654 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (RAILROADS TREATIES.) 



international money-orders numbered 1,247,888, 

 and their amount was $20,072,613. 



Telegraphs and Telephones. The Western 

 Union Telegraph Company had a network of 

 193,589 miles of land wires and cables, with 972,- 

 766 miles of wire in 1901, in which year the num- 

 ber of messages transmitted was 65,657,049. The 

 receipts were $26,354,150, and expenses $19,668,- 

 902. The average toll per message was 25.1 cents. 

 The Postal Telegraph Company also has wires 

 covering parts of the United States. 



The American Telephone Company in 1901 had 

 1,348 exchanges, 1,427 branch offices, 627,897 miles 

 of wire on poles, 16,833 miles of wire on buildings, 

 705,269 miles of underground wire, and 4,203 miles 

 of submarine wire, making a total of 1,354,202 

 miles of wire. The total number of circuits was 

 508,262; the number of stations, 800,880; persons 

 employed, 32,837; number of instruments rented, 

 1,952,412; number of daily conversations in the 

 United States, 5,668,986; number per annum, 

 over 1,825,000,000; average daily calls per sub- 

 scriber, 7.1. The capital of the company is $89,- 

 100,500. The long-distance telephone-lines on 

 Jan. 1, 1901, had a total length of 12,427 miles, 

 with 167,410 miles of wire and 359 offices. There 

 are in the larger cities private branch exchanges 

 used by the principal business houses. Independ- 

 ent telephone companies are in operation in every 

 part of the country. 



Railroads. The railroads of the United States 

 in 1901 had a length of 192,162 miles, besides 

 65,691 miles of second tracks and sidings, which 

 make the total length of track 257,853 miles, of 

 which 239,629 miles were laid with steel and 18,- 

 224 miles with iron rails. There were 38,065 

 locomotive engines. The number of passenger 

 ears was 26,786; baggage and mail cars, 8,200; 

 freight-cars, 1,350,258; total number of cars, 

 1,385,253. The number of miles of railroad oper- 

 ated in 1901 was 191,862. The passenger-train 

 mileage was 373,226,581; freight, 513,667,388; 

 mixed, 20,702,172; total, 907,596,141 miles. The 

 number of passengers carried was 584,695,935; 

 passenger mileage, 16,313,284,471; tons of freight 

 moved, 1,071,431,919; freight mileage, 141,162,- 

 109,413. The bonded debt was $5,758,346,250; 

 unfunded debt, $328,963,335; current accounts, 

 $422,262,823; sinking and other funds, $114,800,- 

 860; total liabilities, $12,428,966,022, balanced by 

 $10,484,430,907 expended in construction, $1,766,- 

 493,090 of other investments, $328,994,626 of sun- 

 dry assets, $188,922,213 of current accounts, and 

 $339,944,815 of surplus assets. The earnings from 

 passengers in 1901 were $331,402,816; from 

 freight, $1,052,835,811; miscellaneous earnings, 

 $117,456,751; total revenue from traffic, $1,501,- 

 695,378; net earnings, $483,247,526; receipts from 

 other- sources, $67,772,934; total available reve- 

 nue, $551,020,460. The payments were $214,199,- 

 502 for interest on bonds, $6,315,028 for other in- 

 terest, $119,288,879 for dividends on stock, $46,- 

 153,433 for miscellaneous purposes, $30,248,304 of 

 interest on rentals, $21,054,774 of dividends on 

 leased lines, and $21,200,651 of miscellaneous 

 rentals. The total official mileage reported by 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission was 192,940 

 miles on June 30, 1901, and the unofficial mile- 

 age 405; total, 193,345 miles, showing an increase 

 of 4,051 during the year, making 6.51 miles of line 

 to 100 square miles of territory and 25.44 miles to 

 10,000 inhabitants. In Alaska there are 22 miles 

 of railroad not included in the statistics above. 



