MILEAGE OF RAILROADS IN OPERATION AND ANNUAL INCREASE OF MILEAGE: 1832 TO 1904. (From Poor's Railroad Manual.) 24,503 2,487 1882 114,677 11,569 26,968 2,465 1883 121,422 6,745 28,789 1,821 1884 125,345 3,923 2,975 *Statistics for this table for years previous to 1882 are not compiled. Railway Car Construction. .79 Locomotives and cars approx.mating the value of $260,000,000 were built in the locomotive and car shops of the United States in 1905, according to figures collected by the Railroad Gazette. These returns do not include locomotives and cars built by the railroads in their own shops, of which an exceptionally large number were constructed during the year, nor do they include street and interurban electric cars. The number of locomotives built was 5,491, as against 3,441 in 1904. The number built exceeds the total for any previous year. The car output, subject to the limitations noted, was 168,006, the largest car output in any one year. Protection has vindicated itself. It cannot be helped by eulogy or hurt by defamation; it has worked its own demonstration and presents in the sight of the whole world its matchless trophies.-Major McKinley at Beatrice, Neb., August 2, 292. Annual in crease of mileage. TELEGRAPHS. Western Union Telegraph Company: Mileage of Lines and Wires. Number of Offices and Traffic, 1866 to 1905. *Not including messages sent over leased wires or under railroad contracts. Note. The greatly increased mileage since 1880 is principally due to the fact that in 1881 the Western Union Telegraph Company absorbed by purchase all the lines of the American Union and the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph companies, the former having previously in operation over 12,000 miles of line and the latter 8,706 miles. Capital stock of the Western Union, $100,000,000. The Western Union has exclusive contracts with several international cable companies, operating eight Atlantic cables, and guarantees 5 per cent. annual dividends on the stock of the American Telegraph and Cable Company; amount, $14,000,000. Besides the above, there are new lines of telegraph which have complied with the United States telegraph act of 1866, and are operating wires with or without connection with railway companies. General Harrison, in his speech to the visiting commercial travelers at Indianapolis, Aug. 18, 1888, said: "Do not allow any one to persuade you that this great contest as to our tariff policy is one between schedules. It is not a question of seven per cent. reduction. (Applause.) It is a question between wide-apart principles. (Cries of "That's right.") The principle of protection; the intelligent recognition in the framing of our tariff laws of the duty to protect our American industries and maintain the American scale of wages by adequate discriminating duties (cries of "That's right!") on the one hand, and on the other a denial of the constitutional right to make our customs duties protective, on the assertion of the doctrine that free competition with foreign products is the ideal condition to which all our legislation should tend." (Applause.) Receipts. Expenses. Year. Postal Telegraph Cable Company: Mileage of Lines and Wires, Number of Offices, and Messages Sent, 1885 to 1905. 1885. 2,811 23,587 260 1,428,690 COMMERCIAL FAILURES ANNUALLY, 1882 TO 1905. Number, Amount of Liabilities and Average Liabilities. There are now in operation in Germany between 5,000 and 6,000 alcohol engines, and it is estimated that when alcohol designed for such purposes in the United States is free from Government tax a much larger number will be used here. Internalcombustion engines using alcohol as a motor fuel are coming into general use on farms for running all kinds of farm machinery. By the use of alcohol 20 per cent. more power can be secured on a given engine than can be obtained by the use of gasoline, as alcohol can be compressed to a much higher degree than gasoline without danger of spontaneous combustion. It is used also in running light machinery in workshops. Messages. TELEPHONES. American Telephone and Telegraph Company and Operating Companies Associated with it: Statistics, January 1, 1899 1,016,777 1,354,202 1,729,019 2,443,750 2,933,189 3,549,810 592,467 742,654 798,901 930,251 Length of wire operated.. miles.. 1,058,900 Instruments in hands of licensees under rental at beginning of year..number.. 8.2 7.1 50,350 40,864 53,795 59,451 .dollars.. .dollars.. 4,393,967 4,270,509 5,486,058 ..dollars.. 1,714,527 2,427,038 2,647,910 7,398,286 2,299,370 *Information not collected separately. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY. |