To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island: GENTLEMEN:-By the provisions of Section 6, Chapter 187 of the General Laws of this State, it is made a part of the duty of the Railroad Commissioner to report to the General Assembly, at its adjourned session in Providence, the condition and operations of the several railroad corporations organized or doing business in the State, so far as the public interest may require, with such suggestions and recommendations as he may deem expedient. In pursuance thereof I respectfully present the following report. The returns of the several corporations are made as required by law, up to the 30th day of June, 1895; these returns will be found in full in the Appendix to this report, with tables compiled from said returns, giving the principal statistics up to that date. So long a time elapses from the date of these returns to the time of the meeting of the General Assembly, and so many matters of interest occur during that period, that, as heretofore, I have made my general report to comprise the entire year from January 1st, 1895, to the 31st day of December. The general railroad business of the United States has shown a great improvement over that of last year. The number of miles of new railroad constructed has been 1782, a trifle more than in the preceeding year, when only 1761 miles of new track were laid. The difference between this small amount of new mileage and that of the year 1887, when about 13,000 miles of new road were built, is very striking. |