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As in the case of capitalization, the ten leading roads are the Baltimore and Ohio, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the Erie, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Lehigh Valley, the New York Central and Hudson River, the Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Company, the Philadelphia and Reading, and the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, making up more than a majority of the sum, which represents the total assets of steam railways reporting to this office. The amount of these ten roads closely approaching three thousand millions of dollars.

The following table relating to these ten roads, covers these items of assets for a period of five years from 1902 to 1906 inclusive:

TABLE SHOWING "ASSETS" ON THE LINES OF THE TEN LEADING CORPORATIONS NAMED FOR THE YEARS 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 AND 1906.

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Looking back over a period of nearly twenty years, it is found that in 1887, the total cost of roads owned was $894,834,301, while as before indicated, the amount of such assets now is $2,450,910,596.

Equipment then constituted $118,616,439 of assets, while now equipment reaches $385,996,354 of the total assets.

Here again by comparison, are the evidences of the prodigious advances that have been made in the last two decades in the affairs of the steam railway corporations of Pennsylvania.

STEAM RAILWAY MILEAGE.

In considering the number of miles of railroad in Pennsylvania, or as reported in mileage table designated as consolidated table D, it must be remembered that all this mileage is not within the limits of Pennsylvania. The law requires that all railroads whose lines are in whole or in part within the confines of the State shall make reports to this Department. The total therefore of all mileage shown in consolidated table D contains a large per centage of rail

way mileage outside of the limits of Pennsylvania. This mileage is classified as first main line, of which the total is 9,439 miles; branches and spurs, 3,603 miles; lines of proprietary companies, 4,162 miles; lines operated under lease, 7,186 miles; lines operated under contract, 4,100 miles; and lines operated under trackage rights, 1,188 miles. The total mileage operated is 29,678 miles. Less than half of this total mileage is within the limits of Pennsyl vania, as the total number of miles operated in this State is found to be 11,819.

During the year there have been constructed and placed in operation about 86 miles of new line in Pennsylvania. If comparison be made with the reports for last year, it will be found that there has been a slight falling off in mileage. That is, the figures which denote the total mileage in last year's report and the figures which denote the same for this year's report, show that there was a greater mileage in Pennsylvania last year than this year. This is misleading, not on account of the inaccuracy of the figures, but it is due to a defective way of considering mileage. In one of the classifications, the mileage of trackage rights is given, by which each railroad in the State designates the mileage of other roads over which it passes. For instance, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg road reports a mileage under the head of trackage rights of 125.87 miles. By this it is understood that the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg has a right to pass over so many miles of the track of some other railroad company, and there is therefore a duplication in the totals thus made up. Both the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg, reporting their trackage rights, and the company owning the track include the same in their total mileage. One or two important changes have been made during the year covered by this report by which railroads have abandoned trackage rights, and to that extent the duplication of mileage has been stopped; this, however, results in indicating that there is less mileage in Pennsylvania than a year ago when as a matter of fact, there have been constructed and put in operation 86 miles of new road.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company now has a total mileage operated of 4,029 miles; the Delaware, Lacakawanna and Western, 816 miles; the Erie, 1,881 miles; the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, 1,520 miles; the Lehigh Valley, 1,445 miles; the New York Central and Hudson River, 3,580 miles; the Pennsylvania, 3,927 miles; the Pennsylvania Company, 1,408 miles; the Philadelphia and Reading, 999 miles; and the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, 1,427 miles. As in other salient features of the steam railways reporting to this office, it will be seen that these ten railroads

operate a very large proportion of not only the railroads of Pennsylvania, but of those whose annual reports are filed in this office.

STEAM RAILWAY EQUIPMENT.

Locomotives. There are employed in the railways reporting to this Department, in the passenger and freight service 15,572 locomotives. These great machines are the engines which move the commerce, passing over these great thoroughfares of transportation, and so important a factor are they that were it possible to eliminate them from existence, certain it is that the wheels of progress would stand still and all life in our commercial affairs would be destroyed. One who is thoughtful can scarcely look upon one of these engines of commerce without feeling a spirit of veneration for them and their great importance in all that makes the State and the Nation great. Their prodigious weight and size, their almost limitless power, add immeasurably to the importance of the locomotive. If we stop to contemplate what an important factor the locomotive has been in the subjugation of the savage country, on the plains and in the mountains to the west of the Mississippi and Missouri, of its destruction of distance, of the possibility it has given to enable us to push civilization and commerce through the highest passes of the western mountains and on to the cost of the Pacific, then we shall only increase our veneration for the railway locomotive. Some experienced electrical engineers are of the opinion that the steam railway locomotive's days are numbered; that however great an element it may have been in developing the material and industrial interests of the United States, it is soon to be supplanted by the introduction of electricity, as a power for moving commerce on the lines of our great railways.

