CgikMit£^ 3g!Bai<^3?S;Ea5stiaBa?az3g<tsJ a j JH lta5a t,j-^j£ ag^^ 



THE FARMERS 



:? 5 



GISTEH. 



Vol. VH. 



AUGUST 31, 1830. 



iNo.8. 



EDMUND R U f F I N, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



r;AIL-ROAI5S JX THK KlXGlU)iM OF BKLCtU.M 

 COillPARKD V,!TH THOSK liV T!iE UKITKD 



statj:s. 



Ej' liie Chevalier De Gerstner. 



The rnpid increase of inlornal improvenienls in 

 I lie United Stales has excited lor several years 

 public attention in !Onrope. and the friends ol'lliose 

 ituprDvenienis desired very much a detailed report 

 on the extent and progress of those works, and 

 particularly ot' rail-mads. Tiiere is no such report 

 published in the United States, and even liiose 

 pnhli-^iied in England, France, and Germany, are 

 very iuiperfert. 



in 1S24 I had chaffre of the first rail-road on the 

 roniiiicnt of Europe to connect the rivers Moirhiu 

 and S^anuhe in Austria, hy a line which is 130 

 Miile-! loniT, and since 1832 in operation. I con- 

 sn-ucled in 1S3G and 1837 the first rail-rouil in 

 Rupsia, Ihim St. Petersbnror lo Zarskoe-Sido and 

 PawlowsK, a line o! only 17 miles in ienjith, but 

 the commencement ol' a rail-road o(" 420 miles 

 iVom St. Petersbur<r to Moscow. This rail-road 

 being likewise in Cull operation, I left Europe last 

 fall, and arrived in the Great Western on tiie 15th 

 of November 1838, at New York. After a short 

 stay of a lew days, ! went to Alban}-and inspected 

 nil rail-roads between that place and Lake Erie ; I 

 then proceeded to the eastern stales and visileii 

 all rail-roads in Massachusetts, ami went via 

 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, 

 ihrouixh Viririiiia, North and South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Alabama, to New Orleans, always 

 visiting the rail-road lines in the different stales. 

 I went then up the Mississippi and Ohio, and am 

 now inspecting the internal improvements of the 

 western states and some of those in Pennsylva- 

 nia, which I liave not yet seen. 



I have already passed over more than 2000 

 toiles ol' rail-roads, and have every where been re- 

 reived with the greatest kindness; the presidents, 

 directors and engineers^ of the different rail-road 

 lines gave me not only nil their printed reports, 

 but laid before me, with the greatest liberality, 

 their books and accounts, in order to give me every 

 kind of information. I fulfil only my duty when 

 I pnblickly ai'knowledge that such a liberality 

 is only lo be found amongst a free and enlightened 

 peofile, where all public works are based orr the 

 principle of publicity, and where secrets do not 

 exist. I wish, theretbre, to make those gentlemen, 

 to whom 1 am so much indebted, anothe;' com- 

 munication, which will show at the same time 

 what has been done during the last years in Europe. 

 Having within a lew days received llie last re- 

 ports of the Belgian rail-roads, I publish in the 

 i'ollowing abstract the history and progress of those 

 communications in Eeloiium, together with a com- 

 parison of ihein with the American rail-ro;'.ds. 



Accordiiig to the facts collccteii during my tr'a- 

 vels since my arrival in New York, there are now 

 over three thousand miles of rail-roads completed 

 and in operation in the United States; 425 lo. omo- 

 tives, of which the greatest number were made in 

 *his rountrv, run on the sevetal rail-roads ; and i 

 Vol. VU--57 



believe, that np to the end of 1839, the length of 

 rail-roads in the Utrited Stales may amount to 

 4100 miles. The capital expended on itie rail- 

 roads now in operation is about sixty millions of 

 dollars, or at an average cost of twenty thousand 

 dollars per mile, for which sum the rail- i-oads, with 

 the buildings, have been constructed, and the ne- 

 cessary locomotives and cars bought. 



Several rail-roads have been undertaken with 



insufflcient means, and the shareholders found 



I themselves under the necessity of employing the 



j income of the first years in impn)ving the rail-road", 



j in building engine-houses, &c. and pm'chasing 



I locomotives and care. In consequence of this, the 



shareholders got during that time no dividends, 



' but the rail-road still yielded a good income. Other 



I rail-roads, when finished, paid from five to ten 



I per cent, income to the sfockliolders; others have 



not yet paid any dividends for want of a sufficient 



number of passengers and fi'eight. The average 



result of the rail-roads now in operation in the 



United Slates is, that they give a yearky interest 



of five and a half per cent, on the capital invested. 



This result must be regarded as very satisfactory, 



because the greatest part of the lines have only 



been a few years in operation. 



On all lines there is a yearly increase of at leaet 

 15 to 20 per cent, in the gross inromc, so that even 

 those lines which do not pay now, will give, in a 

 few years, a handsome dividend. According to 

 ^hese statements, based on the communication^ 

 collected in this country, I have no iloubt, that 

 the large capital invested in rail-roads, in the 

 United States, will not only produce an incalcu- 

 able benefit to the country, but likewise pay the 

 shareholders a dividend, which under good man- 

 agement, by the constant pro^^ress in poulaiion 

 and trade, must likewise from year to year increase. 

 A good book-keeping, and clear accounts, is in 

 every business a matter of importance; rail-roads 

 are new constructions, and experience, particulalsly 

 in working them, is still very much wanted. When 

 the superintendent of a rail-road in operation kcepa 

 clear and distinct accounts, he ^-ill in a few yeara 

 le'irn bv experience what can be improved, and 

 which items of expenses can be reduced. The 

 following statement contains a manner of making 

 the rail-road accounts, which in my opinion must 

 prove very useful lor every rail-road company. 



I. History, length and cost of construction of the 

 jBelgian rail-roads. 



The rail- roads, which up to the present tiirig 

 have l>epn constructeil in En<zland and on the con- 

 tinent of Europe, had no other object than lo con- 

 nect tivo important places of" the country, and in 

 constructing them, therelbre, only a local interest 

 more or less prevailed. That gpil roads nro to 

 be considei'ed as great thoroughfares, that they can 

 form in a country the principal lines of interna! 

 communication — that, theref^ire, (he means /of 

 their establishment shoold be such, as only can 

 be raised by a whole nation, nobody in Europe, 

 would maintah) previous to the year 1834, and \m 

 p\en now denied by mativ individuftis of hij^.h 



