Part 1

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

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Footnote anchors in a table are of the form (a) and the corresponding Footnote is placed at the bottom of that table. Other Footnote anchors are of the form [A] with placement at the end of that Chapter.

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More detail can be found at the end of the book.

THE RAILWAY LIBRARY

1909

A COLLECTION OF NOTEWORTHY CHAPTERS, ADDRESSES AND PAPERS RELATING TO RAILWAYS, MOSTLY PUBLISHED DURING THE YEAR.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

SLASON THOMPSON

MANAGER OF THE BUREAU OF RAILWAY NEWS AND STATISTICS CHICAGO

CHICAGO THE GUNTHORP-WARREN PRINTING CO 1910

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION 3

PRE-RAILWAY ERA IN AMERICA 5 By F. A. Cleveland and F. W. Powell.

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY 21 By J. Edgar Thomson.

RAILWAYS AND THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 45 By James J. Hill.

SOUTHERN RAILWAYS AND THEIR NEEDS 58 By John F. Wallace.

PROBLEMS CONFRONTING AMERICAN RAILWAYS 66 By Daniel Willard.

THE RAILROAD SITUATION OF TO-DAY 80 By Frank Trumbull.

TRANSPORTATION CHARGE AND PRICES 90 By Logan G. McPherson.

THE FREIGHT RATE PRIMER 107 Issued by the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co.

PROGRESSIVE SAFETY IN RAILWAY OPERATION 116 By A. H. Smith.

RAILWAY MAIL PAY 142 By Julius Kruttschnitt.

THE DIMINISHED PURCHASING POWER OF RAILWAY EARNINGS 165 By C. C. McCain.

THE RAILROADS AND PUBLIC APPROVAL 199 By Edward P. Ripley.

RAILROADS AND THE PUBLIC 205 By John C. Spooner.

RAILROAD PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 211 By J. B. Thayer.

THE RELATION OF THE RAILROADS TO THE STATE 220 By W. M. Acworth, M. A.

RAILWAY NATIONALIZATION 238 By Sir George S. Gibb.

CONCERNING ADVANCES IN RAILWAY RATES 261 By the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, 1909.

STATISTICS OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS FOR 1909 291 By Slason Thompson.

I Mileage in 1909 306

II Equipment 314

III Employes and their Compensation 321

IV Capitalization 337

V Cost of Construction 342

VI Ownership of American Railways 345

VII Public Service of the Railways 346

VIII Earnings and Expenses 358

IX Taxes 363

X Damages and Injuries to Persons 365

XI Locomotive Fuel 367

XII The Safety of American Railways 368

XIII Railway Receiverships in 1909 384

XIV Cost of Railway Regulation 385

XV Statistics of Foreign Railways 386

XVI Growth of Railways 391

Recommendations 393

INDEX 395

INTRODUCTION

In the following pages is presented a number of the more timely papers and addresses of the year 1909 on the present railway situation, together with chapters from two books of current interest on the same subject. As the object of the compilation has been to present in permanent and accessible form information in regard to American railways worthy of more than the ephemeral life of newspaper or pamphlet publication, it has been thought well to accompany the messages of today with a brief glance at the conditions on this continent before the days of railways. Happily for this purpose the first two chapters of Messrs. Cleveland and Powell's "Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States," fresh from the press, afforded the very background needed, and the first report of the engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad provided the glasses through which the reader can look forward from the small beginnings to what is now known as the greatest railway system on the globe.

After this study of conditions as they were, and of the opportunities that invited the railway pioneers of 1848, it is instructive to read the utterances of the latest of our empire builders, whose foresight and indomitable will anticipated the development of our Pacific Northwest with railway facilities that already lag behind the necessities of its amazing growth.

Of the other addresses and papers it is unnecessary to say more than that they reflect the prevailing sentiments of all thoughtful railway officials respecting conditions of the gravest import to the great industry upon which the entire fabric of our national prosperity and well-being depends. Only the shallowest student of our social, economic and political system can view the persistent attacks upon the American system of transportation without serious alarm for the results. This alarm is the prevailing note of these papers and it comes from men who are at the helm and who see the financial breakers upon which the fierce blasts of political exigency are driving the railways.

The papers by Sir George S. Gibbs and Mr. A. M. Acworth, the leading authorities on British railways, discuss the alternative to wisely regulated railways--nationalization of railways. With a continuance of unwise and burdensome regulation of railways, which strips responsibility of all discretion, nationalization is inevitable.

