Chapter XX: Introduction (4)

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{table continued}
===================================================
| Twelve Months Ending
| December
+------------+-----------
Names of Associations and | |
Bureaus | 1908 | 1909
--------------------------+------------+-----------
Alabama | 631,487 | 700,393
Central New York | 738,054 | 804,419
Central (St. Louis) | 838,017 | 1,001,136
Chicago | 2,161,767 | 2,790,801
Cincinnati | 635,365 | 712,145
| |
Cleveland (a) | 715,764 | 843,609
Colorado | 385,260 | 428,760
Columbus | 363,130 | 401,696
East Tennessee | 293,597 | 330,055
Indiana | 1,077,786 | 1,211,793
| |
Intermountain | 153,885 | 201,077
Lake Superior | 338,109 | 370,490
Louisville Car | 518,955 | 565,748
Memphis | 239,156 | 224,648
Michigan | 696,926 | 859,812
| |
Missabe Range | 42,930 | 54,934
Missouri Valley | 1,606,758 | 1,863,052
Nashville | 326,385 | 337,234
New York and New Jersey | 1,248,609 | 1,416,831
North Carolina | 404,334 | 445,398
| |
Northeastern Pennsylvania | 633,655 | 594,231
Northern | 1,515,706 | 1,636,588
Pacific | 1,147,345 | 1,390,948
Pacific Northwest | 845,405 | 987,115
Philadelphia | 1,921,142 | 2,508,204
| |
Pittsburg | 1,977,891 | 2,807,256
Southeastern | 823,948 | 981,737
Southern | 513,437 | 649,384
Texas | 1,118,622 | 1,302,211
Toledo | 383,870 | 492,127
| |
Virginia and West Virgini | 778,940 | 942,231
Western New York | 806,488 | 931,185
Western (Omaha) | 733,346 | 775,828
Wisconsin | 1,022,270 | 1,006,050
+------------+-----------
Total reported by 34 | |
associations and | |
bureaus (b) | 27,638,339 | 32,569,156
+------------+-----------
Baltimore and Washington | |
Demurrage Bureau | 588,930 | 672,954
| |
Illinois and Iowa | |
Demurrage Bureau | (d) | 3,561,740
---------------------------------------+-----------

(a) Cleveland reported 10,016 lake coal cars for December, 1909.

(b) The Butte Terminal Association was superseded by the Montana
Demurrage Bureau in May, 1908. The returns of the new bureau for
the twelve months ending December, is 448,381 cars.

(d) Not reported.

VIII

EARNINGS AND EXPENSES

Having in the preceding pages given the facts as to the provision made by the railways for fulfilling their obligations as common carriers, it is now in order to present a brief review of their receipts and expenditures in relation to their public service.

For the second successive year the Bureau has to warn the reader that innovations in the forms of keeping railway accounts prescribed by the Commission preclude the making of strictly accurate comparisons of the returns for 1909 with those of any preceding year. In submitting its report for 1908 the Commission made the following explanation:

"A number of important changes have been made in the annual report forms for 1908, particularly in the grouping of certain items in connection with the Income Account and the Profit and Loss Account. The figures which follow do not include returns applying to carriers classed as switching and terminal. The changes in the income account submitted in the report under consideration are so far reaching in their results, in a number of instances, as to impair direct or close comparison with figures for similar items contained in previous statistical reports."

In the comparative Income Account below, which aims to present the situation as it would result from the actual operations had such operations been conducted by a single corporation, the Bureau has sought to make the returns for 1908 and 1909 conform as nearly as possible to "previous statistical reports." It should be premised, however, that the official figures for 1908 exclude the returns from switching and terminal companies, whereas the Bureau's figures for 1909 include some portion of these returns, which are as much an integral part of the transportation service of American railways as any they perform. The official figures for 1908 do not correspond absolutely to the preliminary figures for the same year compiled from the monthly reports as reviewed in the Introduction to this report.

With this by way of explanation, the comparative Income Account for the years 1909 and 1908 is submitted:

COMPARATIVE INCOME ACCOUNT OF THE RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES CONSIDERED AS A SYSTEM FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1909 AND 1908.

======================================================================
| Amount
Item |
| 1909 | 1908
| (221,132 miles | (230,002 miles
| operated) | operated)
---------------------------------+-------------------+----------------
Passenger revenue | $ 551,634,278 | $ 566,832,746
Mail revenue | 49,508,972 | 48,517,563
Express revenue | 61,883,695 | 58,692,091
Freight revenue | 1,643,028,564 | 1,655,419,108
Other earnings from operation | 69,086,257 | 64,344,481
+-------------------+----------------
Gross earnings from operation | $2,375,141,766 | $2,393,805,989
| |
Operating expenses | $1,568,111,272 | $1,669,547,876
Taxes | 82,650,214 | 78,673,794
+-------------------+----------------
Total | $1,650,761,486 | $1,748,221,670
+-------------------+----------------
Net earnings from operation | 724,380,280 | 645,584,310
Net revenue from outside | |
operations | 5,410,338 | 5,977,268
| |
Operating income | $ 729,790,618 | $ 651,561,587
| |
Disposition: | |
Net interest on funded debt | $ 293,338,105 | $ 282,354,001
Interest on current liabilities| 22,546,779 | 31,835,708
Rent paid for lease of road | 120,784,982 | 111,153,013
Additions and betterments | |
charged to income | 24,807,546 | 28,086,454
Appropriations to reserves | |
and miscellaneous items | 22,587,208 | 21,636,182
Other deductions | 70,174,473 | 64,669,546
+-------------------+----------------
Total deductions | $ 554,239,093 | $ 539,734,904
+-------------------+----------------
Surplus available for dividends, | |
adjustments and improvements | 175,551,525 | 111,826,683
Net dividends | 171,607,550 | 104,074,006
+-------------------+----------------
Balance to profit and loss | $ 3,943,975 | $ 7,752,677
---------------------------------+-------------------+----------------

In 1909 the "Income Account" of the railways was swelled and confused by including therein $200,725,696 of intercorporate payments, while that for 1908 includes $274,450,192 "Other Income" which, as has been formerly noted by the Official Statistician, swells the totals to a fictitious figure. It is out of this fictitious income that fictitious interest and dividends are paid, fictitious deductions made, and fictitious surpluses accumulated. If "Other deductions" in the above statement had been charged against "Other income" instead of being deducted from earnings from operation the balance to Profit and Loss for each year would have been so much larger.

