Evening star., 1926-09-22
PUBLIC TRAVELLING
MORE ANDLONCER
Pullman Report Shows Bene-
fit Railroads Are Getting
From New Habit.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

special DlSpatCn TO Inc star.
NEW YORK, September 22.--
Travelling has become habit with
the American people, to the tremen
dOus benefit Of the railroads of this
country. This was shown conclusive
ly today by the report Of the Pullman
Co. for the fiscal year ending July 81.
During the II months ended on that
date Pullman revenue passengers
tOtaled 36,231 ,488, an increase or
1,716,223 over the preceding year.
These passengers travelled a total
Of 14,479, ,249.784 miles, or ,056 1898, ,251
miles more than in the preceding year.
This was an average distance of 400
miles per passenger, a gain of IL
miles each. The daily average of
Pullman passengers now is' around
100, 900 mark. Gross receipts from
the operation of sleeping cars and
parlor cars for the year amounted to
$50, ,831275, making it the largest year
in the 59-year record OF the Pullman
Co. from the point of view of total
receipts and number of cars operated.
Increase in Long Hauls.
The report says that an important
factor in the establishment Of these
records was the great increase in the,
long haul convention and vacation
travel to the Pacific Coast and South
ern points. Each Pullman car
Travelled an average of 1874 100 miles.
or bout 422 miles day: rms
is about 12 miles more than the daily
average for the previous fiscal year.
OF the $9O.S31.275 in gross revenue
from car operation. $9,701,S was
paid to the railroads as their share of
the Pullman revenue, while surcharge
PAYMENTS amounted to about $40O00,-
600 In addition to this sum, 1t be-
comes evident that the carriers OBJ
tanned approximately 31a cents mile
or more for each of the 14,479,249. .7o4
miles the Pullman passengers Travelled
This helps to explain the present
prosperity Of the majority OF the
American class l roads, althougn
freight revenue and non-Pullman pas
sengers are generally regarded as the
main sources Of railroad revenue.
Net Income Increasing.
The latest reports of the more prom
inent roads show that the net operat-
ing income of the majority Of them is
increasing. For the first six months OF
this year that item which means op-
Grating profit amounted to S494,eo''-
219. or only about 1OO,OO0.O0 less
than for the entire year of 1928.
1t has ben a great year for the
Government as we'll as for the rail
roads. In the last IA months the car
riers have repaid the Government
more than $26, 6,000,0 900 on loans made
to them as a result of the taking over
of roads by the Government during
the war and their return. When the
railroads were returned to private
MANAGEMENT after the war they had
pledged more than $3.50 100000 to the
Government, and they had to pay b
per cent interest on these debts.
At the end of the last Government
fiscal year this debt had been re-
duced to $299.112,S50. and a further
reduction of 81 900, 900 has been made
since June 80. In other words. the
carriers have been able to pay in the
last two months more than half what
they could spare to amortiZe their
Federal debt in the II months pre-
vious.
Government Getting Its Share.
Some of the carriers are making
more than the allotted per cent
Under the Esch- -Cummins act half
of all profits of the carriers above 6
per cent goes to the Government. The
United States Treasury is getting
these payments, but under vigorous
protest.
Nobody seems to agree on the
proper valuation of railroads. This
was shown in Chicago this week
when the bondholders' defense com
mittee of the Chicago, Milwaukee and
st. Paul road protested vigorously
in the Federal Court against the low
valuation placed on the road by ex
perts employed by the reorganization
managers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and
the National City Co.
If the protests against these excess
profits payments are sustained, some
Of the holders Of railroad securities
will have a juicy melon to cut, but
any such division will probably be
long delayed by legal actions and
appeals