Arizona republican., 1916-09-03
UNITED STATES LEADS WORLD IN
 |TS RAILROADS.
Special to the Republican,


 WASHINGTON, D. C.. Sept. 2- Illuminating figures setting forth the extent, amount of business handled, | the vast capital invested and the i'm portance of the railway systems of the United States compared with | those of other nations are given in | todays bulletin issued by the Nation | al Geographic Society from it's Wash | lngton headquarters:
 With its more than a quarter of | million miles of railroads (257. .569) | on June 30th, 1915 the United States | not only leads every nation in the l world but exceeds by 50,000 miles the | total railway mileage of Europe. In | fact, 1t has two-thirds as much mile | age as all the rest of the world com binHd. The length of tracks. includ ing switches nd sidinrs reaches the enormous total of 900 miles enough to reach from the earth to the moon and with a surplus suf- ficient 10 girdle the globe six times. Over these tracks 65,000 locomotives are operated, drawing 2.S27,000 cars. If all these cars were converted into grain carriers and were placed at the disposal of the farmers of the coun- try the entire 1915 wheat crop of more than a billion bushels could nave been moved at once and not em-
  total tonnage capacity.
 The average number of employees Nf all the railroads in the United States whose annual operating rev cnues amounted to S10000 or more last year was 1,409.342 the number nf miles of road coming under this classification being about 225,000. The total compensation paid these employees was S1165 .000.000. an amount exceeding the total revenues of the United States government for 1913- IA by more than hundred and twen- ty million dollars. The average an nual wage of railway employees is, therefore. sS26
 Among the railway employees In l914 the largest average daily com pensat tion went to general officers. s16.0s. with other officers ranking second. s64S Third in line of aver age daily compensation were the enginemen. s5.24 followed by con ductors, s447. The lowest wage was 10 the trackmen. a daily average O. i1.59. In every class save one lem nloyes-account floating equipment) the compensation for 1914 was more than in 1912. the largest daily in crease going to the general officers fS9 cents). with fireman ranking next @ cents), and conductors third (S cents)
 For the twelve months ending June 3Oth, 1915. our railroads car | ried 976.000. 600 passengers. 76.000.000 fewer than during the previous twelve months These travellers paid the roads sG46 100000 about G6 cents | Hach, and the average receipts per nasenEcr mile were a fraction under two cents. The number of tons Of l revenue producing freight handled was 1.8oa .0O00 000 for which shippers paid the roads S1.977,00o,0O. The average freight rate per ton per mile for these shipments was a little less | than three quarters of a cent.
 ''The total railway operating rev enues for the year amounted to s2. 5oo0.000. with operating expenses of s2.0ss. .OO0. 900.
 The railway capital of the United States actually outstanding on June 20th. 1915. (s19,719, 900. .000) was equal to A per cent Of the total indebted ne5s of all the nations of the earth, | computed prior to the outbreak of the European war It is a sum rep resenting more than 10 per cent of the total wealth of the country. and equal to the wealth of Belgium. Spain and the Netherlands combined"