What becomes of the rent paid by operating roads for leased roads is well shown in the statement included in the Commission's preliminary report of statistics for 1908 in which the amount received by the latter mentioned in the table just submitted is disposed of.

CONDENSED INCOME ACCOUNT AND PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT OF LEASED ROADS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1908.

Included under the blind item of "Deductions from gross corporate income, $62,232,508" in this statement may be mentioned rents of other roads and facilities of which these leased roads are the lessees, interest on funded debt and other interest, sinking funds chargeable to income and other deductions not specifically provided for elsewhere. In case of operating roads this item also includes the balance of hire of equipment, to which, of course, there is a credit with other operating roads.

The significant feature in this statement is the decrease in the profit and loss credit balance of $16,662,887. But this does not alter the fact that what becomes of rent paid for lease of road is no more a concern of interstate commerce than what becomes of the rent paid for warehouses or office space in any terminal. The operating roads pay all the cost of maintenance of way and equipment. The leased roads are not common carriers in any sense. They are simply distributing mediums of the rents paid them--this rent being the equivalent of interest on so much capital. As appears from the foregoing table, the expense of maintaining the organization of these leased properties amounted in 1908 to 35/100ths of 1 per cent.

DISTRIBUTION OF GROSS EARNINGS.

How the gross earnings of the railways reporting to this Bureau in 1909 ($2,375,141,766) were distributed is shown in the next statement in comparison with a similar division of earnings in 1908 and 1907.

STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF GROSS EARNINGS OF 221,132 MILES OF LINE IN 1909 COMPARED WITH THE PERCENTAGES FOR 1908 AND 1907.

(GROSS EARNINGS 1909, $2,375,141,766.)

=======================================================================
Item | Amount |Per Cent|Per Cent|Per Cent
| 1909 | 1909 | 1908 | 1907
-----------------------------+--------------+--------+--------+--------
Operating expenses: | | | |
Maintenance of way and | | | |
structures | $ 299,757,077| 12.62 | 13.41 | 13.27
Maintenance of equipment | 358,747,371| 15.10 | 15.42 | 14.22
Traffic expenses | 48,453,707| 2.08 | 2.00 |
Transportation expenses | 799,690,194| 33.67 | 36.24 | 37.50
General expenses | 61,462,923| 2.58 | 2.58 | 2.54
+--------------+--------+--------+--------
Total |$1,568,111,272| 66.03 | 69.67 | 67.53
| | | |
Disposition of same: | | | |
Pay of employes | $ 973,174,419| 41.00 | 43.43 | 41.42
Fuel for locomotives | 184,359,112| 7.76 | | 7.74
Oil and water for | | | |
locomotives | 19,951,184| .84 | | .88
Material and supplies | 219,463,028| 9.24 | | 11.81
Hire and rent of equipment | | | |
and facilities | 54,638,243| 2.30 | | 2.46
Loss and damage | 56,379,042| 2.37 | | 1.83
Miscellaneous(a) | 60,146,242| 2.52 | | 1.39
+--------------+--------+--------+--------
Total expenses |$1,568,111,272| 66.03 | 69.67 | 67.53
Taxes(b) | 88,531,566| 3.72 | 3.53 | 3.10
Rentals of leased roads | 114,903,630| 4.84 | 4.64 | 4.69
Interest on funded debt and | | | |
current liabilities | 315,884,884| 13.30 | 13.34 | 13.14
Dividends | 171,607,550| 7.23 | 4.42 | 8.78
Deficits of weak companies | 20,223,246| .85 | 1.24 | .19
Betterments, reserves and | | | |
sundries | 47,494,754| 2.00 | 2.07 | 1.50
Surplus | 48,384,864| 2.03 | 1.09 | 1.07
+--------------+--------+--------+--------
Total (gross earnings) |$2,375,141,766| 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00
Gross earnings 1908 | 2,393,805,989| | |
Gross earnings 1907 | 2,589,105,578| | |
-----------------------------+--------------+--------+--------+--------

(a) Legal expenses, advertising and insurance are included under
"Miscellaneous"; stationery and printing under "Material and
Supplies."

(b) Includes taxes paid by leased lines and deducted from rent.

Owing to the fact that interest on funded debt and dividends are paid out of the common fund derived from operation and investments, the amounts devoted to these items in the above statement are necessarily computations. That they are not underestimates is proved by the fact that the surplus would not permit of larger charges for interest and dividends paid out of net earnings. Any interest or dividends materially greater than the amounts stated above, not paid out of the rents accruing to leased roads as given, must necessarily be derived from other sources than transportation revenues, and has no place in railway accounts coming under the provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce among the several states.

TAXES

So far as taxes are concerned, seasons of prosperity, depression and marking time are alike to American railways. The burden of their taxation knows no recession but mounts steadily, absolutely, per mile and in proportion to gross earnings.

The 368 roads reporting to this Bureau owning 182,046 miles of line and operating 221,132 miles, of which 39,086 miles were leased, paid $82,650,214 taxes in 1909. The Commission's report for 1908 shows that the leased roads paid $5,881,352 taxes out of their rents. Putting a conservative estimate of $200 a mile on the 11,870 miles of line not represented in this report would add $2,374,000 to the above figures and bring the aggregate taxes paid by the railways of the United States in 1909 up to the striking total of $90,905,566.

How railway taxation has increased absolutely and relatively to earnings and mileage during the past twenty-one years is shown in the following statement:

TAXES ANNUALLY AND RELATIVELY, 1889 TO 1909.

