The following statistics concerning it are given in the Railway Age:
| Total mileage, December 18, 1890 | 2,850 |
| Average bonded debt per mile | $18,636 75 |
| Average stock per mile | 7,015 67 |
| Total | 25,652 42 |
| Interest charges per mile | 1,005 76 |
| Dividend charges per mile | 420 94 |
A comparison of these figures with those corresponding of other transcontinental lines is instructive, and is commended to Congressmen who have to deal with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific questions.
Stock and bond inflation, it may confidently be asserted, has created from five to six thousand millions of dollars of fictitious railroad capital. In 1890 the average liabilities of the railroads in the United States, including the capital stock and the funded and unfunded debt, were $63,600 per mile. According to Mr. Poor's estimate of the average cost of American railroads per mile, more than 50 per cent. of this vast sum is pure water. But, as has been stated before, Mr. Poor is partial to the railroad interest, and his estimate of $30,000 a mile is too high for the time at which it was made. Furthermore, railroad building has since then been materially cheapened. Tens of thousands of miles of road have been built in recent years that did not cost to exceed $10,000 a mile. Very recently the Union Pacific Railroad Company proved, before the Board of Equalization at Salt Lake City, by the testimony of engineers, that the average cost per mile of the Utah Central line was only $7,298.20, itemized as follows:
In a recent article Mr. C. Wood Davis states that "many auxiliary lines have been built at costs ranging from $8,000 to $15,000 per mile, and capitalized at two, three, four, and even five times their cost, as in the case of the 107 miles of the Kansas Midland, costing, including a small equipment, but $10,200 per mile, of which 30 per cent. was furnished by the municipalities along its line. Yet, with construction profits and other devices, this road shows a capitalization of $53,000 per mile."
And that "the Missouri Pacific line from Eldora to McPherson, Kansas, a comparatively expensive prairie road, being located across the line of drainage, cost much less than $10,000 per mile, as have thousands of miles of other prairie roads."
It is safe to say that $25,000 is a liberal estimate of the average cost per mile of American roads to the stock-and bondholders, and that their capitalization represents $38,000 of water per mile. The total net earnings of the railroads of the country were $341,666,639 in 1890, and $356,227,883 in 1891, upon an actual investment of only about $4,250,000,000. This is a return of about 8-1/2 per cent. and shows the force of Mr. Poor's statement that, if the water were squeezed out of railroad securities, no better-paying investment could be found in the country.
We often see references to the fact that no dividends are paid upon a large portion of railroad stocks, but there is no reason why dividends should be paid upon many of them, as they represent no capital whatever that has gone into the road. It is probable that not to exceed ten cents on the dollar upon an average was originally paid for these stocks, and the $80,000,000 distributed annually as dividends upon them does not vary much from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. upon the amount actually invested in them.