PUBLIC SERVICE OF EUROPEAN RAILWAYS. The following tables set forth in brief the salient features of the public service and revenues of European railways : Note (a). Includes 384,396,000 season ticket journeys. 1,426,805,032 The revenue derived from the above traffic was as follows: 3,733,614,718 As the mean haul per passenger and per mile is now obtainable for the more important countries in the above table and has been approximated after careful calculations by the London Statist for Great Britain at 7.8 and 24.86 miles respectively, the per mile statistics for such countries may be given approximately as follows: With the exception of Great Britain, Austria and Hungary these figures are calculated from the "mean journey per passenger" and "mean haul per ton" as given in the last issue of the British blue book entitled, "Statistical Abstract for the Principal and Other Foreign Countries," and are arrived at by reversing the process by which the average journey and haul is calculated by the official statistician in this country. The table proves among other incidental things that passenger rates are considerably higher per mile here than in Europe-a condition resulting from the fact that we have 25.9 miles of railway per 10,000 of population, while Europe has only 4.5 miles, or not one-fifth the mileage per capita. European freight rates average almost double American, although our freight is handled with greater speed and certainty. EARNINGS AND EXPENSES. In natural order follows a condensed income account showing the earnings and expenses of the railways of the United States in carrying on the public service above set forth. INCOME ACCOUNT OF 91.12 PER CENT OF THE RAILWAYS Mileage 1905 193,404 108,530,223 1904 212,243 (a) 49,380,970 Gross Earnings from operation $ 1,962,797,637 $ 1,975,174,091 Operating expenses.. Salaries and Maintenance of Note (a). This figure for 1904 represents only "clear income from investments." The gross "income from other sources" that year was $212,933,990 which would have increased the total earnings and income to $2,188,108,081, pronounced by the statistician "a fictitious figure." Note (b). The “rents paid for lease of road" by operating Companies in 1904 amounted to $109,948,651. Note (c). "Permanent improvements charged to income account" by the same companies in 1904 amounted to $35,682,363. Note (d). "Other deductions" by the same companies in 1904 amounted to $41,321,823. Note (e). In 1904 this amount comprised the following items: "Permanent improvements $38,522,548; advances to cover deficits in operation of weak lines (estimated) $5,000,000; miscellaneous deductions $43,439,551; surplus $56,729,331." ри danisares that were the ravage in the prosperous year of 195 would not www wwe to pay the net dividends of $188.214.544, much y que dividends including duplications which will 44 XX0A,240,747 Interest on funded debt is equivalent to 43 per cent on the bond capitalization of the 201 operating Post young to the bureau. The $188.214.544 net dividends Metotas Ng 3.7% per cent on their total capital stock. Tu wygregate of interest and dividends $422,455,291 is *int to 4.10 per cent on their gross capitalization. This *in which is the share of capital in the earnings of the railways amounts to 21.52 per cent of their gross earnings, while the compensation of employes, as appears later on, absorbed 40.06 per cent of such earnings. In the official report for 1904 no less than three amounts are given as representing the interest on funded debt, namely: $282,118,438, as "net interest," $244,179,326 as interest on debt of operating companies, and $297,674,738, the sum of the interest on debts of operating and operated companies. No explanation is vouchsafed as to how the net interest is arrived at. In the case of interest on current liabilities the figures for gross and net interest are identical. In reality the interest and other charges paid by the "operated" companies come out of the rental or other income paid them by the operating companies. DISTRIBUTION OF GROSS EARNINGS IN 1904. How the above gross earnings of $1,975,174,091 for the year 1904 was distributed is shown by the following table: |