============================+=============+==========+===========
| | | Percentage
Year | Taxes Paid | Per Mile | of
| | | Earnings
----------------------------+-------------+----------+-----------
1909 (Official figures) | $89,026,226 | $382 | 3.73
1908 | 84,555,146 | 367 | 3.53
1907 | 80,312,375 | 353 | 3.10
1906 | 74,785,615 | 336 | 3.21
1905 | 63,474,679 | 292 | 3.04
1904 | 61,696,354 | 290 | 3.12
1903 | 57,849,569 | 281 | 3.04
1902 | 54,465,437 | 272 | 3.15
1901 | 50,944,372 | 260 | 3.20
1900 | 48,332,273 | 250 | 3.24
1899 | 46,337,632 | 247 | 3.53
1898 | 43,828,224 | 237 | 3.51
1897 | 43,137,844 | 235 | 3.84
1896 | 39,970,791 | 219 | 3.48
1895 | 39,832,433 | 224 | 3.70
1894 | 38,125,274 | 216 | 3.56
1893 | 36,514,689 | 215 | 2.99
1892 | 34,053,495 | 209 | 2.90
1891 | 33,280,095 | 206 | 3.04
1890 | 31,207,469 | 199 | 2.96
1889 | 27,590,394 | 179 | 2.86
----------------------------+-------------+----------+-----------

In this table the figures for 1909 are based on the monthly reports to the Commission and are subject to revision, but they are in substantial agreement with the estimate on the returns to the Bureau.

Observe that the highest ratio of taxes to gross earnings shown in this table was 3.84 per cent in 1897, when everything relating to railways, except taxes, was prostrated under the reign of receiverships that followed the panic of 1893. It was of 1897 that the Official Statistician recorded the fact that "70.10 per cent of outstanding stock paid no dividends, and 16.59 per cent of outstanding bonds, exclusive of equipment trust obligations, paid no interest."

There is instruction and warning behind the remarkable increase in the ratio of taxation shown in the figures for 1894 to 1897. There is the reflection of similar conditions in the rising ratios of 1908 and 1909.

DAMAGES AND INJURIES TO PERSONS

There are two items in railway accounts connected with the expense of operation that give the management most serious concern, because no means has been devised to limit or control them. In a leaflet issued by this Bureau in September last, it was estimated that the payments of American railways on account of "Injuries to Persons" and "Loss and Damage" for the year 1908 would approximate $56,700,000, or more than 2.3 per cent of their gross earnings. The Commission has not yet made public the final figures for 1908, but the returns on these accounts of the 368 roads reporting to this Bureau for the year 1909, aggregate $56,379,024, or 2.37 per cent of their gross earnings.

Divided according to the new system of accounting adopted by the Commission, these returns show the following figures:

SUMMARY OF PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF INJURIES TO PERSONS AND LOSS AND DAMAGE DURING THE YEAR 1909.

Unlike many of the other expenses of American railways, the burden of this "cost of operation" does not fall heaviest on the large systems. In the case of one road of moderate importance payments on these two accounts amounting to 4.8 per cent of gross earnings were enough to tip the balance into a deficit after paying interest on funded debt; one minor but prosperous road, after paying 14 per cent of gross receipts to meet these two accounts, had nothing left for dividends after paying interest, which amounted to less than 10 per cent of its earnings; and a small third road after being called on to pay 21.5 per cent of its earnings for injuries and damages had only 6 per cent of its operating revenue left to pay interest on funded debt, which called for 20 per cent of the earnings, and taxes reduced the net operating revenue to less than 4 per cent.

These are extreme cases but they illustrate how the "Injury and Damage" claims strike roads that can ill afford to pay them as well as the great systems which are the common prey of every claimant with enough of a grievance to interest an attorney who scents a contingent fee.

That the claims behind these expenses are largely meretricious is indicated, if not proved, by their disproportionate increase in the past ten years, during which the railways have expended millions in providing safeguards for their trains and employes. This increase absolutely and relatively to gross earnings is shown in the following statement:

PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OR "LOSS AND DAMAGE" AND "INJURIES TO PERSONS" DURING THE DECADE 1899 TO 1909 AND PROPORTION TO GROSS EARNINGS.

======================+=======================+======================
| Loss and Damage | Injuries to Persons
+------------+----------+------------+---------
Year | | Per Cent | | Per Cent
| Amount | of | Amount | of
| | Earnings | | Earnings
----------------------+------------+----------+------------+---------
1899 |$ 5,976,082 | .455 |$ 7,116,212 | .541
1900 | 7,055,622 | .474 | 8,405,980 | .565
1901 | 8,109,637 | .510 | 9,014,144 | .567
1902 | 11,034,686 | .639 | 11,682,756 | .676
1903 | 13,726,508 | .722 | 14,052,123 | .739
1904 | 17,002,602 | .861 | 15,838,179 | .802
1905 | 19,782,692 | .946 | 16,034,727 | .770
1906 | 21,086,219 | .907 | 17,466,864 | .751
1907 | 25,796,083 | .996 | 21,462,504 | .829
1908 | -- | -- | -- | --
1909 | 32,922,986 | 1.386 | 23,456,038 | .988
| | | |
Increase in 10 years, | | | |
per cent | 450.5 | 204.6 | 229.6 | 82.6
----------------------+------------+----------+------------+---------

Startling as are these increases absolutely, those relatively to earnings present a condition truly alarming, for which there is no apparent relief except through a revulsion in the popular tolerance of blackmail at the expense of the railways.

In no other country in the world are the railways held up on bogus claims for damages to the extent they are in the United States. Under the strict laws of the United Kingdom, as to compensation for damages and injuries, the British railways paid less than 7/10ths of 1 per cent of their earnings for all damages, losses and injuries, or less than one-third the proportion paid by American railways on the same account.

LOCOMOTIVE FUEL

Despite the continuous improvements in the steam-producing capacity of railway locomotives per ton of coal, the steady advance in the cost of coal during the past ten years has more than offset the economies of locomotive construction. This is shown in the next statement, which gives the cost of locomotive fuel and its relative proportion to gross earnings and operating expenses, and also the average price per short ton of coal in the United States since 1899:

SUMMARY OF COST OF LOCOMOTIVE FUEL AND PROPORTION TO EARNINGS AND EXPENSES OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS, 1909 TO 1899, WITH PRICE OF BITUMINOUS COAL PER TON DURING THE SAME PERIOD.

