Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 196, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1918 — $290,000,000 RAILROAD LOSS [ARTICLE]

$290,000,000 RAILROAD LOSS

INCOME FOR SIX MONTHS $173,194,000, COMPARED WITH $458,203,000 IN 1917. Owing largely to ibig back payments of wage increases, the railroads under federal control in June reported an aggregate deficit of $53,959,000 in railroad operating income as compared with positive earnings of $98,909,000 in June, 1917. This reduced the total operating income for the six months of government operation ending with June to $173,194,000 as compared with $458,203,000 in the corresponding period last year. T These figures, compiled by. the interstate commerce commission and announced the first of the week, show that the government has lost about $290,000,000 in operation of railroads in the first six months ors this year. The wage payments in June under Director-General McAdoo’s • order as represented by 144, or about threefourths, of the first class roads, amounted to $133,000,000. Without this added expense the railroads in June would have earned $74,084,000. Revenue in June amounted to $393,309,000, or nearly $50,000,000 more than in June last year, but expenses were swelled to $435,096,000, and even without the unusual burden of back wage payments the total would have been $67,000,000 more than expenses in June, 1917. Eastern railroads reported a deficit .of $32,940,000, western roads $16,171,000, and the southern lines $9,848,000. “ , For the six’months of federal control operating revenues were reported as $2,081,448,000, or nearly $200,000,000 more than the $1,897,980,000 reported for the first six months of the previous year. Operating expenses, however, were nearly $500,000,000 greater, amounting to sl,815,706,000, as compared with the $1,354,011,000 in the first six months of 1917. The net amount which the government will get from the railroads for the entire six months is approximately $151,000,000. In return the government will be liable to pay the railroads about $475,000,000, or half of the $950,000,000 estimated as the aggregate return to the railroads for the year under federal management. The reports for June include very little revenues resulting from increased passenger and freight rates. These pouring in for future months are expected to reduce the government’s loss considerably, but will not make receipts this year .equal to the government’s outlay in railway rentals.