1907.] 



HAUPT— TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



177 



Tonnage Carried. 



Tons. 



Ton-miles, etc. 

 Tons per mile. 



755,799,883 



83,567,770,801 



4,362 



1,435,321,748 

 187,375,621,537- 



6,681 



679,521,865 

 98,807,850,736- 

 2,418 



90 

 [II- 



57 



Rolling Stock. 



Locomotives. 

 Freight cars. 

 Tractive Power. 



36,610 



,230,798 



13,700 



49,616 



[,757,105 

 28,700 



13,006 



526,307 



15,000 



35 



43 



109 



Thus while the mileage has not even kept pace with the increase 

 of population the tonnage has multiplied five fold. This has been 

 met by increasing the number and capacity of the freight cars as 

 well as the weight and tractive power of engines, requiring in 

 many instances large expenditures for betterments in track and 

 equipment. 



But still the cars accumulate in yards and sidings and it is found 

 that while the actual average haul of 130 miles can readily be 

 covered in eight hours after the train is made up that the delays in 

 the loading, unloading, assorting and storing of these multitudinous 

 units requires from six to eight days which reduces the actual 

 efficiency down to only about six per cent. To increase the number 

 or capacity of the cars would not relieve the congestion, but as about 

 one half of the tonnage is coal and ore it would be greatly simplified 

 if these products were carried on the restored water channels which 

 they once followed at lesser cost to the consumers. 



It is worthy of note that this enormous railroad system for the 

 carriage of interstate commerce, has been developed mainly by 

 the contributions of moneys from public and private investors, 

 amounting to more than sixteen and a quarter billions of dollars, 

 entrusted to corporations, exercising the rights of eminent domain 

 under state and national authority, and it has covered the populous 

 sections of the country with such a ramification of roads as to leave 

 little opportunity for additional, independent lines to be built. In 

 the more sparsely settled west the increase is still progressing with 

 the result of adding more traffic to the already engorged roads as 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, XLVI. 185L, PRINTED JULY 16, I907. 



