Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1894 — FIVE HUNDRED MILES. [ARTICLE]

FIVE HUNDRED MILES.

Railroad Building in 1894 Smaller Than for a Number of Years. During the six months of the present year, up to July I, only 495 miles of new railroad were built in this country. That is less than for any previous half year for many years. It is only a third of what was built in a similar period of 1891, 700 miles less than during the first half of 1892, and 530 miles below the first half of 1893. The total track built in each of those years was 2,585 ffittes’ in 1893, 4,010 miles in 1892 and 4,012 miles in 1891. Usually the proportion of new track laid in the first half of the year is betwe.cn thirty and forty per cent of the -total reported.- for. the year.. If past experience is to be repeated this year, this report of 495 miles built means that only about 1,500 miles will be built in 1894. an-1 such a low figure as that has-not-bccn reported since accurate records have been kept. But there is good—i\.as.>n to believe that the total of new railroad constructed in the twelve months vy ill be larger than the result reported for the half year may seem to promise, - judging, only from the proportion of work that has heretofore been done in the early part of the year. Railroad men are Surprised to know that even .TtXTihiles of" new road have been built, so quietly has the work gone on, generally on short lines widely distributed oyer the Country, few of them making connections with roads. What will be done during the rest of the year depends, of course, bn the changes that may occur in the state of financial affairs of the country. Hut it is a fact of much significance that-the—amount of new road in which the investment made is too great to be lost by any failure to complete the projects is probably larger than at this time last year.