Lnor..uus Amount
ot Money Spent
On American
Railroads
Dwarfs Huge Sum
World s Powers
Pour Out on
Armament
THE news traveled fast
from railroad board rooms
to Wall street banks, and
the floor of the stock ex
change, and then across
the ocean to the money
markets of Europe. It ran on to roll
ing mills and blast furnaces on the
Mouongabela and the Allegheny, to
car shops and locomotive works, to
coal mines and coke ovens, to the Iron
ranees of Minnesota, and the forests
of the Sierras.
There were lighted the Ores of the
idle blast furnaces, from the Allogen
ics to Lake Michigan beacon fires
signaling the return of prosperity.
The purse of the railroads, closed
since the panlo, linJ been opened
again, and the country was glad.
No Intricate compilations of dry
statistics are needed to understand the
big part the railroads play In the
American Industrial drama. Their
Health In lands, roadways, buildings,
equipment, and securities Is as great
as that of all the wealth of the south
ern states, or the combined wealth of
Ilelglum, Holland and Switzerland
One dollar In every eight of the
wealth of this country Is railroad prop
erty. The railroads' outlay next year
for labor and materials and the pay
ment of taxes. Interest and dividends
will be a sum as great as all the
money In the country. The bills for
lubor and materials alone will far ex
ceed all the money raised by taxation
national, state, county and town.
Europe Is groaning under her ter
rific burden preparing for war. Dut
the enormous cost of the armed peace
of Europe Is dwarfed by our railroad
expenditures. What traveler thinks of
the cost of tks wooden tlest Dut. In
the "fat" year before the panic, our
railroads Epent more on ties than
England and Germany together spent
In building fighting ships. Our steel
rail bill next year will equal the com
lined naval budgets of Russia and
France. The smoke trailing from the
stacks of our locomotives will evidence
the burning up of more wealth than
all the naval powers England, Qer
many. France, Russia, Japan and the
United Slates will spend on war-
fillips.
The German war lord's expenditures
an an army that threatens the peace
of Europe will be exceeded next year
by the money our railroads will spend
tuylng new freight cars and keeping
the old ones In repair. Our locomo
tives will cost more than the British
army. The military establishment of
France will coat less than our track
repairs. On bridges and culverts we
Will spend as much as will Italy on
ber army. All the money spent on the
army of the czar would not pay for
the steel the Steel corporation will
make for the railroads. The huge out
lay the railroads will make this com
ing year for new materials will equal
the combined cost of the military and
naval establishments of all Europe.
In the "fat year" before tho panic
one combination of eastern lines
bought J30.000.000 worth of cars and
locomotives. J12.000.000 worth of ties
and rails, and spent $30,000,000 In
track Improvements. They have spent
$300,000,000 In Improvements In the
imst ten years a sura greater than
the entire capital stock of any single
railroad In America, two only ex
cepted. In the west the big spenders for the
past ten years have been the Hard
man lines. "Mad Harrlman" they
called him becouse he spent $30 000
000 Improving properties that his pre
decessors hnd let go to ruin. Harrl
man gave more orders-big orders-to
rail mills, bridge works, car shops lo
comotive works and lumber mills than
any other man who ever crossed the
Mississippi to run railroads.
Here. then, are three American rail
toads whose expenditures for Improve
ments In the past ten years foot up
f 1,000.000.000. A billion dollars-how
ouch Is that? With that money you
could build a railroad girdling the
1 earth.
j Railroad buying follows the tide of
prosperity. Every great boom In this
country has been marked by enormous
j railroad expenditures, and the great
Industrial and financial crises have
oeen me artermaths of these booms
The first big waves of prosperity were
marked by the building of new rail
roads; the latter ones by railroad re
construction. The ebb and Dow of prosperity In
this country Is like the tide In the Day
of Fundy-greatcr than anywhere else
In the world. The country never runs
along on even keel. The railroads, the
arteries of commerco are highly sen
eltlve to the ups and downs of trade,
because thoy carry nearly everything
the country produces, from producer
to consumer. In boom times the pro
ductlon of tho country rapidly In
creases, and the demand for transpor
tation Increases accordingly. Railroad
gross earnings mount to record fig
ures, and with them profits. To carry
tho growing tonnage big outlays must
be made for new tracks, cars and loco
motives, nurt forenlurglng the capacity
GIANT MUST.