======+=========+==============+==========+==========+==========
| | |Proportion|Proportion|Price of
|Miles of | Cost of | to | to | Coal at
Year | Line | Locomotive | Operating| Gross | Mines
| | Fuel | Expenses | Earnings |per Ton(a)
------+---------+--------------+----------+----------+----------
1909 | 221,132 | $184,359,112 | 11.757 | 7.77 | --
1908 | 230,494 | 197,385,513 | 12.098 | 8.25 | 1.12
1907 | 227,454 | 200,261,975 | 11.471 | 7.74 | 1.14
1906 | 222,340 | 170,499,133 | 11.119 | 7.34 | 1.11
1905 | 216,973 | 156,429,245 | 11.278 | 7.51 | 1.06
1904 | 212,243 | 158,948,886 | 11.893 | 8.05 | 1.10
1903 | 205,313 | 116,509,031 | 11.675 | 7.70 | 1.24
1902 | 200,154 | 120,074,192 | 10.776 | 6.96 | 1.12
1901 | 195,561 | 104,926,568 | 10.602 | 6.61 | 1.05
1900 | 192,556 | 90,593,965 | 9.809 | 6.09 | 1.04
1899 | 187,534 | 77,187,344 | 9.478 | 5.88 | .87
------+---------+--------------+----------+----------+----------

(a) These figures are from the latest report of the United States
Geological Survey.

The significance of this table is that it cost the railways almost one-third more for fuel per dollar earned in 1909 than it did in 1899, the increase in the proportion of fuel cost to gross earnings having been 32%, due to the advance of 31% in the price of coal at the mines during that period.

The effect of the anthracite coal strike and the Commission's award of date March 18, 1903, upon the cost of bituminous coal is seen in the sharp advances in 1902 and 1903.

The railways have not escaped the advance in their cost of living due to the increased price of fuel any more than the public at large, and so far they have not been able to shift any portion of that cost, as manufacturers and shippers have done.

XII

THE SAFETY OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS

Never before in the history of railways has such a record for comparative safety been made as that recorded of American railways during the year ending June 30, 1909. Following its custom the Interstate Commerce Commission has published the report of accidents. It remains to set forth here the more remarkable record of safety.

OF THE 368 COMPANIES REPORTING TO THIS BUREAU, NO LESS THAN 347, OPERATING 159,657 MILES OF LINE AND CARRYING 570,617,563 PASSENGERS, WENT THROUGH THE YEAR WITHOUT A SINGLE FATALITY TO A PASSENGER IN A TRAIN ACCIDENT.

Of the remaining 21 companies, no less than 10, operating 27,681 miles and carrying 185,447,507 passengers, only missed such perfect immunity by a single fatality each in accidents to trains. This leaves 11 roads whose misfortune it was to bear the burden of train accident fatalities to passengers during the year.

The invariable rule of the Bureau precludes the publication of the honor roll of safety. And it is well so, for it would lead to invidious comparisons, where, in such matters as accidents, all comparisons are as irrelevant as they are invidious.

But it may be stated that the roll of immunity includes roads in every section of the union, from Maine to California, several great systems operating over 7,000 miles of line each, as well as little branch lines of below ten miles of single track; lines operated with all the safety appliances known to twentieth century progress and lines operated under as primitive conditions as prevailed on this continent more than half a century ago.

THIS RECORD OF COMPLETE IMMUNITY, STRETCHING OVER 159,657 MILES OF OPERATED LINE, REPRESENTS A MILEAGE NEARLY SEVEN TIMES THAT OF ALL BRITISH ROADS, AND EQUALS THE AGGREGATE OF ALL EUROPE, EXCLUDING RUSSIA BUT INCLUDING THE BRITISH ISLES.

What immunity to fatalities to passengers over such a vast mileage means may be partly realized from the fact that only twice in half a century has it occurred on the 23,000 miles of British railways, and never, to the writer's knowledge, so far as statistics reveal, on the railways of any of the great divisions of Europe. Certainly it has never occurred on the aggregate railways of Europe.

It would take seven consecutive years of immunity from fatalities to passengers in train accidents on British railways to equal this phenomenal record of American roads.

In presenting similar returns for 1908, it was said that "considering the myriad units of risk involved, the record for immunity from fatal accidents to passengers is without parallel in the history of railway operation." How that record has been not only equalled but surpassed is shown in the following statement for the last two years:

SUMMARY OF MILEAGE AND TRAFFIC OF ROADS ON WHICH NO PASSENGER WAS KILLED IN A TRAIN ACCIDENT DURING THE YEARS 1908 AND 1909.

=====================================+=================+================
| 1909 | 1908
-------------------------------------+-----------------+----------------
Number of operating companies | 347 | 316
Mileage of these companies | 159,657 | 124,050
Passengers carried | 570,617,563 | 455,365,447
Passengers carried 1 mile | 18,953,025,000 | 14,776,368,000
Tons of freight carried | 1,116,877,052 | 916,123,410
Tons of freight carried 1 mile | 151,974,495,000 | 121,589,399,000
Passengers killed in train accidents | None | None
Passengers injured in train accidents| 2,585 | 2,695
-------------------------------------+-----------------+----------------

This table proves that the area of perfect safety, so to speak, was extended over from 22% to 26% more units of risk in 1909 than in 1908, which already held the palm for immunity in train accident fatalities to passengers.

The figures given above as to passengers injured in train accidents are equally illuminating as to the safety of American railways, for they demonstrate that with the multiplication of risks in 1909 the number of injured was less by 4%. The fact that no passenger is killed in train accidents is more or less adventitious, but a reduction in the number injured testifies to a reduction in the opportunities for fatalities.

During the past ten years the average of passengers injured in train accidents on British railroads has been 580, which, considering the difference in the units of risk, is 100% higher than the above record for 159,657 miles of American railway in 1909.

The following table, which includes no less than six great systems of over 2,000 miles each, presents similar data in respect to the ten roads whose record for safety to passengers in train accidents is marred by a single fatality:

SUMMARY OF MILEAGE AND TRAFFIC OF ROADS ON WHICH ONLY ONE PASSENGER WAS KILLED IN A TRAIN ACCIDENT DURING THE YEAR 1909.