The Bureau's statistics of American railways for the year ending June 30, 1909, is included in THE RAILWAY LIBRARY because it affords the latest data not only as to the railways of the United States but for the world.

Acknowledgments are made to the authors and publishers of the various papers, and especially to the publishers of the two works from which important chapters have been extracted by their courteous permission, as well as that of their authors.

If this publication fulfils the purpose of its compilation, it will be succeeded by annual volumes of like character under the same title.

S. T.

Chicago, June 1, 1910.

PRE-RAILWAY ERA IN AMERICA

From Chapters I and II of "Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States," by F. A. CLEVELAND and E. W. POWELL. Longmans, Green & Co., 1909.

(By permission of the authors.)

Inland transportation, as we know it, is the product of the last century. It had its beginning in the industrial revolution. In England at the close of the eighteenth century the manor as a productive agency had been supplanted by a system of domestic production, and this in turn was giving place to the factory. The combined influences of increasing capital and invention had operated to centralize the industrial population in the towns. Ocean commerce was comparatively well developed, and manufacture was fast being established upon a modern basis; but inland transportation was still encumbered by such primitive methods as to make difficult the utilization of the resources of the interior. A century and a half before, Lord Bacon had called attention to the three great elements necessary to make a nation great and prosperous--"a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance of men and things from one place to another,"--but the significance of this reflection was not appreciated until after the middle of the eighteenth century. The controlling force of custom--social inertia--had stood in the way of progress.

IN ENGLAND.

Until about the opening of the nineteenth century the principal manufacturing towns of Great Britain were situated on or near the coast; for in the inland country goods were still carried on the backs of men, or hauled in carts over heavy roads. Said Lardner: "The internal transport of goods in England was performed by wagon, and was not only intolerably slow, but so expensive as to exclude every object except manufactured articles, and such as, being of light weight and small bulk in proportion to their value, would allow of a high rate of transport. Thus the charge for carriage by wagon from London to Leeds was at the rate of £13 ($63.31) a ton, being 13½d. (27 cents) per ton per mile. Between Liverpool and Manchester it was 40s. ($9.60) a ton, or 15d. (30 cents) per ton per mile. Heavy articles, such as coal and other materials, could only be available for commerce where their position favored transport by sea, and, consequently, many of the richest districts of the kingdom remained unproductive, awaiting the tardy advancement of the art of transport."

IN AMERICA.

Before the Revolution the American colonists lived in almost complete isolation. Travel by land was limited, for water communication presented fewer obstacles to progress. Population was arranged along the seaboard, or in isolated groups a short distance inland. Living narrow, self-centered lives, each community developed a distinct dialect and characteristic customs and dress. Social activities were limited to going to mill, market and church, or exchanging friendly calls; traveling on foot or on horseback along wooded trails. Even between seacoast towns there was little interchange of products or population; and a citizen of one colony going to another was at once struck with the many local peculiarities. It was less than twenty years before the Revolutionary war when the first stage line was opened between New York and Philadelphia, and three days were then required for a single trip. It was ten years later when the first stage line was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

METHODS OF TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT.

Between towns of considerable size there were country roads over which vehicles could pass when the weather would permit. The stage coach, which was the only public land conveyance, plied along the coast and between a few inland centers, but the coaches of that day were rude boxes swung on wheels by leathern straps instead of springs, with seats for a dozen or more and accommodations for a limited amount of baggage. The rate of travel was from two to six miles an hour, according to the condition of the roads and the importance of the route. On the farm the mud-boat or stone sledge was in common use, and at times it was even employed to carry produce to local markets. In more progressive communities two-wheeled carts and wagons were to be found. The best of roads, however, were nothing but "mud roads"; and the wagons, commonly of the linchpin type, were clumsy and awkward. Some of the more primitive wagons had wheels made of cross sections of trees, trimmed and centered to roll on axles of wood. Those who traveled had little thought of time; companionship found expression in story-telling, gossip and tippling; and an emergency which required all to get out and "take a wheel" only added spice to the trip.

