Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1877 — The Cost of the Strike. [ARTICLE]

The Cost of the Strike.

Some idea can be formed of the losses which have been sustained by the country at large by reason of this strikj, by taking as a basis the cost to the railroads resulting from the suspension of traffic. An average of $40,000 per day, which is a fair estimate ot the loss by each of the five trunk lines, makes the total for these roads $200,000; add $50,000, as a low calculation, for the losses by interruption of other roads, and the total is $250,000 per day, or $1,250,000 for the five days’ suspension. The losses sustained by the Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh and on the line between that city and Harrisburg arc calculated at $10,000,000. Half of that amount would scarcely cover the cost of property destroyed on the Baltimore & Ohio, and it is likely that $10,000,000 would approximate the losses ot railroad property other than th(®e which have been enumerated, and the destruction in cities and towns by the acts of rioters. This makes a total of $20,250,000. The losses sustained by the community at large are almost incalculable, embracing as they do the loss of life and limb, the destruction of perishable freight and live stock, the detention of passengers, the support of militia and special officers summoned to preserve the peace, inconvenience attending tardy mails, increased cost ot living consequent upon the advance in prices o provisions, augmented taxation, and perhaps the bankruptcy of corporations which might otherwise have been averted. — N. Y. Journal of Commerce.