=========================================+===============
| 1909
-----------------------------------------+---------------
Number of operating companies | 10
Mileage of these companies | 27,681
Passengers carried | 185,447,507
Passengers carried 1 mile | 5,778,621,000
Tons of freight carried | 213,086,612
Tons of freight carried 1 mile | 40,177,881,000
Passengers killed in train accidents | 10
Passengers injured in train accidents | 778
-----------------------------------------+---------------

These figures show a mileage of 4,481 miles greater than all the railways of the United Kingdom, approximately one-half the passenger mileage, and over three times the ton mileage, with only 10 passengers killed in train accidents, to an average of 20 on British railways during the past ten years.

Further analysis of the returns to the Bureau, since data along this line has been compiled, affords the following statement of the number of roads and their mileage that have records of entire immunity from fatalities to passengers in train accidents of from one up to six years:

STATEMENT SHOWING NUMBER OF RAILWAYS AND MILEAGE ON WHICH NO PASSENGER HAS BEEN KILLED IN A TRAIN ACCIDENT, 1904 TO 1909.

=======================================+===========+=========
| Number of | Miles of
| Companies | Line
---------------------------------------+-----------+---------
Six consecutive years, 1904-1909 | 17 | 9,641
Five " " 1905-1909 | 95 | 44,894
Four " " 1906-1909 | 177 | 57,331
Three " " 1907-1909 | 228 | 69,713
Two " " 1908-1909 | 287 | 108,710
One year, 1909 | 347 | 159,657
---------------------------------------+-----------+---------

Gratifying and remarkable as was the immunity from fatalities of the class under consideration in 1909, the fact that for a period of five years 95 American roads with a mileage practically double that of all British railways have carried hundreds of millions of passengers without a fatality to one of them is so at variance with the popular impression regarding the dangers of American railway travel as to seem little short of marvelous.

The impressive character of this showing will be better appreciated when it is understood that the immunity from fatalities in train accidents represents consecutive years counting back from 1909. No road has been admitted to the list where the immunity has been interrupted by a single accident. With this fact in mind, the clean slate of the 17 roads for six years challenges admiration, especially as the Bureau's reports in 1904 covered less than two-fifths of the operated mileage of the United States.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN 1909.

Having thus shown the gratifying immunity from fatalities to passengers in train accidents during the year 1909, and on 9,641 miles of line since 1904, it remains to present the reverse side of the picture, which is so invariably thrust forward in official documents. Accident Bulletin No. 32 of the Interstate Commerce Commission furnishes the following data as to the number killed and injured on the railroads of the United States during the last two fiscal years:

SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES TO PERSONS IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1909 AND 1908.

================================+================================
| 1909
+---------------+----------------
Class of Accident | Passengers | Employes
+------+--------+-------+--------
|Killed| Injured| Killed| Injured
--------------------------------+------|--------+-------+--------
Collisions | 94 | 3,033 | 248 | 2,362
Derailments | 37 | 2,717 | 227 | 1,448
Miscellaneous train accidents, | | | |
including locomotive | | | |
boiler explosions | -- | 115 | 45 | 1,067
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total train accidents | 131 | 5,865 | 520 | 4,877
+------+--------+-------+--------
Coupling or uncoupling | -- | -- | 161 | 2,353
While doing other work | | | |
about trains or while | | | |
attending switches | -- | -- | 93 | 14,315
Coming in contact with | | | |
overhead bridges, structures | | | |
at side of track, etc | 2 | 36 | 76 | 1,229
Falling from cars or engines | | | |
or while getting on or off | 137 | 3,076 | 481 | 10,259
Other causes | 65 | 3,139 | 1,125 | 18,771
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (other than train | | | |
accidents) | 204 | 6,251 | 1,936 | 46,927
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (all classes) | 335 | 12,116 | 2,456 | 51,804
| | | |
Totals in 1907: | | | |
In train accidents | 410 | 9,070 | 1,011 | 8,924
In other than train accidents | 237 | 4,527 | 3,342 | 53,765
+------+--------|-------+--------
All classes of accidents | 647 | 13,597 | 4,353 | 62,689
--------------------------------+------+--------+-------+--------

{table continued}
================================+================================
| 1908
+---------------+----------------
Class of Accident | Passengers | Employes
+------+--------+-------|--------
|Killed| Injured| Killed| Injured
--------------------------------+------|--------+-------+--------
Collisions | 111 | 4,284 | 303 | 3,428
Derailments | 54 | 3,057 | 260 | 2,065
Miscellaneous train accidents, | | | |
including locomotive | | | |
boiler explosions | -- | 89 | 79 | 1,325
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total train accidents | 165 | 7,430 | 642 | 6,818
+------+--------+-------+--------
Coupling or uncoupling | -- | -- | 239 | 3,121
While doing other work | | | |
about trains or while | | | |
attending switches | -- | -- | 206 | 15,991
Coming in contact with | | | |
overhead bridges, structures | | | |
at side of track, etc | 4 | 37 | 110 | 1,353
Falling from cars or engines | | | |
or while getting on or off | 159 | 2,501 | 668 | 11,735
Other causes | 78 | 2,677 | 1,493 | 17,326
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (other than train | | | |
accidents) | 241 | 5,215 | 2,716 | 49,526
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (all classes) | 406 | 12,645 | 3,358 | 56,344
| | | |
Totals in 1907: | | | |
In train accidents | 410 | 9,070 | 1,011 | 8,924
In other than train accidents | 237 | 4,527 | 3,342 | 53,765
+------+--------|-------+--------
All classes of accidents | 647 | 13,597 | 4,353 | 62,689
--------------------------------+------+--------+-------+--------

The same cause which accounted for the remarkable recession of railway casualties in 1908 was still operative in a more marked degree throughout 1909, as evidenced in the above table. Here is shown a reduction from 1907 of 68% in fatalities to passengers in train accidents and of nearly 50% in those to employes. Even in all classes of accidents the decrease is almost as striking. A drop from 647 to 335 in fatalities to passengers and from 4,353 to 2,456 in fatalities to employes, resulting from whatever cause, should be a matter for national congratulation and thanksgiving.