We have the following description of the roads about Philadelphia, the metropolis and commercial center of the New World: "On the best lines of communication the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous. * * * Near the great cities the state of the roads was so bad as to render all approach difficult and dangerous. Out of Philadelphia a quagmire of black mud covered a long stretch of road near the village of Rising Sun. There horses were often seen floundering in the mud up to their bellies. On the York road, long lines of wagons were every day to be met with, drawn up near Logan's hill, while the wagoners unhitched their teams, to assist each other in pulling through the mire. At some places, stakes were set up to warn teams of the quicksand pits; at others, the fences were pulled down, and a new road made through the fields." Transportation facilities were either entirely lacking or such as to make travel both expensive and hazardous. It is difficult to realize that as late as 1780 the roads over a large part of Pennsylvania were narrow paths which had been made through the woods by Indians and traders.

ABSENCE OF ROADS IN THE INTERIOR.

The isolation of interior settlements finds apt illustration in the Wyoming valley. This rich region along the Susquehanna had been until 1786 almost completely cut off from the outer world. A small colony had moved in from the East, and taking color of title from Connecticut, disclaimed the sovereignty of the Quaker proprietary. War consequently broke out between this isolated settlement and the Pennsylvania government. Several military expeditions were sent out to reduce the "Yankees" to submission; but the absence of roads and the necessity of carrying provisions on horseback left the determined pioneers masters of the situation when the larger issue, the Revolutionary war, suspended local strife. The spring after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga the settlers of the Wyoming valley learned that a detachment of Johnson's "Royal Greens" and Butler's "Rangers," with a company of Tories, had allied themselves with the Seneca Indians, and were preparing to descend upon the valley. A courier was despatched to congress, and appeals for aid were made to the neighboring states, but the isolation which had before served for defense now brought disaster. With the June freshet the British allies came down from Tioga, and nothing but ruins were left to mark the scene. One of the reasons urged for the removal of the state capitol from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in 1799 was the cost of travel, which bore heavily upon legislators from the interior.

THE ROADS OF NEW ENGLAND.

The early settlers of Springfield, Massachusetts, were obliged to send their household goods from Roxbury around by way of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut river, but they themselves were able to proceed on foot along an Indian trail. In time this trail was widened, and as the "Bay path" and the "Boston road" occupied an important place among the transportation routes of the colonies. It was, however, little more than a narrow wagon path until after the Revolution, and so indistinct was it that travelers frequently wandered off the route. A curious stone post marks the place near the national armory at Springfield, where in 1763 a western Massachusetts merchant lost his way, and set up a guide for other travelers. Even as late as 1795 there were but two stages between Boston and New York, and a week was required for the journey. John Bernard, the English actor, thus described a typical New England road in 1797: "Though far better than in any other quarter of the Union, the frequent jolts and plunges of the vehicle brought it into sad comparison with the bowling-greens of England. Very often we surprised a family of pigs taking a bath in a gully of sufficient compass to admit the coach. As often, such chasms were filled with piles of stones that, at a distance, looked like Indian tumuli. The driver's skill in steering was eminent. I found there were two evils to be dreaded in New England traveling--a clayey soil in wet weather, which, unqualified with gravel, made the road a canal; and a sandy one in summer, which might emphatically be called an enormous insect preserve." Such testimony makes real the difficulties which attended travel over the important routes, and enables one to understand how it could have required Washington nearly two weeks to make the trip from Philadelphia to Cambridge at the outbreak of the Revolution.

AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

Before the Revolution the subject of road improvement was seldom considered in public assemblies, and the early laws contain few provisions even for common roads. Those who proposed measures for general improvement met with little encouragement. As early as 1690 William Penn suggested the practicability of a waterway from the Schuylkill to the Susquehanna. In 1762 David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, and Provost Smith of the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a similar project, and made surveys of the route by the Swatara and the Tulpehocken; in 1769 the American Philosophical Society interested itself in a canal survey between Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware, recommending the enterprise to the public. In 1768 Governor Moore of New York projected a canal around the Canajoharie Falls of the Mohawk. But to none of these suggestions was there any active response, for the time was not ripe for such undertakings.

Contributing to the road-making impulse immediately after the war of independence was a newly awakened community interest. At the time of the adoption of the constitution there were two distinct classes in the United States: a highly localized class of the seaboard and of the inland trade routes, and a widely distributed agricultural class. American commerce was largely confined to American products. England, France and Holland monopolized the trade of their colonies, and in other ways favored their own merchantmen in foreign trade. Such being the condition, our commercial advantage lay in the development of our own resources. The settlement of the Middle Atlantic states and of the valleys of the interior only served to strengthen the interdependence of the people, who found a common interest in internal improvements. To the agriculturist, cheap conveyance to market was a prerequisite to profitable industry. To the commercial class on the seaboard and on the leading trade routes, inland improvement was at that time no less important.

