Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1920 — TRAFFIC INCREASE TREBLED SINCE 1898 [ARTICLE]

TRAFFIC INCREASE TREBLED SINCE 1898

Greater Efficiency Enabled Railroads to Meet Country’s Growing Demands. The American railroads are more than one-third of the railways of the world. The traffic hauled on the railways of the United States is now three times as great as it ]|as twenty years ago. In four months now the railroads carry as much freight and as many passengers as they did then in a year. In the three months alone of the harvest movement in 1919 the traffic equaled that of the whole year of 1898. In 1898 freight ton miles carried by the railroads of the country were more than 100,000,000,000 a year. In 1910 they were more titan 250,000,000,000, In 1913 more than 300,000,000,000 and in 1918 more than 400,000,000,000. Although the railway mileage increased only about 65 per cent since 1890, improvements in tracks, terminals, equipment, etc., have been so marked that the volume of goods carried (measured 1 In the number of freight tons carried one mile) increased more titan five times from 1890 to 1917. Increased Efficiency. Taking account of both fitlght and passenger service, the railroads in 1900 hauled 186,000 traffic units (freight tons carried one mile, plus passengers carried one mile) for each railway employee. By 1917, the last year of private operation of the railroads prior to the entry of the United States Into the war, that 186,000 had been Increased to 296,000. The following table shows the increase in efficiency of American railroads since 1900, which enabled the railroads to keep pace with the growth of the country: Ton miles Increased 190% Passenger miles increased.. 170% Trackage increased 56% Cars and engine Increased.. 75% Workers Increased 85% Output per worker Increased 60% Average train load increased 130% These figures show that the traffic hauled by theTailroads of the country has increased more than three times as fast as the trackage, more than twice as fast as the equipment and more than twice as fast as the number of workers. This has been made possible by far-sighted investment of new capital to increa te the efficiency of the transportation facilities and thereby enable the railroads to increase the amount of traffic nandled and reduce tlie amount of labor required to handle it. \