That the facts herein set forth should have no lesson for national authorities beyond moving them to appeal for additional control of safety appliances is nothing short of a national scandal. As for safety devices, the railways in 1907 were practically as well equipped as in 1909. The percentage operated under the protection of block signals was 27.1% in 1909 against 26.2% in 1907, a difference inappreciable as compared with the recorded difference in fatalities. The government inspectors reported the equipment in better condition in 1907 than for any previous year by fully 30%, and yet that was the worst year in the annals of railway accidents.

An English writer (H. Raynor Wilson), his vision unobscured by the propinquity of patent devices, has placed his finger on the true cause of the reduction in railway accidents in the United States in 1908 and 1909 when writing in "The Safety of British Railways" he says:

"Experience in America during the period of depression that has
prevailed since the summer of 1907 shows that fewer accidents
occur during such times. There are not so many goods trains,
the men are less 'pushed,' they work fewer hours, and the
careless and indifferent are weeded out."

But we do not have to go to England for a convincing analysis of the causes of the remarkable decrease in accidents on American railways in 1908 and 1909. In the presence of similar conditions Statistician Adams in his official report for 1894 penned the following:

"Another explanation may be suggested for this decrease in
casualties to railway employes. The character of equipment
used during the year covered by this report was undoubtedly of
a higher grade than in previous years. A large number of old
cars of abandoned type were destroyed during the year, while
there was an increase in the better grades of cars equipped
with train brakes and automatic couplers. This, however, is
a suggestion merely, there being no statistical proof of any
relation between a higher grade equipment and the decrease of
accidents to employes. It is also probable, in view of the fact
that liability to accident is increased by the employment of
the shiftless and unskilled, that the grade of labor was raised
through the discharge of so large a number of employes. This
latter suggestion finds support in the fact that the ratio of
casualties in the Southern States, where the grade of labor is
somewhat inferior, has for a series of years been higher than
in the Northern and Eastern States."

With a continuation of similar conditions as to traffic and labor throughout 1895, the Official Statistician, having not yet accepted the theory that violation of rules, carelessness and negligence are amenable to patent appliances, emphasized the concluding suggestion of his 1894 report in these terms:

"From the above comparative statement it is clear that the year
ending June 30, 1895, is more satisfactory, so far as accidents
are concerned, than any previous year. Reference was made in
last year's report to the fact that the marked reduction in
the pay roll of the railways, by which the incompetent and
inefficient were dropped from the railway service, and the
consignment to the scrap heap of equipment worn out or out
of date, were largely responsible for the greater safety in
railway travel and railway employment shown by the statistics
of the year. The result of raising the character of the
railway service and grade of railway equipment is yet more
marked during the present year, and to this must be added the
fact that the demands upon the passenger service during the
present year have been somewhat decreased. It is also worthy of
suggestion, although the facts yet at command are not adequate
for confident assertion, that the fitting of equipment with
automatic devices is beginning to show beneficial results."

From that year to this the fitting of equipment with automatic devices has proceeded with uninterrupted despatch. Where in 1895 only 27.7% of it was equipped with train brakes and 31.3% with automatic couplers, in 1907 the Commission reported 94.4% equipped with train brakes and 99% with automatic couplers. In every form of mechanical safety device the railway equipment of 1907 was incomparably better than in 1895, and yet the number of fatal accidents to employes in 1907 exceeded those in 1895 seven to three and to passengers three and four-fifths to one. In the matter of deaths in coupling accidents alone are "beneficial results" traceable to automatic safety devices. The character of the men in the service, their automatic observance of regulations, intelligence and alert devotion to duty are the best preventives of railway accidents, and the conditions prevalent after the panics of 1893 and 1907 are conducive to these conditions.

It is not likely, however, that the American people will welcome experiences, even in homeopathic doses, such as we knew in 1904, as the cure for railway accidents. But from the lessons of every depression, as read in the statistics of railway fatalities, the American people have a right to expect their representatives in federal and state legislatures to learn that the prevention of railway accidents rests on the intelligence, vigilance and experience of the man and not with the multiplication of devices. Automatic obedience to rules will prevent more accidents than all the safety devices that cumber the shelves of the Patent Office at Washington. Invention, however, is easier to the average American than plain everyday observance of rules. Besides the selling of devices to railways is a profitable business.

ACCIDENTS INCREASE IN 1909-10.

Accident Bulletin No. 33 for the first quarter of the current fiscal year shows the unfavorable turn in casualties always attendant on reviving business. Given in brief the figures are as follows:

CASUALTIES TO PERSONS, JULY, AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1909.

-----------------------------------+--------+--------
| Killed | Injured
-----------------------------------+--------+--------
To passengers: | |
From accidents to trains | 56 | 2,325
By accidents from other causes | 48 | 2,088
| |
To employes: | |
From accidents to trains | 137 | 1,427
By accidents from other causes | 611 | 13,401
+--------+--------
Total classes | | 19,241
Corresponding quarter 1908 | | 16,545
-----------------------------------+--------+--------

As this report goes to press, the Commission, through the Associated Press, has issued a summary of Accident Bulletin No. 34 which states that there were 1,073 persons (105 passengers and 969 employes) killed and 21,849 injured on the steam railways of the United States during the three months ending December 31, 1909.

This shows an increase over the corresponding quarter last year of 275 killed and 5,003 injured. For the same quarter in 1907 the killed were 1,092; in 1906, 1,430; and in 1905, 1,109. As the quarter ending December 31, 1909, saw railway traffic at its highest pressure, it shows an improvement over the records of 1907, '06 and '05.

The number injured is the highest ever recorded for three months, surpassing the quarter ending September 30, 1907, however, by only 126. But as explained elsewhere, "injuries" is too elastic a term for comparative statistics.

ACCIDENTS TO OTHER PERSONS.

Where the quarterly Bulletins of the Commission make no mention of the accidents to persons other than passengers and employes, the annual reports of the carriers supply the missing data as to "Other Persons." These include casualties at highway crossings, to trespassers, persons walking, standing or sleeping on the track, workmen in railway shops and all other accidents directly or indirectly connected with the transportation industry. Accidents to "Other Persons" cover over 60% of all fatalities charged to the railways and of these over 80% are to trespassers.