The wealth of American railroads equals the total wealth of all
the southern states, or Belgium, Holland and Switzerland combined.
More money will be spent In 1910 In this country on cross-ties than
England and Germany will spend on warships.
More wealth In coal will be consumed In locomotives than the
world's naval powers will spend on warships England, France, Ger
many, Russia. Janan and tha United Stat.
The locomotives will cost more than the maintenance of the Eng- !!
Ilsh army. :
The cars will cost more than the maintenance of the German army. :;
New materials mostly from the steel mills will cost the railroads v
more than all Europe will spend on armies and navies. ;;
The railroads will take one-third the product of the steel mills. $
The coal bill nearly equals all the dividends. !;
Car and locomotive repairs equal the bondholders' returns. 3
of the tracks and equipment already
In use.
The greater part of tho hundreds
of millions of dollars spent In recent
years has been devoted, not to new
mileage, but to Increasing the ton
nage capacity of the lines built years
ago. Hundred pound rails, hundred
ton locomotives, and 50-ton cars have
replaced 60-pound rails, 00-ton locomo
tives, and 25-ton cars. It Is In the
west that most of the mileage has
been built.
This extension and Improvement of
the railroads In boom times are paid
for partly from surplus profits and the
rest from new capital. Heavy out
lays are accelerated In boom times
by the ease with which new capital
may be raised in the world's money
markets. The big profits make rail
road Investments attractive, and, as
everything else In the country is ma
king money and searching for a place
to put it at work, new railroad so
curltles find a ready sale. The rail
road purse, therefore, in boom times.
Is doubly stuffed by receipts from
big earnings and new capital from In
vestors. Money Is spent lavishly.
Cut the tables are turned In periods
of panic and depression. The country
produces less, trade slackens, and the
demand for the product the railroads
have to sell transportation declines.
"Cnr famines" are quickly followed by
miles of "Idle cars" on the sidings
Earnings rail away, surplus profits dis
appear. The railroads, having more
transportation for sale than the mar
ket demands, have no need for big
outlays to produce more transporta
tlon. They could not spend much mon
ey, anyway, because of their declin
ing profits and the disappearance of
the investment demand for their se
curities. So, as the railroad purse in
boom times Is doubly stuffed, In pe
riods of depression it Is doubly deplet
edby the cutting down of profits and
the withdrawal of new capital. Hence
the rigid economy of "lean" years.
When economy Is forced on the rail
roads, money Is saved along the line
of least resistance. Taxes roust be
More Money for Crossties In 1910 Tnan England and Germany Will
Spend for Warships.
mr
$
paid; the failure to meet Interest
charges means bankruptcy; the con
tinuance of dividends at the regular
rate Is the salvation of credit.
The first saving Is made by stop
ping Improvement work out of sur
plus earnings; then the current ex
penditures for materials for the main
tenance of way and equipment are cut
down, and along with this economy
goes the pruning of the cost of labor
the biggest Item of railroad expense.
It Is Interesting to note, In attempt
ing to realize the magnitude of these
outlays, that the 500.000 owners of
American railroad securities, from the
Rockefellers and Morgans and Harrl
mans down to the little one-share In
vestors, all received In dividends but
a little more than was spent on coal
to be fed to the locomotives; thnt all
the bondholders, sprend over Europe
and America, received no more than
was spent on the upkeep of rolling
stock, and that the heavy taxes but
6llidit!y exceeded the cost of wooden
ties.
