Appendix:
The subjoined chart, reproduced by the Railway Age Gazette from a bulletin of the Bureau of Railway Economics, brings out forcibly the manner in which, within the short time limits of full utilization of plant, a large increase of business can take place without a commensurate growth of expenses. The phenomenon for railroads is of course cyclical. Annually, as here indicated for 1911, the second half of the year is marked by a much heavier movement of traffic, principally, of course, the crops. But expenses never rise in proportion. This is most evident for the eastern group of roads, as here shown. This causes the net revenue curve, also, to vary much more than in proportion to the volume of traffic, in consequence.
Monthly Revenues and Expenses per Mile of Line from 1911 and 1912.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] Illustrated by the seasonal variation of business. Vide appendix to this chapter at p. [100].
[51] Webb, Economics of Railway Construction; originally in Wellington's Economic Theory of the Location of Railways.
[52] Webb, op. cit.; originally from Wellington.
[53] Wall Street Journal, March 25, 1908.
[54] Eaton, Railroad Operations, etc., pp. 44-58.