Imperial Valley press., 1916-09-07
FIGURES OF
AMERICAN RAILWAYS


Illuminating figures setting forth
the extent, amount of business han
died, the vast capital invested and the
Importance of the railway systems Of
the United States compared with those
Ct o,her nations are given IN a bul-c.
tir issued by the National Geographl-
cal society.
/ With its more than a quarter Of
nlilion miles Of railroads (257 ,569) on
June 80, 1915. the United States not
Io-ly leads every other nation in the
" olld bat exceeds tN 10000 miles thc
t,tal railway mileage cf Europe !"
fact, it has two-thi1js as much mile
age as all the rest of the world con-
lined The length of tracks, including
switches and sidings, reaches the
enormous total of $4,000 miles
enough to reach from the earth to the
n.oou and with surplus sufficient 10
cirdle the globe six times. Over these
tt2cks $4,000 locomotives are operat-
ed, drawing 2,@27, ,00a cars. If all the3c
t,rs were converted INTO grain carrieg
.a.d were place AT the disposal Of Il.
farmers cf the country the entire
wheat crop Of more than billioa
bushels could have been moved at once
and not employed more than one-third
the total tonnage capacity.
-yNf z
~ the railroads in the United State
whose annual operating revenues
amounted to 100000 or more laSr
year was 1.4O9,342, the number of
miles of road coming under this class
f;cation being about 225,000. The t.
tai compensation paid these employee
was 81, 165,000,000, an amount eN-
cceding the total revenues of the
United States government for 1913-f4
by more than S120,0O0,000. The av
eraee annual wage of railway en-
ployes is, therefore, 1926.
Among the railway employees in 1914
tie largest average daily compensa
ton went to general officers, S16.06,
with other officers ranking secon;
S6.48. Third in line of average daily
compensation were the enginemen,
@5.24, followed by the conductors,
fI.47. The lowest wage was the track
men. daily average Of $3.50. In ev-
cry class save one (empl0yes-account
floating equipment) the compensation
for 1914 was more than in 1913, the
largest daily increase going to the
general officers $50 cents), with
fireman ranking next @ cents), and
conductors third g cents).
For the twelve months ended June
80, 1915, our railroads carried 976,00O,-
OGO passengers, 100000 fewer than
during the previous twelve months.
These travellers paia the roads $685.
600. 900, about sc cents each, and the
average receipts per passenger mile
were a fraction under cents. The
number of tons of revenue producing
freight handled was 1902 100000, for
which shippers paid the roads $751;
100000 The average freight rate per
ton per mile for these shipments was
little less than three-Quarters of q
cent.
The total railway operating revenues
for the year amounted to S2,956,OOO,-
GcO, with operating expenses OF $685.
100000.
The railway capital Of the United
States actually outstanding on June 30,
1915 $50 O,000), was equal to Al
: er cent Of the total Indebtedness of all
the nations of the earth, computed
prior to the outbreak Of the European
war. It is sum representing more
than 10 per cent Of the total wealth
of the country, and equal to the
ealth Of Belgium, Spain and the
Netherlands combined.