New-York tribune., 1920-03-11

feet. This will depend on the an,onnt
OF the rate Increase ordered and Che
extent to which each line succeeds an
recovering. it's old business.
Unquestionably, these things will pit
on their feet many roads now apnar-
emily bankrupt. But the figures for
1919 show at least which lines stand
at present in the greatest danger. These
figures axe net quite complete, the re-
turns for December are not in, but De-
centber was one of the worst month.
of the year and it will not helm the
showing. They are compiled Sby the
Bureau OF Railway Economics.
railroad to keep out Of court must
De able to pay the interest on its bonds
and notes--its fixed charges"--evon
though it may run for years without
paying dividend. When the fixed
charges are not met it goes into bank
ruptcy. On this basis in 1919 out of
the l65 leading roads in the United
States l07 were bankrupt.
In fact, Tor the eleven months the
railroad system as q whole was bank
rupt, for it failed by $6O,217,373 to
earn earn enough to meet the fixed charges.
which the fifty-eight solvent roads
turned in was offset by deficit of
S2o6.322,349 on the others.
Condltlons were worse in the East
ern district. There ont Of sixtv-five
roads listed only twenty-one earned
the minimum necessary, and only six
had a surplus over fixed charges of
more than million dollars. Forty
YOUR fell below the line, and nineteen
OF these had deficits that exceeded q
million. The road with the best show
lng was the Michigan Central, with
surplus of $9,s95,0o5; next came the
Big Four. also of the New York Cen
tral system; then the Pere Marquette.
then the New York Central itself and
then the Lackawanna.
On the other side of the books the
lead was taken by the Pennsylvania,
which ran at deficit of $22,674, OCT.
The Baltimore & Ohio was second, with
a deficit of $15,033,071; the Erie third,
at $12,B30,612, and there followed, ali
with deficits above million, the Allan
tic st. Lawrence, the Boston &
Maine, the Buffalo, Rochester & Pitts
burgh, the Jersey Central, the Central
OF Vermont, the Chicago & Eastern H.
linois, the Chicago, Terre Haute &
Southeastern, the Delaware g. Hudson.
the Lehigh Valley, the Maine Central,
the New York, New Haven & Hartford.
the Reading, the Pittsburgh, Cincin-
natl, Chicago & St. Louis, the Toledo &
Ohio Central, the Wabash and the
Western Maryland
The southern district did better. Of
its thirty-fve roads twelve paid fixed
charges and twenty three did not.
Neither the surpluses nor the deficits
run SO large. There were four roads
whlch cleared more than a million:
the Norfolk & Western leading with
S4,6SS,l56 and the others being the
louisville & Nashville, the Richmond,
fredericksburg & Potomac and the
Washington Southern, which operates
only 35 miles of road.
On the debit side were seven which
tailed to clear by a million or more.
the Illinoisc Central leading with a
deficit of s6,790,o01. the Southern next
with $4,661,232 and the Seaboard Air
Line third with S4,225,834 Others in
this class were the Atlanta, Birming-
nam & Atlantic, the Central of Georgia.
the Mobile & Ohio and the Tennessee
Central.
Big Surplus in West
The western district, with the great
transcontinental lines, did a fraction
better than the eastern. in the number
of roads showing credit balances. but
much better than either of the other
e"o on the total transactions. for this
clstrlct turned out net surplus of
S30,625,S41.
Twelve roads are in the surplus COL
umn and thirteen in the deficit list.
Ihe best showing was made by the
onlon Pacific, which cleared $2i,733,-
o.9; Ihe Santa Fe did almost as we'll,
with $2O ,034,O75. The Burlington and
the Duluth, Mesaba & Northern each
cleared above $4,000, 900.
others with more than 81 900. 900 TO
the good were the Chicago & North
western, the Duluth E. Iron Range, the
Fort Worth & Denver City, the Louisi-
ana Western, the Northern Pacific. the
Oregon Short Line, the ST. Louis & San
francisco, the Texas & Pacific and the
Western Pacific.
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
tops the deficit list having run behind
sl2,049,4 ,485; next is the Southern Pa
citic,. which lost s10,752,101; the Mis-
souri, Pacific. short by $4,913, 1872; then
which were short more than $1,000. 600 |
are the Denver G. Rio Grande, the In
ternational & Great Northern, the
& St. Louis. the Minneapo
lis, ST. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie. the |
Missouri, Kansas & Texas (of Texas). |
the Panhandle & Santa Fe, the St. Louis
Southwestern (of Texas), the San An
tonic e. Aransas Pass and the Spokane, |
Portland & Seattle.
The ability of the railroads to meet
their fred charges only has been
shoacn IN this orticle. If they are to
be able to pay dividends. If they are
to be restored TO the earning capacity
they had IN the three years previous
to government control, far greater
deficits than those gives will haze to
be overcome. These deficits, and tho
rate increases which 1Oiu be necessary
to meet them, will be discussed in the
neat article.