"Steel Is either prince or pauper."
said Carnegie and it's railroad buy
ing that turns the wheel of fortune In
the Industry. The railroads are the
foundation of the steel trade, for they
buy more than a third of all tho prod
uces that are made from the ore of
! American Iron ranges. When the rail
roads stopped buying In the "silent
panic" of 1903, the steel business
dwindled to the pauper stage, and the
shares of the new steel trust tumbled
from $55 to $3.
Again, when the panic of 1907 closed
the railroad purse, gloom spread over
the Alleghenles, and steel shares col
lapsed a second time. Late last win
ter, when all up and down the Alleg
heny and Monongahela valleys blast
furnaces were cold and dark, Pittsburg
was in the doldrums because the rail
roads didn't buy. Prices were slashed,
and the gloom spread to Wall street
Steel shares sold at $41. Weeks went
by, and then the news came across the
mountains, "The railroads are buy
Ing." Now there Is hardly an Idle
blast furnace to be seen In the valleys
Cars Alone Cost
More Than the
Huge German
Army
One-Third of the
Product of Our
Steel Mills
Used
for the big spenders the railroads-
are pouring In orders. And Pittsburg
Is beginning to complain that the re
bound Is too sudden and the pace too
swift.
Some conception of the relation be
tween the railroad business and the
steel Industry is had by taking an in
ventory of Borne of the visible railroad
property made from Iron and steel
the rails and rolling stock, the re
newal of which Is the foundation of
the steel Industry. The rolling stock
consists of 2,250.000 freight cars, CO,
000 passenger cars and 65,000 locomo
tives. The locomotives are worth an
average of $12,000 each; tho passenger
cars, $6,000; and the freight cars
$1,000 giving an aggregate value of
rolling stock of more than $3,000,000,
000. The rails now laid 35,000.000
tons cost about $1,000,000,000, so that
rails and rolling stock represent up
ward of $4,000,000,000.
This four billions' worth of steel-
made products wears out rapidly un
der our heavy American traOlc. Age
adds no luster to the materials of In
dustry on this side of the water Over
In England, when a locomotive gets
along In middle life, they begin to tie
ribbons on her, like a pet cow, and
proudly keep count of ber mileage
from year to year. This is nice for the
locomotive, but hard on the steel
mills and locomotive works. Over
here, to-day's giant of the rails Is to
morrow's candidate for the scrap heap.
To keep rails and equipment up to
the American standard of use costs
upward of $400,000,000 a year, while
additional equipment and new rail
mileage Is now costing around $300,
000,000 a year that Is, we have now
reached the point of putting $700,000.
000 a year as much as the w hole coat
of running the government Into rails,
cars and locomotives. These are the
big Items of railroad steel consump
tion. Steel bridges, structural steel for
buildings and block signals and other
structures, steel tools and machinery,
and all the countless minor products
of Iron and steel used on the railroads
add, perhaps. $200,000,000 more.
Here, then, we find the railroads
now on a prosperity consumption basis
of $000,000,000 worth of steel products
a year. Small wonder that the news,
"The railroads are buying," vitalized
the steel Industry this summer and
lifted the cloud of gloom from Pitts
burg. Steel Is a prince again; six
months ago It was a pauper or
thought It was.
What the closing of the railroad
purse meant to the steel Industry in
the year following the panic of 1907
is strikingly shown In the slump in
the output of rails and equipment. The
rail mills In 1906 rolled 4.000.000 tons,
sold for $112,000,000; the car shops in
1907 turned out 290,000 cars, worth up
ward of $300,000,000; the locomotive
works output was 7,500 locomotives,
bringing in something like $90,000,001)
all told. $500,000,000. Last year the
output fell away to 1,900,000 tons of
rails, $53,000,000; 76.000 cars, $80,000.
000. and 2.300 locomotives, $27,000,000
In all, $160,000,000, showing a loss in
business to these three branches of
the steel industry of $340,000,000.
One need go no further than the re
ports of the big works to see the hav
oc that was wrought In the steel trade
by the closing of the railroad purse.
