The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-01-03

The number Of both cars and loco
motives for which orders were placed
in 1915 was greater than In 1914, due
to the large orders that have been
placed during the past three months.
but it was smaller than for any other
year, except 1908, since the Railway
Age Gazette began compiling these
statistics. The 1915 figure for pas-
senger cars includes 502 cars ordered
by the Pullman company for its own
use, whereas in the other years Pull
man cars were not included. In ad-
dition to the cars and locomotives
ordered by the roads In the United
States, American builders received
foreign orders for 1922 freight cars
and $50 locomotives
The length Of railroad in the Unit
ed States operated under the block
s7,sOs miles. an increase of 9,e77
miles over the mileage reported on
January l, 1915. The automatic block
signal mileage, 3l.160 miles. is 1.471
miles greater than one year ago, and
no less than 40 percent greater than
the automatic mileage three years
ago.
In commenting on these figures the
Railway Age Gazette says in part:
"The extreme situation which has
existed In not attributable to general
business depression, for the general
depression has not been as profound
as 1t was in the 7O's or the sos. Il Is
not attributable to the war, for the
decline in railway building began long
before the war. The outgo of thu
roads has been Increased enormously
by advances in wages and taxes and by
regulation by the state and national
governments. Their total earnings
have been restricted by regulation of
their rates by tho state and national
governments. Ground between these
upper and neither millstones the In
come available for interest and divi-
dends has tended downward for over
nine years. II has not become rela-
lively as small as in some earlier
periods, but in those periods the roads
were not subjected as they are now.
to regulation, one of the main avowed
purposes of which is to restrict their
net earnings. In consequence,-int those
earlier periods capitalists and railway
managers were encouraged to continue
to make investments in permanent I'M
provements and in new lines by the
hope and expectation that after the
depressions had passed they would be
able to make large profits which
would more than offset the losses in
Cured in bad times. The present
system OF regulation has effectually
discouraged such hopes and expecta-
tons. The situation which actually
exists demonstrates beyond question
that capitalists are not disposed to
invest In RAILWAYS
ut may be said that the reason why
the construction of new mileage has
been 50 reduced is that the country
now has all the railways 1t needs Pos
sibly it does not need many more
trunk lines. but It certainly is not true
that it does not need a much larger
mileage. There are vast areas sus-
ceptible of being rendered highly
populous and productive which can
never be adequately developed without
the construction OF large additional
mileage Of railways. In all the great
territory west Of the western bound
airy of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Arkansas and Louisiana there are only
four states whose mileage OF railway
per 100 square miles equals the aver
age for the entire United States, 31a
miles, and there are only two states