Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1911 — MONON RAILROAD HAS [ARTICLE]

MONON RAILROAD HAS

Greater Business For Tear Shows Profit on Account of Higher Wages < And Regulation. A decrease of $142,181.77, compared with the- previous year, is shown in the operating income of the Chicago Indianapolis & Louisville railroad company (the Monon) for *the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, according to the .annual report just made public by the board of directors of the company. Increased cost of operation, brought on mainly by increasing wages and complying with requirements of government regulation, is said to be responsible for the difference between the figures of 1910 and 1911. Operating income for the year amounted to $1,803,452.64. Earnings from passenger business amounted to $1,577,000, as against $1,449,000 in 1910. This is an increase of 8.80 per cent. The increase in passenger business was handled by an increase of only 1.15 per cent in the mileage of passenger trains, the total passenger train mileage last year being 1,642,000. Freight revenue for the year amounted to $4,054,115, a decrease of $9,307, as compared with 1910. The Monon runs through a highly competitive territory for freight and passenger business. In the last two years it has earned chough to pay 1 per cent dividends comfortably on the preferred and 3& per cent dividends on the common stock and still have some surplus. Since 1907, $1,150,000 has been charged for additions and improvements to the property. In the last year $664,000 was spent for additions and. betterments, of which $247,000 was charged to income and the remainder paid for through the sale of equipment trust certificates. The company has, let a contract for the . installation of a block-system. N'inety-poiyid rails have been adopted as the standard on the line. Last year 47,436 cubic yards of ballast was placed on the road. Of the total main track, 98.87 per cent is now ballasted. Considerably more was spent for the equipment last year than it has been the practice in the past to allow for this account; $879,000 being charged for maintainance in 1911 as compared with $823,000 in 1910. In the fiscal year ended June 30, last, the company operated 617 miles of track and earned gross $6,187,000, an increase of $167,000 compared to the year before. President Fairfax Harrison says of the Monon: “It is a fair illustration of the change in operating conditions of an American railway that -six years ago, when the operating revenues for the year ended June 30, 1905, were 9.33 per cent less than they are this year, the operating income was 19.17 per cent greater than It is this year. As the property has been well maintained, and much study has been given to operating efficiency, these increases in expenses can be traced largely to increased wages and compliance with the requirements of the government regulating authority. It is fair, though, to point out that the increased terminal faciliies at Louisville, incident to the congestion and construction of the property of the Kentucky & Indiana terminal, which is used by this company, are substantial, but fortunately believed to be an extraordinary factor in increasing the operating expenses of this company.”