The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-02
EARNINGS OF l. & N.
 ARE AT BETTER RATE
Decrease in Operating Ex- penses Has Enabled Road
 to Show Up Well

NeW 1ork, January 1.-(Special) Granted d continuation in the next six months of the improvement in earn ings of the current six months, and there is every reason to expect that it will continue, Louisville and Nashville should in the 1916 fiscal year leave the showing for 1915 far in the back ground. In the first four months of this fiscal year the companys earnings in dicated balance for dividends at the rate of about 8.5 per cent on the S72.- oOO,000 stock outstanding as compared with 6S7 per cent in the last year
 It Is probable that the full year will make better showing as earnings are now definitely gaining over the pre- ceding year, whereas in the first two months of the year, July and August gross was still running behind. In September gross was $260, ,408 ahead of last year. in October s477,1S3 ahead and in November, $1,0S5,65
 As the result of economies put into operation soon after the beginning of the war, which marked collapse in earnings of southern railway lines Louisville and Nashville has for many months been able to increase It's net ever the preceding year. These econ omies covered not only reduction of transportation expenses but 1essening of expenditures on maintenance. With increasing gross the cutting down of maintenance charges has not been so necessary and the company has eased up in that direction. But econ omy in transportation costs has been adhered to with the result that in the first four months of this fiscal year, transportation has absorbed only 29.04 per cent of gross against 83.65 last year. In July 2992 per cent of gross was taken up in transportation while | in September the ratio was only 28.53 1 per cent This reduction represents a real and permanent saving to the com pany and is important especially in view of the larger volume of traffic moving.
 The purchasing power of the south Is not under the handicap of a year ! ago when there was practically no market for it's cotton coal. lumber, 1 iron and similar products. With the | good prices now prevailing for cotton l and high prices for cotton seed, the agricultural portion of the community l is better off than a year ago, espe- cally when current prices are set up against cost of production this year greatly below that of recent years. | With iron plants and textile mills | running at capacity, consumption of coal has been stimulated. That Is a vile and Nashville inasmuch as bi- | luminous coal forms over 39 per cent of it's gross tonnage on the average. Continued prosperity through the next six months would probably bring | before the directors of Louisville and Nashville and Atlantic Coast Line next 1 summer the question of restoring the dividends to the per cent level main | tained before the war.
 manufacture where sulphuric acid | leads the way.
 At the present time sulphuric acid is greatly needed in the manufacture of l high explosives for military purposes. The great coke-producing centers of the 1 south were quick to see the advantage of installing by-product ovens whereby the ammonia might be saved for fer 1 tilizers-another feature involving the use of sulphuric acid. They also save the light oils from the coal tar; and, in fact, this has been great feature In the ability or the United States to sup ply the high explosives needed for the army and navy. A ton of ordinary cok- ing coal may be expected to yield half of one per cent-say 0.7 gallon of benzol and toluol-which are not only the chief 1 bases for the aniline dye industry, but also for explosives. These explosives are made from benzol by first converting it by the use of fuming sulphuric acid into benzol sulphonic acid; this is neutralized,
 
 (carbolc acid). This, by treatment with g. mixture nitric and sulphuric acids, furnishes picric acid, substane of greater explosive energy than nitrogly- cerne. Similarly, toluol Cor tolune, the same substance) is treated with a mix ture of sulphuric and nitric acids and is converted into mono-nitro-t -toluol, and by further and more energetic treatment with the same acids this product is made into tri-nitro-touol, a powder which may be transported much more safely than ntroglycerine, dynamite or even picric acid and yet is greater explosive than either.
 It is well known that the supply of the benzol and toluol from coal tar has been nowhere near the recent demand. In fact, in time of peace, only a few years ago it was necessary to import toluol by the shipload of satisfy the demand then existing.
 FROM PETROLEUM
 It was hoped at that time that benzol and toluol might be found as constitu- ents of one another variety of crude petroleum in the United States, just as they are both found in Roumanian crude petroleum, but a careful search over all parts of the coluntry failed to reveal more than mere traces, of no value. This being the case, the incalcuable value -c