SOME FACTS AND PROBLEMS BEARING ON ELECTRIC 
TRUNK-LINE OPERATION. 
By FRANK J. SPRAGUE. 
One of the foremost railroad men of this country, in discussing the 
needs of the present railway system a few months ago, said: 
The only relief which can be obtained through economies of physical opera- 
tion must come through the outlay of enormous amounts of money such as 
would be involved in a general! electrification or a change in gauge. 
At the April meeting of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce another 
eminent railroad official said: 
If the development and expansion of the nation is to go on, if the progress 
made during the last ten years may be accepted as in any respect a measure 
of progress to be made during the coming decade, almost as much money will 
have to be expended in increasing the facilities of existing railroads, and in 
building additional railroads, as has been expended during the eighty years 
since the beginning of the construction of railroads in the United States. 
These opinions are confirmed by still another prominent capitalist, 
who some time ago startled the investing world by his estimate of 
a billion dollar annual expenditure for American railroads, now 
actually shown by detailed estimates. 
But it is especially to be noted that the keynote of the prophecies 
of the future is more specifically sounded in the word capacity, not 
only such as is possible and individual to electric application, but 
also such as is common to the larger developments of railroads, how- 
ever operated. 
How much has been actually spent in steam railroad development 
it is impossible to say, but that it is a stupendous amount, giving 
some suggestion of future capital demands, is evidenced by the 
fact that the total of the outstanding stock, bonds, and other obliga- 
tions of the steam railroads in the United States now aggregate 
about $13,800,000,000; while similar obligations of the electric rail- 
« Apridgment of a paper presented at the 219th meeting of the American Insti- 
tute of Electrical Engineers, New York, May 21, 1907. Reprinted, by permis- 
sion of author and publisher, from the Proceedings of the American Institute 
of Electrical Engineers, July, 1907. 
131 