The returns to this Bureau show the following casualties to persons other than passengers and employes during the year ending June 30, 1909:

==================================+========+========
Class | Killed | Injured
----------------------------------+--------+--------
Trespassers (including suicides) | 4,919 | 5,697
Not trespassing | 820 | 3,069
+--------+--------
Total other persons | 5,739 | 8,766
----------------------------------+--------+--------

These figures warrant the estimate that the total number of trespassers and other persons killed and injured in the United States in 1909 through the operation of railways was approximately 5,978 and 9,132 respectively. This marks a decrease from 1908, but not nearly so great as in the case of passengers and employes.

FATALITIES IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS SINCE 1888.

We are now enabled to present a complete statement of the fatalities connected with the transportation industry since the Commission began compiling casualty statistics in 1888. The figures in this summary are confined to fatalities, for the reason given by the Commission that it "is well known the term 'injury,' as used in statistics of this character, is elastic." As a matter of fact the terms injury and casualty are so individually or locally indefinite and variable as to have little or no statistical value.

PASSENGERS, EMPLOYES AND OTHER PERSONS KILLED IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS FROM 1888 TO 1908.

=========+==========+=========+===========================+=======
| | | Other Persons |
Year |Passengers|Employes +-----------+---------------+ Total
| | |Trespassers|Not Trespassing|
---------+----------+---------+-----------+---------------+-------
1909 | 335 | 2,456 | 5,124 | 854 | 8,769
1908 | 406 | 3,358 | 5,560 | 940 | 10,264
1907 | 647 | 4,353 | 5,612 | 1,044 | 11,656
1906 | 359 | 3,929 | 5,381 | 949 | 10,618
1905 | 537 | 3,361 | 4,865 | 940 | 9,703
1904 | 441 | 3,632 | 5,105 | 868 | 10,046
1903 | 355 | 3,606 | 5,000 | 879 | 9,840
1902 | 345 | 2,969 | 4,403 | 871 | 8,588
1901 | 282 | 2,675 | 4,601 | 897 | 8,455
1900 | 249 | 2,550 | 4,346 | 660 | 7,865
1899 | 239 | 2,210 | 4,040 | 634 | 7,123
1898 | 221 | 1,958 | 4,063 | 617 | 6,859
1897 | 222 | 1,693 | 3,919 | 603 | 6,437
1896 | 181 | 1,861 | 3,811 | 595 | 6,448
1895 | 170 | 1,811 | 3,631 | 524 | 6,136
1894 | 324 | 1,823 | 3,720 | 580 | 6,447
1893 | 299 | 2,627 | 3,673 | 647 | 7,346
1892 | 376 | 2,554 | 3,603 | 614 | 7,147
1891 | 293 | 2,660 | 3,465 | 611 | 7,029
1890 | 286 | 2,451 | 3,062 | 536 | 6,335
1889 | 310 | 1,972 | Not | (a)3,541 | 5,823
1888 | 315 | 2,070 | given | (a)2,897 | 5,282
---------+----------+---------+-----------+---------------+-------

(a) Includes trespassers.

To the most casual student this table illustrates how railway accidents increase and decline with periods of business activity and recession. The effect of the panic of 1893-94 is seen in the decrease in accidents in 1895 and 1896. The temporary slowing up in 1904 is reflected in fewer fatalities in 1905, and a drop of 11% in the business of 1908 was followed by a decreased death roll of 12% for that year and 25% in 1909.

RELATION OF ACCIDENTS TO PASSENGER TRAFFIC.

The relation of railway accidents to passenger travel is most accurately measured in the following statement of the number of passengers carried one mile to one killed in train accidents during the years for which these statistics have been compiled:

PASSENGERS CARRIED ONE MILE TO ONE KILLED.

==========+===================+====================+===================
| Passengers Killed | Passengers Carried | Passengers Carried
Year | in | One Mile | One Mile
| Train Accidents | | to One Killed
----------+-------------------+--------------------+-------------------
1909 | 131(a) | 29,452,000,000 | 288,745,100
1908 | 165(b) | 29,082,836,944 | 196,505,648
1907 | 410 | 27,718,554,030 | 72,802,600
1906 | 182 | 25,167,240,831 | 183,702,488
1905 | 350 | 23,800,149,436 | 68,000,427
1904 | 270 | 21,923,213,536 | 81,197,087
1903 | 164 | 20,915,763,881 | 127,535,745
1902 | 170 | 19,689,937,620 | 115,823,162
1901 | 110 | 17,353,588,444 | 157,759,894
1900 | 93 | 16,038,076,200 | 172,463,183
1899 | 83 | 14,591,327,613 | 175,799,127
1898 | 74 | 13,379,930,004 | 180,809,864
1897 | 96 | 12,256,939,647 | 127,676,454
1896 | 41 | 13,049,007,233 | 318,268,469
1895 | 30 | 12,188,446,271 | 406,281,542
1894 | 162 | 14,289,445,893 | 88,206,456
1893 | 100 | 14,229,101,084 | 142,291,010
1892 | 195 | 13,362,898,299 | 68,522,555
1891 | 110 | 12,844,243,881 | 116,765,853
1890 | 113 | 11,847,785,617 | 104,847,660
1889 | 161 | 11,553,820,445 | 71,762,859
----------+-------------------+--------------------+-------------------

(a) Of these only 102 were passengers in the ordinary sense of
the term.

(b) Of these only 148 were passengers in the ordinary sense of
the term.

The student has to go back to the years of continued business paralysis, 1895 and 1896, to find any record of immunity to passengers from fatalities in train accidents at all comparable with the conditions that prevailed in 1909.

DECREASED HAZARD TO TRAIN CREWS.

Never in the history of American railways has the occupation of the men directly engaged in the operation of trains been as free from fatalities as during the year 1909. This is proved by the following statement showing the number of trainmen killed in all descriptions of accidents since the figures have been compiled, with the ratio to the number employed:

SUMMARY SHOWING NUMBER OF TRAINMEN KILLED IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS 1889 TO 1909, WITH RATIO TO NUMBER EMPLOYED.