It is probably too early to pass with any degree of certainty on the accuracy of the prophecies which are now being made on this subject. That electricty is to encroach on the domain of steam as a power of locomotion can not be questioned for that encroachment has already taken place. Coming events cast their shadows before them when electricity was introduced as power for moving cars on street railways. The advancement has been steady. Electricity was discredited by many of our best engineers at first, but the results accomplished, both with reference to utility and economy, have demonstrated beyond peradventure that the domain of elec trical power is having its bounds rapidly extended, and many who were disinclined to acknowledge its efficiency have since become devotees of electricity, as a motive power even on the longer lines of railroad, roads that are now being operated by steam. The Penn

sylvania, the New York Central and other great railroad corporations are not waiting for developments, but they are developing through experiments the possibilities of electricity as a motive power on their respective roads. Some of the shorter lines are being electrified, and we are in the midst of a period of experimentation. But whatever the results may be, to what extent the power of electricity will displace steam power can scarcely at this time be contemplated. It is not, however, within the bounds of probability that the steam locomotive will be quickly removed from action, for it is certain to remain to perform an important function in the business interests of this country for perhaps decades.

Who can comprehend the power that is displayed by 15,572 steam railway locomotives? Stopping to measure the immensity of their power, a clearer insight may be acquired of the value of the energies these locomotives have expended in the development of all those things which have made the American nation the greatest in the world, at least from a commercial standpoint. Turn back twenty years, during which time there has been such advancement in all the affairs of states and nation, and it is found that the number of steam locomotives then in use was 5,737. Surely these figures indicate that railway managers have not been standing still in providing for the power which has been used during these years in moving the passengers and commodities of Pennsylvania and its adjoining states.

Passenger Service. Too much can not be said in favor of the high grade equipment which is usually found on the steam railways of Pennsylvania. For safety, comfort and conveniences, they probably can not be surpassed by those in use on railroads anywhere. Those which have become unserviceable are replaced by those of the most modern and improved type. The total number of these passenger cars now in use on Pennsylvania railways is 12,892; twenty years ago, the number was 3,700. The total number of freight cars in use on the several lines covered by this report, to carry the hundreds of millions of tons of productions of the farms, the forests, the mills and the manufacturies, amounts to 640,369. In 1901 the number in use was 537,409; last year the number was 600,911; while twenty years ago the number was 232,460. The details showing the car ownership of the several railroads making report to this office, as to the locomotive, passenger and freight cars owned, will be found in the first part of consolidated table E.

Steam Railway Employes. Of the great army of men and persons who make up the steam railway employes of the corporations reporting to this office, the Baltimore and Ohio has a total of 55,554; the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, 20,167; the Erie, 33,654;

the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, 24,081; the Lehigh Valley, 21,196; the New York Central and Hudson River, 54,723; the Pennsylvania, 103,796, the Pennsylvania Company, 29,918; the Philadelphia and Reading, 24,474; and the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, 23,359, making a total of these ten companies of 390,952. These ten railroads employ more persons than all the other railroads combined whose reports are filed in this office, the total being 475,436. Twenty years ago, the reports filed in this office showed the employment of 161,590 persons, while the ten leading railroads now employ more than double the number of persons then employed on the railway systems reporting to this office.

If we were to take the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Pennsylvania Company, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis and the other railroads of the Pennsylvania system, a majority of whose stock is owned by the Pennsylvania, it will be found that this system alone has more employes in its service than constituted the Army of the Potomac and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, that fought the world-renowned Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

What an industrial army is made up of the vast number of meu who are in the service of the railways within and adjacent to the State of Pennsylvania. Two or three years from now, if railway construction and railway development continue with a pace that has characterized their growth in the last five years, the army of steam railway employes will embrace more than one-half million of persons. They are not only great in numbers now, but they are of immeasurable importance in the efforts put forth, by which the railroads of the country are enabled to serve so successfully all the different business interests that produce our wealth and greatness in commercial affairs.

A table is submitted herewith showing the total number of employes, etc., on the ten leading railroads mentioned.

TABLE SHOWING "TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYES" ON THE LINES OF THE TEN LEADING CORPORATIONS NAMED FOR THE YEARS 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 AND 1906.

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