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miles of line. These figures, when compared with corresponding ones for the year 1902, show an increase of 123,222 in the number of employees, or 45 per 100 miles of line. The classification of employees includes enginemen, 52,993; firemen, 56,041; conductors, 39,741, and other trainmen, 104,885. There were 49,961 switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen. With regard to the four general divisions of railway employment it appears that general administration required the services of 45,222 employees; maintenance of way and structures, 433,648 employees; maintenance of equipment, 253,889 employees, and conducting transportation, 576,881 employees. This statement disregards a few employees of which no assignment was made.

The usual statement of the average daily compensation of the 18 classes of employees for a series of years is continued in the present report, which shows also the aggregate amount of compensation paid to more than 97 per cent of the number of employees for the year 1903, and to more than 99 per cent for the six years preceding. The amount of wages and salaries paid to employees during the year ending June 30, 1903, as reported, was $757,321,415; but this amount, as compared with the total reported for the year 1902, is understated for want of returns by $18,000,000 at least.

The report mentions the fact that the general question of classification of railway employees and the rules for determining an accurate statement of average daily compensation is now under consideration by the committee on railroad statistics of the National Association of Railway Commissioners. This is perhaps one of the most important as well as one of the most difficult questions that arise in connection with the annual reports of the carriers to public officials.

CAPITALIZATION OF RAILWAY PROPERTY.

By the phrase "Capitalization of railway property," as used in the report, is to be understood the par value of negotiable securities; that is to say, the various classes of stock and of funded debt issued by railway corporations.

The par value of the railway capital outstanding on June 30, 1903, was $12,599,990,258, which represents a capitalization of $63,186 per mile for the railways in the United States. Of this capital, $6,155,559,032 existed as stock, of which $4,876,961,012 was common and $1,278,598,020 preferred, and the remaining part, $6,444,431,226, as funded debt, which consisted of mortgage bonds, $5,426,730,154; miscellaneous obligations, $640,704,135; income bonds, $234,016,821, and equipment trust obligations, $142,980,116. Of the aggregate amount of railway capital outstanding on June 30, 1903, it appears that the amount of $2,318,391,953 was owned by the railway companies in their corporate capacity. Current liabilities are not included in railway capital, for the reason that this class of indebtedness has to do with the

operation rather than with the construction and equipment of a read. As a matter of information, however, it may be stated that current liabilities for the year amounted to $864,552,960, or $4,211 per mile of line. Of the total capital stock outstanding, $2,704,821,163, or 43.94 per cent, paid no dividends. The amount of dividends declared during the year was $196,728,176, being equivalent to 5.70 per cent on dividend-paying stock. For the year ending June 30, 1902, the amount of dividends declared was $185,391,655. Of the total amount of stock outstanding, $6,155,559,032, 6.59 per cent paid from 1 to 4 per cent; 13.51 per cent from 4 to 5 per cent; 10.34 per cent from 5 to 6 per cent; 11.39 per cent from 6 to 7 per cent, and 9.10 per cent from 7 to 8 per cent. The amount of funded debt (omitting equipment trust obligations) that paid no interest was $272,788,421, or 4.33 per cent. Of mortgage bonds, $194,295,524, or 3.58 per cent; of miscellaneous obligations, $7,377,925, or 1.15 per cent, and of income bonds, $71,114,972, or 30.39 per cent, paid no interest.

PUBLIC SERVICE OF RAILWAYS.

The number of passengers reported as carried by the railways in the year ending June 30, 1903, was 694,891,535, indicating an increase of 45,013,030, as compared with the year ending June 30, 1902. The passenger mileage, or the number of passengers carried 1 mile, was 20,915,763,881, having increased 1,225,826,261.

The number of tons of freight reported as carried (including freight received from connecting roads and other carriers) was 1,304,394,323, which exceeds the tonnage of the previous year by 104,078,536 tons. The ton mileage, or the number of tons carried 1 mile, was 173,221,278,993, the increase being 15,931,908,940. The number of tons carried 1 mile per mile of line was 855,442, which figures indicate an increase in the density of freight traffic of 62,091 ton-miles per mile of line.

The average revenue per passenger per mile for the year mentioned was 2.006 cents, the average for the preceding year being 1.986 cents. The average revenue per ton per mile was 0.763 cent. This average for the preceding year was 0.757 cent. Earnings per train mile show an increase both for passenger and freight trains. The average cost of running a train 1 mile appears to have increased between 8 and 9 cents. The ratio of operating expenses to earnings, 66.16 per cent, also increased in comparison with the preceding year, when it was 64.66 per cent.

A summary of freight traffic, classified on the basis of a commodity classification embracing some 38 items, is continued for the year under review.

EARNINGS AND EXPENSES.

The gross earnings of the railways in the United States from the operation of 205,313.54 miles of line were, for the year ending June 30,

1903, $1,900,846,907, being $174,466,640 greater than for the previous year. Their operating expenses were $1,257,538,852, or $141,290,105 more than in 1902. The following figures give gross earnings in detail, with the increase or the decrease of the several items as compared with the previous year: Passenger revenue, $421,704,592— increase, $28,741,344; mail, $41,709,396-increase, $1,873,552; express, $38,331,964-increase, $4,078,505; other earnings from passenger service, $9,821,277-increase, $962,508; freight revenue, $1,338,020,026— increase, $130,791,181; other earnings from freight service, $4,467,025— decrease, $379,693; other earnings from operation, including unclassified items, $46,792,627-increase, $8,399,243. Gross earnings from operation per mile of line averaged $9,258, the corresponding average for the year 1902 being $633 less.

