The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-01

4
Gross earnings Of 169 railroads in
December aggregated 282 million dol
| lars. Net earnings were 1O2 million
| dollars compared with SO million dol
| lars in December, 1914, an increase in
net of 70 per cent. Gross earnings
for the entire country in November
were 307 million dollars compared
with $40 million dollars in Novemb Der
1914, and net earnings were 118 mil
lion dollars compared with 6S million
dollars in November, 1914. The enor-
nous gains in both gross and net
earnings in November more than made
up for losses in that month in 1913
and 1914, and the gain in November
net earnings, reported last month
when returns We're not all in as Ills
per cent. now stands at 1915 per cent.
Partial reports of gross earnings du-
| ring January show a total Of ST mill
| lion dollars as against Sc million dol
lars in January, 1915, a gain of over
| 20 per cent. In the face of large
decrease in the cotton movement
southern roads are showing gains in
gross earnings during January,
whereas year ago they were record
| ing losses in gross in spite of heavy
cotton movement, which would appa-
rently indicate that general business
conditions influence railroad earnings
quite as much as crop movements.
The net number of cars idle in the
United States in February was 21,-
4S5 compared with 1925 on January
| 1 and 279,411 on February 1 last
year. There were 7,145 fiat cars and
1853 coal cars idle on February L
lcompared with 1851 fat cars and a.
706 coal acrS idle month previous.
Although there were 1878 box cars
idle on February L, there was short
age of 22,2O9 of these cars, leaving a
net shortage, of 9,416 box cars on the
first of the month.
There were orders placed during
January for 3O,327 railroad cars COM
pared with $500 in January, 1915.
This was the laragest number of cars
ordered in any one month since June,
1915. when freight car orders alone to-
tailed 29,864. OF the cars ordered in
January, 1856 were passenger cars and
$3.50 of the freight cars were for for
eign account. Rails ordered during
January totaled PAL thousand tons as
against 353 thousand tons in Deem
her and 200 thousand tons in jan
uaryl of last year. There were also
258 locomotives bought inAJanuary.
| The output of Pig Iron in January
was 3,1s9 thousand tons compared
| with 3,2O3 thousand tons in December
and 1901 thousand tons in January a
year ago. The decrease in pig iron
output in January is aScribed to the
strike at Youngstown; had there been
no labor trouble there, January would
have shown an increase in the output
On February 1 there were 307 fur
naces in blast with a daily capacity
of 10Y thousand tons compared with
295 on January with a capacity of
155 thousand tons per day.
The untitled tonnage of the Steel
corporation on January 81 was 1928
thousand tons, which compares with
1906 Thousand tons on December 81
and 4,249 thousand tons a year ago.
Unified orders Of the independent
-sr,irS
same ratio with a month previous and
a year previous. although some of
them show even larger percentages of
gain.
Shipments of anthracite coal in
january were 1884 thousand tons as
against $40 thousand tons in Deem
Der and 4,834 thousand in January of
last year. A new anthracite carrier
is included in the January statement
and its anthracite shipments will be
accounted for in the figures given
each month hereafter. Stocks of an
thracite coal at Underwater n January
81 were Ala thousand tons compared
with $50 thousand tons on December
81 and 79S thousand tons on January
81, 1915.
Shipments of coke from the Con
ne1lsville District totaled 46,09s cars
for the four weeks ending with Janu-
airy 20 as against 25.511 cars for the
entire month of January, 1915. In
the four weeks the production of coke
by both merchant and furnace ovens
tota1ed 1854 thousand tons which
compares with GAL Thousand tons IN
January of last year. On February 5
out of 39,014 ovens, there were 3d.
8S5 in blast.
Production of copper at the five
principal mines during December ag-
gregated 59,512 thousand pounds COM
pared with 56,322 thousand pounds in
November and 27,2O3 thousand pounds
in December, 1914. Early returns in
dictate some falling off in the January
copper production due to bad weather.
Stocks of copper on December 81 are
estimated at 1856 thousand pounds
compared with 162,567 thousand
pounds a year before and 91,439 thou
sand pounds two years before. Copper
supplies in the last few weeks have
been showing decreases and still high
err prices are being generally looked
for, with se-4e decline toward the close
of this year.
Receipts of zinc and spelter at the
principal market for the year to Feb
ruary IL totaled 594 thousand slabs
compared with 489 thousand slabs for
the same time last year. Shipments
from this market for the same time
Segregated $40 thousand slabs as
against 444 thousand slabs last year.
indicating some decrease in. zinc and
spelter supplies.
Stocks in tin in the United States on
January 81 were 2,A01 tons eompa-
red with 1911 a month before and
1,771 tons a year before. The total
visible supply of tin on January 81
was 1904 tons compared with 16, 216
tons on December 81, and 1901 tons
on January 81, 1915 Domestic con-
sumption of tin in January aggregat-
ed 4,452 tons as against $500 tons in
December and $500 tons in January
of last year.
TransvaaI gold production during
January tota1ed 7S7 thousand ounces
compared with 7s1 thousand ounces
in December and us thousand ounces
in January, 1915
Commodity prices again advanced
during the month, Bradstreet's Index
standing at $11.1415 on February l.
a new high record and comparing
with $10.9163 on January 1, and So