Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1914 — NEVER A LOSING DAY [ARTICLE]

NEVER A LOSING DAY

RAILROAD THAT HAS MADE MONEY FROM THE START.

Waterville Railroad tn Washington Has This Remarkable Record, WhlcN Is Surely Unparalleled —Never Had Accident.

There is one railroad in the United States jthat has ■ paid from the day it began to turn wheels.. Not a single dollar in bonds was issued to start it, all the stock was paid for and every cent expended on honor. There i» notand never has been one dollar of Indebtedness against the property. Every bill is , paid on presentation and all current accounts and wages are met at the first of each month. In almost four years of operation the books show annual dividends of 4 per cent arfd a comfortable reserve fund.

In that time the road has nothing in the accident classification on its records, not a broken car, a mangled pig nor injured passenger. Not a single lawsuit has ever been filed against the road, it has never had to answer a legal complaint. And this paragon of transportation systems Is purely an Inland empire development, it is the Waterville railroad, running from Waterville tp Douglas Junction, Wash. The distance traversed and the traffic carried demand five and one-tenth miles of maiq line and two miles of sidetrack.

For the three years ended December 81, 1913, passenger earnings of the Waterville road were $14,465j freight received, $14,279.79; freight forwarded. $12,1f7.92; miscellaneous, mall, etc., $11,026.50; total, $51,913.21. The highest priced ticket on the system is 35 cepts, which covers the whole line, and more than 50,000 passengers had to be carried with a single engine and one coach to make the earnings shown. Ten cents is the first class freight rate of the line and much freight is hauled-at as low as one and one-half cents per 100 pounds. More than 45,000,000 pounds had to be brought into Waterville to earn $14,279.79. At rates on forwarded business ranging from one-quarter ' up to ten cents per 100 pounds the Waterville line carried more than 75,000,000 pounds out. One may ride In many a finer palace car than the Waterville co&ch, but never on one more systematically industrious. The story of how the line was built and is managed is another Instance of energetic and successful Big Bend pioneering. When the Great Northern announced the prospective building of a branch through the country Waterville expected to be on the line, but one day it woke up to learn it had been left five guiles away. Then the old timers decided it was time to get together. They held a mass meeting In the spring of 1909 apd resolved, with scant ceremony, to build a railroad to the Great Northern. They never did pay a great deal of attention to ceremony. When they needed a wagon road they built it, and when .they needed a railroad they could build and operate that. To do so they organized the Waterville Railroad company, procured right of way and launched the enterprise. Placing the capital stock at SBO,OOO, the company divided its five miles of territory into five*zones. The first zone of a mile radius from, town was valued the highest, and the stock offered was proportioned on this basis. Within a few days the stock had been subscribed and paid for in cash., J. P. Morgan probably never got quicker results on a promotion proposition than that.