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twelve hours each, sometimes take each other's places in case of sickness or an unexpected call of a man away from his home, and thus remain on duty thirty-six hours at a time.

This defect in the service, due to overwork, is frequently discovered in conjunction with a deficiency of another sort-inexperience. Men who have been but a few months in the service, and who have yet much to learn concerning some features of their duties, should be required to comply with the rest-time regulation with the most scrupulous care; yet it often happens, as has been shown in the accident records, that new men, admittedly less competent for their duties on that account, are the very ones who have been put to the additional test of working overhours.

In the year now reported the bulletins have shown, for the first time, cases of disaster to freight trains due to the errors of enginemen under the influence of liquor. Accidents are also reported nearly every month in which the engineman or conductor at fault had fallen asleep, although he had not been overworked in the line of duty. His physical disability was due, presumably, to something that was wrong in his condition or conduct while off duty. Investigation by competent experts is needed to enable the public to know the full truth about cases of this kind.

STATISTICS OF RAILWAYS.

PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURES OF RAILWAYS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905.

One of the publications annually issued by the Commission is a brief report on the income accounts of operating roads, which is intended to show, at the earliest practicable date after the end of the fiscal year, the principal items included in railway income accounts. The preliminary report for the past fiscal year includes returns received by December 6 for 752 operating companies representing an operated mileage of 214,477.82 miles, which is presumably about 99 per cent of the mileage that will subsequently be covered by returns in the final report for the same year.

The gross earnings of the railways for the year ending June 30, 1905, on the mileage already stated were $2,073,177,325. This total comprised earnings from the passenger service amounting to $572,109,366, or 27.60 per cent; earnings from the freight service amounting to $1,449,182,702, or 69.90 per cent, and other miscellaneous earnings amounting to $51,885,257, or 2.50 per cent. According to this preliminary report, the gross earnings from operation averaged $9,666 per mile of line. This average is considerably larger than the like average for any other year for which a statistical report has been published by the Commission. The final report for the year end

ing June 30, 1904, showed that the total gross earnings of the railways on 212,243.20 miles of line for that year were $1,975,174,091, being equivalent to $9,306 per mile. Of the gross earnings per mile of line, the passenger service contributed $2,667 and the freight service $6,757. In a general way, it may be said that the several per mile averages shown in connection with the preliminary reports are likely to be somewhat larger than similar averages in the corresponding final reports, in consequence of the fact that the latter include returns for additional roads in which the ratios of the items to the respective mileages are less than the general averages.

The operating expenses of the railways embraced in the current preliminary report amounted to $1,383,584,404, thus averaging $6,451 per mile of line. For the year ending June 30, 1904, the operating expenses reported finally were $1,338,896,253, or $6,308 per mile. This advance report indicates that the ratio of operating expenses to earnings for 1905 was 66.74 per cent. The final report for the year 1904 gave for this item 67.79 per cent. This preliminary report shows that the net earnings of essentially the same roads were, for the year ending June 30, 1905, $689,592,921, and for the year ending June 30, 1904, $634,674,561. The railway companies for which returns are included in this advance report also received $114,636,642 in the form of income from investments in the stocks and bonds of railway and other corporations and from other miscellaneous sources.

The net earnings, as stated above, must be increased by this sum to obtain the entire income which these operating lines had at their disposal for corporate expenditures and for reserve or surplus funds as well. The total income consequently was $804,229,563. The aggregate of all the deductions chargeable against such total income was $713,994,800. The principal items included in these deductions were interest on funded debt, rents of leased lines, permanent improvements charged to income, taxes (which were $58,533,381), and dividends, $196,080,237, as described below. It thus appears that the surplus for the year, resulting from the operations of those roads which the preliminary report covers, was $90,234,763. The complete or final report for the year ending June 30, 1904, covering both operating and leased roads, showed a surplus of $56,729,331, and the like report for the year 1903 showed a surplus of $99,227,469.

As was mentioned above, the preliminary report, from which this abstract is made, shows that the operating companies declared dividends during the year to the amount of $196,080,237; it further shows that the dividends declared by practically the same roads during the year 1904 were $184,313,472. From these figures it appears that there was an increase in dividends of $11,766,765.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the preliminary reports, being confined to the returns of operating roads only, necessarily

exclude all dividends declared by subsidiary companies the property of which has been leased to others for operation. The income of such subsidiary companies is, of course, mainly derived from the rents which they receive from their lessees, from which they make their own corporate expenditures and declare dividends, if any. For the year ending June 30, 1904, the final statistical report showed that the total amount of dividends declared by all the railway companies covered by that report-that is, both operating and leased lines-was $221,941,049.

FINAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1904.

The seventeenth statistical report of the Commission, prepared by its statistician, embracing the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, is, in general, similar to preceding reports in the series and constitutes a volume of 709 pages. A number of tables, containing details of mileage, capitalization, earnings, expenses, etc., by roads, comprise the larger part of the report, though the text contains many summaries of railway statistics.

The following abstract briefly presents some of the important data shown by the report:

MILEAGE AND CLASSIFICATION OF RAILWAYS.

The total single-track railway mileage in the United States on June 30, 1904, was 213,904.34 miles, showing an increase of 5,927.12 miles during the year. This increase is the largest since 1890. The nineteen States and Territories having an increase in mileage exceeding 100 miles were Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. With the exception of street lines, most of the railway mileage in the United States is covered by official reports rendered by the carriers to the Commission.