Commercial Treaties. The reciprocity agree- 

 ment made with France on May 28, 1.898, on the 

 basis of the Dingley tariff of 1897, reduced the 

 duty on crude tartar from France to 5 per cent. 



ad valorem, on brandy and other spirits to $1.75 

 per gallon, on still wines and vermouth by a 

 small percentage, and on paintings to 15 per cent, 

 ad valorem, in return for which France extended 

 the minimum tariff rates to American canned 

 meats, table fruits, dried fruits, lard, manufac- 

 tured and prepared pork products, hops, paving- 

 blocks, staves, logs, and sawed or squared timber. 

 A reciprocity treaty was concluded with France 

 on July 24, 1899, but the Senate had not ratified 

 it before the close of 1901. The same was true 

 of the reciprocity treaty with the Argentine Re- 

 public signed on July 10, 1899, and of the treaties 

 made with Great Britain for Barbadoes on June 

 16, 1899, for British Guiana on July 18, 1899, for 

 Jamaica on July 22, 1899, and for Bermuda on 

 July 24, 1899. In the reciprocal agreements made 

 with Italy on Feb. 8, 1900, with Portugal on May 

 22, 1900, and with Germany on July 10, 1900, the 

 same concessions are made as to France, in return 

 for which Portugal gives to the United States as- 

 low rates as are accorded to any country except 

 Spain and Brazil on breadstuffs, lard, mineral oil,, 

 agricultural implements, and some classes of ma- 

 chinery for manufacturing; Italy gives reduced 

 duties on cottonseed-oil, fish, machinery, scientific 

 instruments, fertilizers, and skins; and Germany 

 grants to the United. States the same tariff rates 

 as are given to Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary, 

 Roumania, Russia, and Switzerland during the 

 existence of the unexpired tariff treaties with 

 those countries, and annuls the regulations en- 

 forced against the importation of dried fruits 

 from the United States, providing instead of them 

 a system of inspection to prevent the introduction 

 of the San Jose scale into Germany. The reci- 

 procity treaty with France was reported favor- 

 ably to the Senate in April, 1900, and subsequent- 

 ly treaties with Ecuador, Nicaragua, British Gui- 

 ana, Santo Domingo, and the Danish island of 

 Santa Cruz. Treaties with the British West In- 

 dian islands and with the Argentine Republic 

 were not reported before the end of the session 

 of 1900, and when Congress met on March 4, 1901, 

 all the treaties were referred again under the 

 rules to the Committee on Foreign Relations. On 

 March 15 Mr. Hay and Lord Pauncefote signed 

 protocols extending for a year the time allowed 

 for the ratification of reciprocity treaties relating 

 to Jamaica, Bermuda, British Guiana, and the 

 Turks and Caicos islands. 



The imposition of the restrictive duties of the 

 Dingley tariff on Russian beet-sugar provoked the 

 Russian Government to reprisals. The Secretary 

 of the Treasury in February, 1901, announced 

 that Russian sugar would have to pay the in- 

 creased duty of 35 per cent, placed on all sugar 

 coming from countries paying a bounty on ex- 

 ports of sugar. His decision was subject to the 

 decision of the United States Supreme Court on 

 the question whether the excise rebate in Russia 

 constitutes a bounty (see RUSSIA). Although the 

 export of sugar from Russia to the United States 

 is comparatively small, amounting to less than. 

 $23,000 in 1900, the Russian Government imme- 

 diately retaliated by increasing by 30 per cent, 

 the duties on American hardware, steel and iron 

 manufactures, dynamo-electric machines, sewing- 

 machines, and motors and machinery of all kinds. 

 All the principal exports from the United States 

 to Russia were affected, and a large and growing 

 trade, amounting to $10,000,000 a year, was 

 checked by these differential maximum duties, 

 which the Russian Minister of Finance can im- 

 pose or revoke at will, while the Secretary of the 

 United States Treasury must follow the pro- 

 visions of the acts of Congress. In the preceding 



