car
iper train. The amount OF the increase
in tons per train from 1904 to 1914
alone is greater than the total aver
age tons per train of the railways In
most other countries Outside of Can
ada and Mexico, Germany is the only
country in the world whose railways
come anywhere near ours in train
loading. The heavy train loading is
the principal element in making pos
sible the low freight rates charged
and high wages paid in the United
Estates as compared with foreign
countries"
The Railway Age Gazette points out
that increasing the TONNAGE Of train
adds so little to the transportation ex-
irense that it is more than Offset by
the reduction in the number of trains
run, and that it is almost true that