For the year just named the operated mileage, for which substantially complete returns were made, was 212,243.20 miles, including 6,638.34 miles of line used under trackage privileges. The aggregate length of railway mileage, including tracks of all kinds, was 297,073.34 miles, being classified as follows: Single track, 212,243.20 miles; second track, 15,824.04 miles; third track, 1,467.14 miles; fourth track, 1,046.50 miles, and yard track and sidings, 66,492.46 miles. In the aggregate length of all tracks there was an increase of 13,251.82 miles, of which 4,932.40 miles, or 37.22 per cent, represented the extension of yard track and sidings.

The number of railway corporations for which mileage is included in the report was 2,104. Of this number, 1,086 maintained operating

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accounts, 848 being classed as independent operating roads and 238 as subsidiary roads. Of roads operated under lease or some other form of contract, 318 received a fixed money rental, 147 a contingent money rental, and 257 were operated under various conditions not easily specified. During the year railway companies owning 5,600.18 miles of line were reorganized, merged, and consolidated. For the year 1903 the corresponding item was 10,486.37 miles.

The length of mileage operated by receivers on June 30, 1904, was 1,323.28 miles, showing an increase of 137.83 miles. The number of roads in the hands of receivers was 28, as in the course of the year the receiverships of 6 roads terminated, and 7 roads were placed in charge of the courts.

EQUIPMENT.

On June 30, 1904, there were in the service of the railways 46,743 locomotives, showing an increase of 2,872. These locomotives were classified as passenger, 11,252; freight, 27,029; switching, 7,610. There were 852 locomotives unassigned.

The total number of cars of all classes was 1,798,561, indicating an increase of 45,172 during the year. The assignment of this rolling stock was: To the passenger service, 39,752 cars; to the freight service, 1,692,194 cars, the remaining 66,615 cars being used by the railways in their own service. Cars owned by private companies and firms are not included in this statement. The average number of locomotives per 1,000 miles of line was 220, showing an increase of 6 as compared with the previous year. The average number of cars per 1,000 miles of line was 8,474, showing a decrease of 66. The number of passenger-miles per passenger locomotive was 1,948,384, showing a decrease of 30,402 miles. The number of ton-miles per freight locomotive was 6,456,846, showing a decrease of 351,096 miles.

The aggregate number of locomotives and cars in the service of the railways was 1,845,304. Of this number, 1,554,772 were fitted with train brakes, there being an increase during the year of 92,513; and 1,823,030 were fitted with automatic couplers, an increase of 52,472. Practically all locomotives and cars in the passenger service had train brakes, and of the 11,252 locomotives in that service 11,113 were fitted with automatic couplers. Only 602 cars in passenger service were without automatic couplers. As to freight equipment, it appears that most of the freight locomotives had train brakes and automatic couplers, and of 1,692,194 cars in the freight service on June 30, 1904, 1,434,386 had train brakes and 1,674,427 automatic couplers.

In this report certain summaries, first presented several years ago to show the general type and tractive efficiency of locomotives and the capacity of freight cars, have been continued. In these summaries locomotives are classified as single-expansion locomotives, four-cylin

der compound locomotives, and two-cylinder compound or crosscompound locomotives, each type of locomotives being further classified according to the number of drivers and the number of pilot wheels and trailers. Freight cars are first assigned to seven general classes, and then among the requisite number of subclasses, the lowest of which, Class I, is for cars having capacities in the ten thousands of pounds; Class II, for cars in the twenty thousands of pounds, the other classes successively increasing by 10,000 pounds in limit.

EMPLOYEES.

The number of persons on the pay rolls of the railways in the United States, as returned for June 30, 1904, was 1,296,121, or 611 per 100 miles of line. These figures, in comparison with those for 1903, show a decrease of 16,416 in the number of employees, or 28 per 100 miles of line. The classification of employees includes enginemen, 52,451; firemen, 55,004; conductors, 39,645; and other trainmen, 106,734. There were 46,262 switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen. The four general divisions of railway employment, it appears, required the services of employees as follows: General administration, 48,746 employees; maintenance of way and structures, 415,721 employees; maintenance of equipment, 261,819 employees; and conducting transportation, 566,798 employees. This statement disregards a few employees not assigned.

The present report continues the customary statement of the average daily compensation of 18 classes of employees for a series of years, and also shows the aggregate amount of compensation paid to more than 99 per cent of the number of employees for a period of seven years, excepting 1903, for which the percentage was a little smaller. The amount of wages and salaries paid to employees, as reported for the year ending June 30, 1904, was $817,598,810.

CAPITALIZATION OF RAILWAY PROPERTY.

The par value of the amount of railway capital outstanding on June 30, 1904, was $13,213,124,679, representing a capitalization of $64,265 per mile for the railways in the United States. Of this capital, stock comprised $6,339,899,329, of which $5,050,529,469 was common stock and $1,289,369,860 was preferred; the remaining part, $6,873,225,350 was funded debt, consisting of mortgage bonds, $5,746,898,983; miscellaneous obligations, $723,114,986; income bonds, $229,876,687; and equipment trust obligations, $173,334,694. Current liabilities, which, as a general statement, have relation to the operation, rather than the construction and equipment of a road, for the year 1904 amounted to $881,628,720, or $4,288 per mile of line.

Of the total capital stock outstanding, $2,696,472,010, or 42.53 per cent, paid no dividends. The amount of dividends declared during

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