190 0. P. AUSTIN 



of the railway system in this country, especially after the 

 civil war. The building of railways, interrupted by the civil 

 war, proceeded, as is well known, at a most rapid rate during 

 the last years of the sixties and the decade beginning with 

 the year 1871. From a little over 35,000 miles in 1865 the 

 number of miles of railroad constructed and operated rose 

 to over 103,000 miles in 1881, and over 170,000 in 1891; 

 i.e., had almost trebled within the sixteen years, and grown 

 fivefold within a quarter of a century. The effect of this 

 development on the eastern and central coal producing states 

 (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indian^, and Illinois) was twofold. 

 First, by increasing the demand for iron as material for the 

 construction of the railways, thus adding to the existing 

 demand for coal; and, second, by opening opportunities and 

 outlets to the shipment of coal westward, both for use of 

 the railways themselves and the various industries that 

 sprang up with the advent of the railways. Coal constitut- 

 ing the largest item of expenditure in railway transporta- 

 tion, especially in this country, where distances are greater 

 than anywhere in the world, the railways became naturally 

 interested from the very beginning in obtaining their fuel 

 at the cheapest possible price. This explains the close con- 

 nection of the growth of our railway system with that of the 

 coal industry during the past three decades. 



The railways fostered by all possible means the develop- 

 ment of adjacent coal regions, the more so that normally coal 

 constitutes the most important article of traffic. Thus, 

 according to the data of the United States geological survey, 

 there were transported in 1903 267,690,560 of tons of coal 

 (59,609,457 of anthracite and 208,081,103 of bituminous) out 

 of a total tonnage of 1,300,000,000 carried; in other words, 

 20 per cent of the total freight traffic on railways was fur- 

 nished by coal. The community of interests often changed 

 to identity in cases where the railway companies began to 

 own and operate the mines of the regions through which they 

 passed, thus securing for themselves the double profits of the 

 operator and carrier. At times the railways find it more 

 profitable to transfer the direct control over their mines to 

 a lessee for a number of years, stipulating only the purvey- 



