WHO OWNS THE RAILROADS 343 



roads; fourteen the directors of five roads; thirteen the direct- 

 ors of four roads, and forty the directors of three roads. In 

 brief, eighty six of these 393 directors represented at least 

 three of these important roads, and 192, or nearly one half 

 of the total number, were found to be directors of two of these 

 roads or more. 



In the foregoing paragraphs we have reviewed, as briefly 

 as the subject permits, some of the considerations which assist 

 us in arriving at some conclusion with reference to our subject. 



In the first place, from the evidence submitted it appears 

 that railway stock is to a large extent owned by a great num- 

 ber of holders scattered throughout the country, and repre- 

 senting every stratum of society. The Illinois Central, we 

 saw, stood out conspicuously in its attempt to extend the 

 ownership of stock to its employees. The Boston & Albany 

 and the Boston & Maine railroads likewise had their stock 

 distributed almost entirely among small holders. The Penn- 

 sylvania railroad has its capital stock of $204,000,000 distrib- 

 uted among 29,000 individual stockholders. With reference to 

 the New England railways, we noted that the stock was distrib- 

 uted among at least 70,000 stockholder while the total num- 

 ber of shareholders for the roads of Table I exceeded 144,000. 

 Recognizing that some of these stockholders may in turn 

 represent corporations, it becomes apparent that in our great 

 railways the number of small individual owners is exceedingly 

 large. Indeed, it has been estimated by Mr. George B. Blanch- 

 ard that the total number of holders of railway stock reaches 

 950,000, and that the total number of stockholders and bond- 

 holders combined approximates 1,250,000. 



Secondly, in accordance with the statistics presented, we 

 have determined the average stockholding per holder of rail- 

 ways aggregating approximately $3,822,214,000, or nearly 

 65 per cent of the total railway stock of the country. A sur- 

 vey of the smaller roads showed that outside of the New 

 England states, the average stockholding was comparatively 

 large, ranging from a maximum of $156,638 in Minnesota to a 

 minimum of $15,849 in Virginia. With reference to the more 

 important railways, we noted that the average stockholding 