The Steel Corporations' sales .were
$766,000,000 In 1907 and $482,000,000
in 1998, a loss or $284,000,000. The
American Locomotive Company's
gross fell from $50,000,000 to $19,000.-
000 One of the car works reported a
decline in Income from $36,000,000 to
$8,000,000. The car builders were tho
wrrst sufferers, for the railroads al
ways stop buying cars when traffic de- ;
cllnea. In the dull times after the
bank panic the Idle cars on American
railroad sidings would have made tea
solid strings across the country.
Railroad buying to-day Is enormous,
but men like Hill of tho Great North
ern, and Brown of the New York Cen
tral, predict that the railroad purse Is
small compared with what It will be.
Hill says that the railroads haven't
grown as fast as the country, and that
we ought to build them twice as fast
aa we are now. Five billions of new
capital ought to be put Into railroads
in five years, be thinks. Brown be
lieves that seven and a half billions In
15 years Is a conservative estimate.
But this Is too low a figure. We are
now on a half billion a year basis for
new railroad capital. Four billions of
new capital has been put Into Ameri
can railroads since the panic of '93,
and half these years have been "lean"
years.
One great Industry that Is Just be
ginning to reel the stimulus of rail
road buying, and that Is likely soon to
be revolutionized by an era of new
construction, Is the copper Industry
Copper to-day is waiting for the rail
roads to open their purses In electrical
reconstruction like that now In prog
less on the New York Central and the
New Haven. Copper will boom as
never before In Its spectacular career
when the news comes that "The rail
roads are buying. "
Old Lights from
the Rio Brava
Br WILL LEVINGTON COMFORT
ICopyrlKht, by J. b. Llpplncott Co.)
A woman or a gold discovery will
change the whole order or living in a
man or a town. The case In Dolnt be
gins on the night that Reeder came up
irom soroeco with a lady. I had the
honor or knowing Reeder In the old
days. Reeder's lady was vividlv now.
as only a girl's rair race can be; and
It Is not her fault, nor mine, but the
conditions or Sodom, inasmuch as 1
was reminded that nltht of boinz a
colleger once, a clothes-model and n
rejolcer in life, back in the dim behind.
Hut. this is not my storv. It Is nid-
sey's. Dldsey is ray bimkie. 1 haven't
been ten yards away from Dldsey for
a week all told in two years, and since
weve run onto cold, relieton and
small-pox at the same time. I think
I'm beginning: to nnd prHtnnd tho hid
"Is that the Reeder you used to
know?" he questioned.
"Yes," I said.
"He seems to be dyln', Wesley."
"Looks that way, Dldsey."
"Is it the hanic-over of thpm is hnl.
let holes?"
"Listen," I whispered.
We had put our guests awav In tho
old gospel tent for the night, Sodom
not being metropolitan In its accom-
modations for the rarer sex. Just now
from the tent came a coueIi that Arl.
zona knows well; and, after the cough,
a low laugh from Reeder, that game,
nerveless laugh that I had Leard years
before, when the poker llchts were lit
on the Rio Brava, nnd the man who
sat next to the wall was safest.
"I see," said Dldsey softly.
We went over to the tent acain ores-
ently. Reeder was closer to the dark
than I had thought. She was a brave,
bright little thine, with a soft voire
that set my memories strumming like
a narp, anu big eyes that lit my way
back into the old epoch. I see that
I'll have to screw up the tension, and
repeat that this Is Dldsey's story.
If I had your niannprs WpbW
Didsey whispered, when we were back
in our own shack, "I'd never stop until
i coppeu a girl like that lur all my
own. Ain't she a sunrise with trlm
mln's?" "She's sure sweet sonic" T nhia.
pored.
"But I ain't cot no mnrp otvi ti.on
a blue shirt," he lamented.