==========+==========+==========+===========+==========+==========
| | | Yard | | Number of
| Trainmen | Trainmen | Trainmen | All | Trainmen
| | in Yards | Switching | Trainmen | for One
| | | Crews | | Killed
----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------
1889 | 1,179 | | | 1,179 | 117
1890 | 1,459 | | | 1,459 | 105
1891 | 1,533 | | | 1,533 | 104
1892 | 1,503 | | | 1,503 | 113
1893 | 1,567 | | | 1,567 | 115
1894 | 1,029 | | | 1,029 | 156
1895 | 1,017 | | | 1,017 | 155
1896 | 1,073 | | | 1,073 | 152
1897 | 976 | | | 976 | 165
1898 | 1,141 | | | 1,141 | 150
1899 | 1,155 | | | 1,155 | 155
1900 | 1,396 | | | 1,396 | 137
1901 | 1,537 | | | 1,537 | 136
1902 | 1,507 | | | 1,507 | 135
1903 | 2,021 | | | 2,021 | 123
1904 | 1,181 | 487 | 488 | 2,156 | 120
1905 | 1,155 | 386 | 493 | 2,034 | 133
1906 | 1,360 | 400 | 575 | 2,335 | 124
1907 | 1,507 | 459 | 630 | 2,596 | 125
1908 | 1,097 | 362 | 496 | 1,955 | 150
1909 | 789 | 270 | 313 | 1,372 | 202
----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------

The figures of the Interstate Commerce Commission have only made the division of trainmen shown above since 1904. Here again the last column proves the relation of accidents to the ebb and flow of traffic.

FREIGHT TRAFFIC AND ACCIDENTS.

The preponderating part played by the immense freight traffic of American railways as a cause of accidents is shown in the following analysis of the sixty "prominent collisions" described in the Commission's quarterly Accident Bulletins for the year 1909:

=================================+============+========+========
Kind of Train in Accident | Number of | Killed | Injured
| Collisions | |
---------------------------------+------------+--------+--------
Passenger and passenger | 8 | 30 | 225
Freight and passenger | 18 | 68 | 374
Freight and freight | 34 | 47 | 91
+------------+--------+--------
Total | 60 | 145 | 690
---------------------------------+------------+--------+--------

Here it will be observed freight trains were involved in 86.6% of the prominent collisions of the year and shared in responsibility for 79.3% of the fatalities. The proportion of injured in accidents to freight trains is not so great for the obvious reason that the number of persons exposed in collisions involving only freight trains is generally limited to train crews.

CAUSES OF TRAIN ACCIDENTS.

An examination of the causes given for the prominent collisions and derailments in the Accident Bulletins of the Commission since the passage of the Act of March 3, 1901, requiring the railway companies to make full monthly reports of all accidents affords the following general statement:

Among the prominent derailments charged against the railways in the Bulletin for April, May and June, 1909, is the following, resulting in one killed and three injured.

"Automobile running on track, derailed by running over a dog,
one guest killed."

Through the inclusion in these Bulletins of accidents on trolley lines, their value as records of railway accidents is being greatly impaired. Without any information as to the number of passengers carried by the electric cars it is impossible to arrive at an accurate idea of the relation of accidents to traffic, and without this the mere record of accidents has little information value.

ACCIDENTS ON BRITISH RAILWAYS.

For a second time in their history, in the year ending December 31, 1908, British railways went through a twelvemonth without killing a single passenger in a train accident, thus paralleling their record of 1901 in this respect. In the matter of passengers injured, the year 1908 showed a remarkable improvement, not only over 1901 but over any other year in the history of British railways. When it comes to the totals of casualties, however, 1908 shows little variation from the average record.

The following table shows the total number of persons killed and injured in the working of British railways, as reported to the Board of Trade for the calendar year 1908 as compared with 1901:

======================================+================+===============
| 1908 | 1901
Class +-------+--------+-------+-------
|Killed |Injured |Killed |Injured
--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+-------
Passengers: | | | |
In accidents to trains | -- | 283 | -- | 476
By accidents from other causes | 107 | 3,105 | 135 | 2,269
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total passengers | 107 | 3,388 | 135 | 2,745
| | | |
Employes: | | | |
In accidents to trains | 6 | 164 | 8 | 156
By accidents from other causes | 426 | 24,017 | 568 | 14,522
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total employes | 432 | 24,181 | 576 | 14,678
| | | |
Other persons: | | | |
Accidents to trains | -- | 7 | 3 | 5
While passing over railways at | | | |
level crossings | 51 | 44 | 55 | 26
While trespassing on line | | | |
(including suicides) | 479 | 118 | 426 | 171
Not coming under above | | | |
classification | 59 | 747 | 82 | 750
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total other persons | 589 | 916 | 566 | 952
| | | |
Grand total all classes, 1908 | 1,128 | 28,485 | 1,277 | 18,375
" " " " 1907 | 1,211 | 25,975 | |
" " " " 1906 | 1,252 | 20,444 | |
" " " " 1905 | 1,180 | 18,236 | |
" " " " 1904 | 1,158 | 18,802 | |
" " " " 1903 | 1,262 | 18,557 | |
" " " " 1902 | 1,171 | 17,814 | |
" " " " 1901 | 1,277 | 18,375 | |
" " " " 1900 | 1,325 | 19,572 | |
" " " " 1899 | 1,340 | 19,155 | |
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total, ten years |12,294 |205,415 | |
--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------

As one year of traffic on American railways approximates ten years on British railways, the above totals for ten years on the latter may be compared with 8769 killed and 73,052 injured on the former last year, or with 11,839 killed and 111,016 injured in 1907, the darkest year in the annals of American railway accidents.

Attention is asked to the apparently startling increase in injuries on British railways since 1905. The increase is absolutely fictitious, having resulted from "a change in the definition of a reportable accident," and not from any greater hazard in the working of British roads. This confirms the objection, expressed in the report of the British Board of Trade in 1903, to any changes in the form of tables extending over a long series of years that "admit of comparisons, which any change of form would invalidate if not destroy."

It will be perceived that the mere change in the definition of what constitutes a reportable accident increased the number of injuries reported against British railways fully 50%. This justifies the writer's view that comparisons of injuries in railway accidents are of little value. Even the same injury does not affect two persons in the same degree. One "hollers" and cries for a doctor where the other whistles and goes on with his work.

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The Railway Library, 1909Chapter XX: Introduction (4)

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