FOOTNOTES:

[33] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," [page 222.]

[34] The New York elevated roads run 3,500 trains a day, each one passing signals (likely to indicate danger) every hundred rods, almost. Who can expect engineers never to blunder in such innumerable operations?

[35] Mr. Porter King, of Springfield, Mass., who has run an engine on the Boston & Albany road for forty-five years, and who served on the Mohawk & Hudson, the Long Island, and the New Jersey Railroads in 1833–44, when horses were the motive power and the reverse lever consisted of a pair of reins, ran until December, 1887, before his engine ever killed a person.

[36] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," [page 204.]

[STATISTICAL RAILWAY STUDIES.][37]

By FLETCHER W. HEWES.

Railway Mileage of the World—Railway Mileage of the United States—Annual Mileage and Increase—Mileage Compared with Area—Geographical Location of Railways—Centres of Mileage and of Population—Railway Systems—Trunk Lines Compared: By Mileage; Largest Receipts; Largest Net Results—Freight Traffic—Reduction of Freight Rates—Wheat Rates—The Freight Haul—Empty Freight Trains—Freight Profits—Passenger Traffic—Passenger Rates—Passenger Travel—Passenger Profits—General Considerations—Dividends—Net Earnings per Mile and Railway Building—Ratios of Increase—Construction and Maintenance—Employees and their Wages—Rolling Stock—Capital Invested.

Although the United States was the second nation to open a line of railway, it operates to-day nearly half the mileage of the world, and it has so many miles of double, triple, and quadruple track that, were the data of trackage available, such a comparison would undoubtedly show it to more than equal all the rest of the world combined.

Below is given a chart comparing the mileage of the principal railway countries. The list contains all countries having a mileage of over ten thousand kilometers.

Countries.Kilo-Principal Railway Countries, 1887.
meters.
25,000 Kilometers
Italy11,759»»50,000
Australia15,297»»»75,000
Canada19,883»»»»100,000
British India22,665»»»»125,000
Austria-Hungary24,432»»»»150,000
Russia28,517»»»»»175,000
France31,208»»»»»»200,000
Great Britain31,521»»»»»»225,000
Germany39,785»»»»»»»250,000
United States241,210»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

The most prominent fact is impressed by the very long line representing the mileage of the United States. A second impressive fact is that the United States has more than six times the mileage of any other country. A third, that there are but five other countries that have even a tenth as much railway.