I might have told him that it lan't
stylo that gets to a white woman, but
he would have wanted in Wnnar nil
about the origin of my theory. We
were quiet a lonz time. I una tMnb.
ing of the great, eamev dnv u.hon
Arizona was new, and the women
came out from the east, as they al
ways come to tfie edge of wars fnr .
savages to fight for their dances nnd
drop weltering for their smiles. They
meant a lot to me together the man
with the cough and the fair, lithe girl.
u mnue me think thnt t!n unat ....
old old and going out and that the
east was still in her youth. All that
the west stood for In her prime was in
inai dying man over In the eosnM ton
cards that couldn't lie; drink that
orougnt vine leaves but no madness;
the gun that spoke first and Inst nnt
the smile thnt iiMihjnnj.i.
. I,, in ii.c"Lai ft
couldn't twist or whlton t th
death bed of all this came a slin of n
girl out of the east.
Dldsey had never known n wnmnn
but the ghosts of all the f.-cea h hnH
passed in trains nnd dreams and towns
were gathered together that nlirht t.v
the presence over yonder.
"What would you do for a Woman
like that, Dldsey?" I asked.
I had leaped aboard the vrv train
of thoughts he was despatching, 'Td
De good to her," he said. "I'd bring
her dresses and nuggets and posies,
au urne ner where she wanted to go.
I wouldn't let her do no work that
would make her hot or soil her hands.
I wouldn't boss none, nn' I wouldn't
drink by Gawd, I wouldn5t drink
Wesley!"
The big fellow sighed and threshed
around in the dark. I knew he would
do as he said. How that sort of treat
ment would work, I wasn't prepared
to settle In my mind, being rusty on
the eternal quandary. We had $6,000
between us, Dldsey nnd I. He had
planned to mnke it ten, through our
pickings In the Mammon gorge, and
then carom from port to port around
the world, humble and contrite and
"broke." A mnn has to have some
thing to look forward to. Isn't It so?
The cough reached us again across
the sand; then the laugh of the gam
bler, nnd the murmur or the woman's
whispering. I craned my head out or
the door. The candle was still burn
ing under the canvas, and I saw her
shadow bending forward. I could even
tell that she had not unpinned her
hair. Preseutly I heard ner step on
the stand.
"Mr. WeBley, won't you come over
to the tent quickly?"
Dan Reeder was setting out across
the bay when I got there. He Intro
duced me to the girl again, as If 1
hadn't met her five minutes after the
stage came In. Her Hp was quivering
and the warm little hand that I took
was trembling.
"I'm glad we were able to get to
him, Jessio," be said In his slow, harsh
way. "This man stands white out of
tho old days while I was waiting for
you to grow up, girlie. The others are
dead, nnd there'll bo big games on the
griddle when I get there. Wesley, old
rooper, I'm leaving $80 and the gam--st
lltt'e woman thnt ever breathed
!-o open. See her through, old-timer,
ee her through. You're a gallant pair."
;.is votco was spent, and I hud to
bend low to catch the last When I
saw the woman's race In the candle
glow, I understood that she had also
beard.
She sat In the flap of the tent and
stared out at the rising day, her blue
eyes red, her red Hps tense. She was
young and brave and beautiful. None
of these was I. The thing which the
wreck of the great Reeder dreamed
and put in my brain that sho and I
should take up the game together after
a season was not adjusted to reason
nor beauty. I saw this in the gray or
dawning. Even if she were minded,
it would not be square to her. She
was just beginning.
"You Will CO bark tn thn nut Too.
le," I said.
What shall I do In the. cast-
alone?"
"Life Is better there for a girl."
"it is not. I have been there."
I looked OUt UDOn thn tnwn on.1
heard the rumble of tnen'n vnir'oa aa
they growled over their bacon In the
shacks. Some peered out at us; oth
ers were already making their way
wearily to their claims in the gorge.
The sufferlnir few were wa'tlno- in
front of Bllnkey die's for him to open
up nis bar. Sodom hnd nnvnr InnUmi
so sodden to me. so sordid. I oolnted
to the town.
"Lady, this Is no place for you."
