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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1901)
. . . . . , . , , , , . . , . , - , . - , . . . , . - . , , , , . - . , , - - - - r l. , , , , r/f , , -.v > r , , .r- , -j jfUfrvrg wy f -wtr Cbe Conservative * ILLINOIS CENTRAL REPORT. It is always exceedingly interesting to get a glimpse of tlto inside work ings of one of the great commercial or ganizations of the country. The Con servative has just received the 51st yearly report of the directors of the Illinois Contra 1 Railroad Company to their stock holders and has scrutin ized it with some care. The Illinois Central , while not one of the largest systems in the country , occupies a very respectable position , operating some 4,000 miles of road. Half of this lies in Illinois , and the greater part of the remainder is in the New Orleans line ; though there are over 700 miles of road in Iowa , and South Dakota , Minnesota , Wisconsin and Indiana also are entered , each wit.li less than 100 miles of track. Practically no now building was done in the year ending June 80 , though a few additions were made by pur chase , chief among them being the old Peoria , Decatnr & Evansville road. The gross earnings of a 4,000-mile system thus located it appears were $37,000,000 , of which $25,000,000 came from the freight and $7,000,000 from the passenger department. Other in teresting items were $770,000 for car rying the mails , $650,000 from express companies and $200,000 , from dining cars and eating-houses. Besides this , the company realized $2,500,000 from various ' ' investments ; ' ' indicating that railroad directors are not idle in times of prosperity. Sales of lands have dwindled to $28,000. Out of this revenue the company disbursed $24,800,000 for operating ex penses , $3,000,000 for interest on its indebtedness , $3(500,000 for rent of subsidiary lines and $1,600,000 for taxes , including its partnership ar rangement with the state of Illinois , which receives , in lieu of taxes , 7 per cent , of the gross earnings of the orig inal line. This amounted to over $800,000 in this case , the largest sum ever earned. The remaining $7,000,000 went to pay a (5 ( per cent dividend , $3,000,000 for "betterments" and $250,000 to es tablish a pension fund. It was a very good year for the company , as appears from the fact that while receipts in- 'crcased between 18 and 14 per cent over the preceding year , operating ex penses increasing at about the same rate , fixed charges were less than 8 per cent greater. This is where they got their money for betterments , the appropriation for which was 80 per cent larger than the year before. at work double-track They arc busily - ing the Now Orleans line ; $2,000,000 was put into this work this year , and they propose to use $5,000,000 more during the coming year. The pension fund is an interesting item. Employees are to be pensioned off at the age of 70 , or at any time after (51 ( if they become incapacitated. The pension is liberal , being one per cent of their wages multiplied by the number of their years of continu ous service ; and it appears that the company docs not make it up by as sessing active employees , but pays it entire from its own earnings. It is interesting to know that a rail road of this size carries $2,500,000 worth of material and supplies on hand. The chief item is track ma terial , $750,000 ; bridge material a Ad fuel are also important matters , being inventoried at over $200,000 each. In the department of maintenance , it is noted that renewals of ties cost the company $650,000 against $ -175,000 for renewal of rails. Keeping up sta tion grounds cost $86,000. Heavier rails are being laid all over the country. These people laid over 800 miles of 85-pound rail in this year , and now have 800 miles of that weight in operation and 1500 miles of 75-pound. Into the other line of im provement that attracts one's atten tion wherever ho goes at present , the reduction of grades , the Illinois Cen tral put $200,000. Of the 891 engines owned by the company , it is curious to note that 79 are over 20 years old. There are even two in service that date from the 50's though one may suppose that these are kept , somewhere as cur iosities. The engines that they have discarded during the year have been replaced with others of more than double their capacity. The rapid in crease in engine power in recent years is shown by the fact that the new engines which they have pur chased are calculated to haul 4,600 tons on level track , while the average ca pacity of all their engines , including these , is only 8,300 tons. Their tables also illustrate the growth in the size of freight cars. Twenty years ago 20 tons was the limit ; the first 80-ton cars appeared only ten or twelve years ago ; but the average capacity of this road's 88,000 cars , including the small fruit and stock cars , is 29 tons. One other point noticed is the short average dis tance traveled by passengers. The road carried 18,000,000 during the year , but the average journey was less than 21 miles , and the average fare paid only 41 cents. This is no doubt due to the large suburban business done out of Chicago. HIGHEST AWARD ON COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. The judges at the Pan-American Ex position , Buffalo , have awarded three gold medals to Walter Baker & Co. Limited , Dorchester , Mass. , for the superiority of their Breakfast Cocoa and all of their cocoa and chocolate preparations , and the excellence of their exhibit. This is the thirty-seventh highest award received by them from the great expositions in Europe and America. AGRICULTURE IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. BY LOUISA M'DEUMOTT. In my letter of August 12 , I said , "If the schools give any training tlrtif makes for agriculture , I do not know of it. ' ' That sentence is literally true. I did not know of any schools in Nebraska that taught agriculture except the State Agricultural School , and it I mentioned later on. But I wish to tell not only the truth but the whole truth. I meant in the sen tence quoted that I did not believe there was any provision made in the common schools for the teaching of agriculture. In that assumption I was not en tirely correct , and Superintendent Fowler corrected me. It seems that the last legislature had made certain provisions for agriculture"after July J , 1908 , the elements of agriculture , including a fair knowledge of the structure and habits of the common plants , insects , birds and quadrupeds are made a requirement for a teacher , second grade certificate. ' ' That is certainly a step in the right direction and I hope it is the intention of those in the state who have pushed the matter so far , to keep on until ag riculture is given its rightful recog nition in the common schools of Ne braska. As yet it is only a require ment and may be ignored. In the meantime a full and free discussion of the question , "Shall agriculture bo taught primarily in the common schools of Nebraska ? " will do much good and make ready for the proper teaching of that sub jet by interesting educators in it. And now that I have said so much I shall state my own con victions on what I think should bo the place of agriculture in the com mon schools. I believe that agriculture is a sub ject of fundamental importance and should bo taught primarily in the common schools , not only of Nebras ka , but of every other state where it is possible to teach the subject. Ag riculture should not bo taught in the schools of New York City but for this reason alone , there are not available means at hand by which the teachers could give first-hand , experimental knowledge of the subject and all in struction in agriculture should be based on first hand experience. If not , the result is mere empty verbalism and there is plenty of that in most schools now. Agriculture is certainly of funda mental importance to Nebraska. It is the life of the state and concerns now , and ever must concern the great 'ma jority of the citizens of Nebraska. The schools are for the masses not the classes , and they exist solely because they are to train men and women for good citizenship. When the common