The operating expenses were assigned to the four general divisions of such expenses, as follows: Maintenance of way and structures, $266,421,774; maintenance of equipment, $240,429,742; conducting transportation, $702,509,818; general expenses, $47,767,947; undistributed, $409,571. Operating expenses were $6,125 per mile of line, having increased $548 per mile of line in comparison with the preceding year. The statistical report contains an analysis of the operating expenses for the year, according to the fifty-three accounts prescribed in the official classification of these expenses, with the percentage of each item of the expenses as classified for the years 1897 to 1903.

The income from operation or the net earnings of the railways amounted to $643,308,055. This item, when compared with the net earnings of the year 1902, shows an increase of $33,176,535. Net earnings per mile for 1903 averaged $3,133; for 1902, $3,048, and for 1901, $2,854. The amount of income obtained from other sources than operation was $205,687,480. In this amount are included the following items: Income from lease of road, $109,696,201; dividends on stocks owned, $40,081,725; interest on bonds owned, $17,696,586; and miscellaneous income, $38,212,968. The total income of the railways, $848,995,535-that is, the income from operation and from other sources-is the amount from which fixed charges and similar items of expenditure are deducted to ascertain the sum available for dividends. Deductions of such nature totalized $552,619,490, leaving $296,376,045 as the net income for the year available for dividends or surplus.

The amount of dividends declared during the year (including $420,400, other payments from net income) was $197,148,576, leaving as the surplus from the operations of the year ending June 30, 1903, $99,227,469, that of the previous year having been $94,855,088. The amount stated above for deductions from income, $552,619,490, comprises the following items: Salaries and maintenance of organization, $130,427; interest accrued on funded debt, $283,953,124; interest on current liabilities, $9,060,645; rents paid for lease of road, $112,230,384;

taxes, $57,849,569; permanent improvements charged to income account, $41,948,183; other deductions, $47,147,158.

It is perhaps appropriate to explain that the foregoing figures for the income and expenditures of the railways, being compiled from the annual returns of leased roads as well as of operating roads, necessarily include duplications in certain items of income, and also of expenditure, since, in general, the income of a leased road is the rent paid by the company which operates it.

A summary showing the taxes and assessments of the railways by States and Territories, and per mile of line, and also an analysis of taxes showing the basis of payments, according to the various laws under which railways are taxed, are included in the present report.

There is next introduced a summary designed to present an income account of the railways in the United States considered as a systemthat is to say, a statement of earnings and expenses as they would appear were all the railways owned by the Government or by a single corporation. In this statement all duplications, either of earnings or of expenses, arising on account of intercorporate payments, are excluded.

Comparative income account of the railways of the United States, considered as a system, for the years ending June 30, 1903 and 1902.

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2 This amount includes permanent improvements charged to income, miscellaneous deductions and surplus.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

The statements of accidents to persons in the summaries in the statistical report under consideration are presented under the two general

classes, namely, accidents resulting from the movement of trains, locomotives, or cars, and accidents arising from causes other than those resulting from the movement of trains, locomotives, or cars. These classes include all the casualties returned by the carriers in their annual reports to the Commission, whether sustained by passengers, employees, trespassers, or other persons, and for a number of reasons they are not in all respects comparable with others in the bulletins that are based on monthly reports.

The total number of casualties to persons on the railways for the year ended June 30, 1903, was 86,393, of which 9,840 represented the number of persons killed and 76,553 the number injured. Casualties occurred among three general classes of railway employees, as follows: Trainmen, 2,070 killed and 25,676 injured; switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen, 283 killed, 2,352 injured; other employees, 1,253 killed, 32,453 injured. The casualties to employees coupling and uncoupling cars were, employees killed, 281; injured, 3,551. For the year 1902 the corresponding figures were, killed, 167; injured, 2,864. The casualties connected with coupling and uncoupling cars are assigned as follows: Trainmen killed, 211; injured, 3,023; switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen killed, 57; injured, 416; other employees killed, 13; injured, 112.

The casualties due to falling from trains, locomotives, or cars in motion were: Trainmen killed, 440; injured, 4,191; switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen killed, 39; injured, 461; other employees killed, 72; injured, 536. The casualties due to jumping on or off trains, locomotives, or cars in motion were: Trainmen killed, 101; injured, 3,133; switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen killed, 15; injured, 279; other employees killed, 82; injured, 508. The casualties to the same three classes of employees in consequence of collisions and derailments were: Trainmen killed, 648; injured, 4,526; switch tenders, crossing tenders, and watchmen killed, 17; injured, 137; other employees killed, 128; injured, 743.

The number of passengers killed in the course of the year 1903 was 355 and the number injured 8,231. In the previous year 345 passengers were killed and 6,683 injured. There were 173 passengers killed and 4,584 injured because of collisions and derailments. The total number of persons other than employees and passengers killed was 5,879; injured, 7,841. These figures include the casualties to persons classed as trespassing, of whom 5,000 were killed and 5,079 were injured. The total number of casualties to persons other than employees from being struck by trains, locomotives, or cars was 4,534 killed and 4,029 injured. The casualties of this class were as follows: At highway crossings, passengers killed, 3; injured, 7; other persons killed, 895; injured, 1,474; at stations, passengers killed, 24; injured, H. Doc. 146, 58-3-8

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