"Do you think I cum for thn IruiL
of things?" she demanded, bending to
ward me. "Do you think I am not past
being beguiled by white linen and pol-
isnea leather? Does one whn ha
passed babyhood In
home, her childhood in a house of
refuge, nnd her girlhood in a scold's
Kitchen, huneer after thn llfo nf tho
east when she has known love and
tenderness out here araone thesn me-
sas and mountains? . . . Dan Reeder.
dying, was all that a man could be to
me. Always, at the last h
about you. 'There is gold up on the
Mammon,1 he would say. We will find
Wesley there. Weslev In A. mnn Ha
is all that you Would llkn ma tn ho
Jessie,' he told me. 'He will take care
of you when 1 go out, and tho east
neea not frighten you, girlie.' "
I Waited Until mv nervn inmn hank
and then I said: "Dan Reeder and i
stoou back to back when all the world
was a laugh, lady. We drank tho wine
of youth together, and the devil let
us nione, for the devil knew thnt th
smile would freeze nnd tho red glow
oi uving burn out, Reeder kept his
henrt, or you kent It fnr him m..
has hardened alone hard as the Di
ablo peaks yonder. I am not tho Wes
ley that 'Handsome Dan' knew. All
that is left over of that old Wesley is
bossing the Job I'm on now. You have
brain nnd benuty and youth. You'll
not be lashed to any rotten mast, such
as I am. You'll go up to Tucson, and
a man will see you there, the finest
man I've known since Reoder and I
took routes apart. He's bringing us
breakfast now. . . . Didsey," I added,
"the storm looks as if it was going to
blow by. This lady will need an es
cort to Tucson in nn hour, and I've
picked you for the honor."
He halted at the tent opening, the
tray shaking In his hand. The look
upon the girl's face was harder for
me to bear. She followed mo with her
wonderful eyes as I walked acrosB to
the little table and poured out a glass
of spirit.
They were ready in an hour. Didsey
ond I stood out by the ponies, while
she went Into the tent for the last
time. I gripped his hand.
There was no need for us to speak.
She came toward us and I put her on
the pony.
"You will make Guayama tonight
ond Tucson to-morrow afternoon " I
said. "Don't leave Tucson until you
get a letter from me."
She did not seem to hear me "I
think you are wrong-I think you are
all that Dan said even now," I heard
her whisper.
"God love you," I muttered, and
then recollecting Dldsey. I added,
"both."
They rode away Into the clearing
north. I watched them grow pale In
the watery sunlight and sink at Inst
over the edge or the mesa. Then I
returned to my good Mend In the gos
pel tent and set about his burial Two
days afterward the pony post took my
letter on the way to Tucson. I bad
negotiated my pile in the meanwhile
and put it on paper in hor name In
the letter I told her that It was an
old debt I owed Reeder so that she
surely would keep It. That was the
leaBt I could do, and tho most.
In the nights, before I thought' I
would reach for Dldscy-and then 'lie
awnke thinking, thinking. I didn't
want to see him again; and yet old
Sodom was senseless without him A
man becomes set In his ways at 40.
The fifth night he came Into the
shack and dropped down besldo me I
held my breath, hoping that It was a
ghost, but It was Dldsey la the flesh.
"Dreams go by contraries, Wesley "
he said in a dry tone. "You must have
knowed I wasn't the man."
rLe.t'" a drlnk'" 1 whlapored,
gripping his arm.
"By the way," he said, when the
candle was lit, "you'll have to stake
me for a week or two. I left my wad at
the bank for her. She wouldn't have
taken It from me straight Wesley
you must have knowed it wasn't me
whom Reeder made a God out or at
the last She didn't"
He halted. His race In the candle
light was that or a man at the edge
or death rrom hunger and thirst
Ten days afterward tho pony post
brought me back a letter from Tucson
She returned Dldsey's donation, as I
knew she would. Mine sho kept, since
It was nn old debt to Reeder. I might
tell the message she had for mo in
thnt letter, save that this Is Dldsey's
