RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



671 



British roads, $180,440 ; in German and Aus- 

 trian, $95,422. The passenger receipts, freight 

 receipts, and gross earnings, are respectively : 

 American, $1 T 809, $4,869, and $6,678 ; British, 

 $7,365, $9,469, and $17,531 ; German, $3,278, 

 $7,520, and $11,360. The working expenses 

 are : for American roads $4,246 per mile, for 

 British, $9,649, for German, $6,572. The net 

 earnings are for the three countries respec- 

 tively, $2,432, $7,882, and $4,788. 



The statistics of accidents show very un- 

 favorably for the year. The total number of 

 accidents was 1,201, against 980 in 1874, and 

 1,283 in 1873, a bad year : the number of killed 

 was in 1875, 234, of injured 1,107 ; in 1874, 

 killed 204, injured 778 in 1873, killed 276, 

 injured 1,172. The accidents classed accord- 

 ing to their nature show : of collisions, in 

 1875, 278 ; in 1874, 260 ; in 1873, 392 ; of de- 

 railments in 1875, 840 : in 1874, 654 ; in 1873, 

 815. 



In connection with the question of cheap 

 transportation according to carefully-compiled 

 statistical accounts of the history of freight 

 charges given in the Railroad Gazette, there 

 has been a growing tendency to lower rates ; 

 and rates which have been brought down by 

 sharp competition and in the contests between 

 rival companies, as in the fierce railroad war 

 waged during 1875, show an inclination to 

 keep at a low mark for longer and longer pe- 

 riods. The prices of transportation have de- 

 clined more since the war, it is asserted, than 

 any other article of exchange. The average 

 rates of freight between New York and Chi- 

 cago were : per 100 pounds, eastward, in 

 1866, first class, $1.83$; second class, $1.61$; 

 third class, $1.10 ; fourth class, $0.77 ; in 

 1872, first class, $1.60 ; second class, $1.25 ; 

 third class, $0.85; fourth class, $0.58. A 

 comparison between rates for the same period 

 of the years 1872 and 1875 gives : 1872, first 

 class, $1.60 ; second class, $1.15 ; third class, 

 $0.85; fourth class, $0.50; 1875, first class, 

 $1.50; second class, $1.10; third class, $0.85; 

 fourth class, $0.30. 



The St. Louis Railroad Convention, repre- 

 senting municipalities and commercial boards 

 through the Middle as well as the Southern 

 States, was very earnest in its call upon the 

 Government to aid in building the Texas Pacif- 

 ic Railroad. The convention met in St. Louis, 

 November 23d and 24th. General Anderson, 

 of Richmond, was chosen temporary chair- 

 man, and the following officers were elected : 

 President, Judge Stanley Matthews, of Cincin- 

 nati; Vice-President, General W. M. Preston, 

 of Kentucky; Secretary, John M. Ho well, of 

 Arkansas. The resolutions adopted, extracts 

 from which are presented below, exhibit very 

 explicitly the attitude of these capitalists tow- 

 ard the question of governmental aid to rail- 

 road enterprises. They allege the large sub- 

 ventions which have been granted by the 

 Government to other enterprises as apologeti- 

 cal of their own demands, and say : 



This convention of delegates, duly appointed from 

 thirty-one States and Territories, muny cities and 

 boards of trade 7 merchants' exchanges, and other 

 commercial bodies, constituting a body of 869 dele- 

 gates, representing not only a large proportion of 

 the people of the United States, but of the active 

 producing business of the capital of the country, 

 and now assembled to take action upon the con- 

 struction of a Southern line of railroad to the Pacific, 

 do respectfully represent to the Senate and House 

 of [Representatives of the United States, in Congress 

 assembled, that a Southern transcontinental railway 

 from the waters of the Mississippi, via El Paso, to 

 the Pacific Ocean on or near the thirty-second paral- 

 lel of latitude is imperatively demanded : 



1. As a measure of s^und statesmanship, because 

 it is only by constant intercourse, business and so- 

 cial t that the great States now growing up on the 

 Pacific sJope can be permanently bound in a com- 

 mon interest with our Eastern and Southern com- 

 munities, and it is, therefore, sound policy and a wise 

 foresight to promote the most intimate relations be- 

 tween all the sections of our common country, a 

 necessity already recognized by the Government in 

 its grant of bonds and lands to the Union. Central 

 and^ Kansas Pacific roads, and of lands to other 

 transcontinental lines on the thirty-second, thirty- 

 fifth, and forty-seventh parallels, under the belief 

 that private capital would furnish the needful funds 

 to complete these highways. 



2. As a means of'national defense, because it is 

 the duty of the Government to have a line to the 

 Pacific unobstructed at all seasons of the year for 

 the prompt transportation of troops and supplies, 

 should trouble arise with any foreign country, and 

 the ports and countries of the Pacific coast be ex- 

 posed to insult or attack. 



4. As a measure of practical economy, because, as 

 already shown by the experience of the Pacific road, 

 the expenses of maintaining a military establish- 

 ment for the protection of the Southern territorv 

 against Indian depredations will be largely reduced*. 



5. As a commercial necessity to the twelve million 

 of people inhabiting a belt of country from 400 to 

 700 miles in width and stretching along the entire 

 South Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and old 

 Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. 



6. As a direct saving to the people of the entire 

 country, because it will give a competing line be- 

 tween the two oceans both for the large local and 

 through traffic of this country, and for the great 

 through traffic with the Sandwich Islands, India, 

 China, Japan, Australia, and Western South Ameri- 

 ca, thereby conferring substantial benefits upon the 

 entire nation, and because in this manner the people 

 of this United States will best be protected against 

 a monopoly, to whom they have loaned $55,000,000 

 of six per cent. Government bonds, and made large 

 grants of lands to build the present Pacific line, and 

 for whose benefit the Government is now paying 

 yearly upward of three additional millions out of 

 the Treasury, a corporation that has established ar- 

 bitrary rates for transportation, and is now seeking 

 to perpetuate itself as a close corporation and control 

 the lines, and such as it may hereafter build, in its 

 own exclusive interest, instead of making them an 

 open highway, such as the people of this country 

 have a right to demand. 



7. Because the communication thus established 

 with such rich and productive States of old Mexico 

 would secure a large and lucrative traffic now divert- 

 ed to other countries, and would thereby increase 

 the revenue of the Government. 



8. As a prudential and proper act to encourage the 

 people of the South, who may very justly and with 

 great force urge that, while $175,000,000 of the pub- 

 lic moneys have been appropriated in the Northern 

 States and Territories since the organization of the 

 Government, there have been but $19,000,000 ex- 

 pended on the Southern States and Territories. 



