The most striking feature in this table is the steady advance it shows in the capital cost of German railways. In ten years this has increased from 251,597 marks per kilometer in 1898 to 283,608 in 1908, i. e. 31,731 marks per kilometer or $12,282 per mile. This means an increase of $991,687,440 in capital cost for an increase of only 5,525 miles of line.
[VI]
OWNERSHIP OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS
Returns to this Bureau place the number of stockholders of record at the date of the last election of directors prior to June 30, 1909, of the 368 roads reporting at 320,696. As only 182,046 of the 221,132 miles operated by these roads was covered by the capital stock, this would show 1¾ stockholders for each mile of road and would indicate that there are at least 415,000 stockholders in all the railways of the United States. Owing to the incompleteness of the returns on this subject and the fact that large blocks of stock are held in the names of associations and trustees, it is safe to estimate that the actual ownership of railway stock is distributed among at least 440,000 persons.
In 1905 the Commission reported the number of stockholders of record prior to June 30, 1904, as 327,851, but has given no later figures. It may be of interest to compare these figures with the partial reports to this Bureau since then.
| Year | Number Reporting | Number of Stockholders |
| 1904 | 1,182 roads | 327,851 |
| 1906 | 284 " | 226,986 |
| 1907 | 317 " | 240,554 |
| 1908 | 315 " | 315,727 |
| 1909 | 340 " | 320,696 |
If the ownership of railway bonds, which is even more widely distributed than that of stocks, could be traced, it would be found that over a million investors are interested in the financial welfare of the railways. This would give to each an interest of $13,000, from which the average income is not over $520 a year.
The attempt of the Commission in 1908 to secure evidence that the control of the railways was concentrated in a few hands by calling for a statement of the "ten largest holders of voting securities" of the reporting companies having established that nowhere did they own a majority or an approach to a majority of the controlling stock, inquiry along that line was dropped in 1909.
In railways, as in any republic, the latent power is widely distributed among the many, while the administrative responsibility is necessarily entrusted to the few.