FIRST ERA OF ROAD MAKING.

There was a notable change in the popular attitude toward road making after the war, and all public-spirited men now saw in better means of communication an instrument for the establishing of American supremacy over the western continent. Legislatures made generous appropriations for highways. An active migration set in from New York and northern Pennsylvania to the West. In 1738 the first regular mail service was established between Albany and Schenectady. In 1793 the horse path from Albany to the Connecticut valley was widened to a wagon road. Like activity in road making was shown throughout southern and western New York, middle Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

In 1785 Pennsylvania appropriated $10,000 to lay out a road from a point near the mouth of the Juanita to Pittsburgh. In 1786 an act was passed appropriating $1,500 "to view and open a road from Lehigh Water Gap to Wyoming," which was the first road into that valley from the Delaware. In 1787 another road was authorized between the Susquehanna and the Delaware. Activity in opening communication with the interior increased until by 1791 the movement had assumed proportions to be styled a "mania." By a single act over $150,000 was appropriated for the improvement of eleven rivers and over a score of roads in different parts of the state. Other acts were passed at the same session, granting charters and appropriations for various transportation enterprises. New York in 1797 authorized the raising by _lotteries_ of $45,000 for the improvement of various roads throughout the state. As if by common impulse, all the states now became interested in road improvement, and congress was asked to aid by this means the opening up of the resources of the interior.

BEGINNING OF THE CANALS AND PIKES.

The low cost of water transportation had early directed popular attention to canals as a means of overcoming obstructions in natural water courses, thereby serving the needs of the inland population, and also providing the means for diverting trade from one seaport to another. The Revolutionary war was hardly over when Charles Carroll organized a company to open a canal about the obstructions in the lower Susquehanna.

Those who took the most active interest in canal construction at this time were men who, like Washington, viewed the future with patriotic interest. This interest, however, was one which did not appeal to the private investor. An enterprise based upon such public consideration required government support.

This period also marked the beginning of turnpike construction. The first turnpike road in this country of which we have a record was built between Alexandria and the Lower Shenandoah. It was begun in 1785-6, and its completion was the cause of great satisfaction to Jefferson and other public-spirited men of Virginia, who had labored in the cause of a "broader national life." Alexandria was at that time an important competitor of the other seaboard cities. Across the Maryland peninsula on the Chesapeake lay Baltimore, a commercial rival of both Alexandria and Philadelphia. In 1787 the grand jury sitting at Baltimore called attention to the deplorable condition of the roads leading to that city, and urged the authorities to take immediate action. As a result, the county government ordered the old Frederick, Reistertown and York roads turnpiked at public expense. To the west of Philadelphia lay the Susquehanna valley. The natural outlet of this growing region was down the Chesapeake to Baltimore. To attract traffic to the Quaker City a company was organized in Philadelphia in 1792 to build the Lancaster pike, which was the first turnpike in this country built by voluntary subscription.

EFFECT OF EUROPEAN WARS ON AMERICAN SITUATION.

The outbreak of the European wars in 1793 was followed by a marked change in the American industrial situation. The immediate effect upon the grain growing of the West was to increase the demand for wheat. Prices of cereals rose to twice their former height. The average price of flour during the seven years from 1785 to 1793 had been about $5.40 a barrel; the average price from 1793 to 1806 (the two years of peace, 1802 and 1803, excluded) was $9.12. Such was the inducement to grain growing during this period.

Back from the North Atlantic coast radiated rich valleys--large tracts of agricultural lands which were well adapted to grain growing. A rush set in for the unclaimed resources of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and for a time the tide of migration moved to the westward along the Ohio, and the border of the Great Lakes. Those who cultivated lands near the coast shared in the increased prosperity due to the European disturbance, but unless they could obtain better means of transportation, those who had located inland soon found that they could profit little. Grain as compared with cotton and tobacco was a low priced product. At best, the cost of transportation was ten dollars a ton for each hundred-mile haul; in many places it was much higher.

AMERICANS TURN TO HOME MARKETS.