SOUTHERN RAILWAYS AND THEIR NEEDS
by
John F. Wallace.
Abstract of Address before Southern Commercial Congress Washington, D. C., Dec. 7 and 8, 1908.
This question has been extensively treated by leading railroad men, statesmen and Press of the South, and admirably covered by addresses on numerous occasions before various audiences throughout the South.
I therefore feel that the southern railroad situation is gradually becoming better understood, not only by the public at large, but by the railway men of the South, who are jointly appreciative of the fact that the greatest need of southern railroads is the confidence and support of the communities through which they run and serve.
Therefore, my remarks will be few, and are made in order that certain fundamentals may be read into the record of this convention.
For the purposes of this address the South is described as that portion of the United States lying south of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and east of the Mississippi.
Shortly after the close of the Civil war, the South realizing the changed order of things, accepted the situation in the spirit of American manhood and started on a new era of industrial and commercial development.
One of the first necessities was a comprehensive system of transportation facilities. The railroads, which prior to the Civil war had compared favorably with those in the North, at its close were practically bankrupt financially and physically, and were more the shadow than the substance of what they should have been.
Southerners with brains and energy, starting with 11,587 miles of detached, dilapidated and crippled railways, immediately commenced to lay the foundation of the present industrial and commercial prosperity in the South by constructing its lines of railway.
The efforts of these men and the confidence they were able to inspire in northern and foreign capital are best illustrated by the fact that today the South is served with 46,434 miles of railroad, serving eleven states, twenty million people, and representing a total investment in round numbers of two billion dollars.
Of these 46,434 miles of railroads only 1,134 miles approximately, or 2½ percent, are double track. It is possible that the next ten years will see at least one-fourth, or over ten thousand, additional miles of second track.
It must be borne in mind that while transportation is the burden bearer of both production and commerce, it is only able to perform the full and complete measure of its functions when properly nourished and assisted by finance.
In ancient days the birth of civilization started with the ability to preserve food products. This grew from the temporary necessity of accumulating sufficient food to last from one chase to another, or to enable journeys to be performed or winter climates endured, to the storage of vast quantities of food to enable nations to survive years of famine, as was exemplified by the storage of grain in Egypt in the days of Joseph, which period history shows us was the crowning epoch of Egyptian civilization.
Today the measure of our modern civilization is our transportation facilities. Safe, efficient and rapid communication, and the economy of the world's transportation systems, are binding the nations of the earth closer together day by day, and helping to create the conditions which will ultimately place the crown of accomplishment upon our modern civilization.
Coming back to the South, from which we have been temporarily led astray, it is self-evident to the careful observer that all the diverse interests of this section—agriculture, mining, manufacture, commerce and banking—are unavoidably and irrevocably bound up with the transportation facilities furnished and to be furnished by the railway systems ramifying its territory and performing a service for the South similar to that performed by the arteries and blood-vessels in the body of corporeal man.
It is also apparent to the impartial observer that if the South is to reach its highest state of development its transportation facilities should not lag, but should lead the march of progress, and that this development should be stimulated in every possible way; and men of the South should never forget for a single moment that the needs of the railroads are the needs of the South.
It has been our custom in America to anticipate future needs in transportation, and in a measure attempt to forestall and provide for them.
The policy of foreign countries has been practically the reverse. The railway systems of England have been constructed to take care of and supply a demand for transportation facilities that already existed.
The railroads of the United States in the South and West have been projected and constructed, and to a great extent financed, by men whose inspiration was a firm belief in an unseen future and whose assets were largely composed of hope and an undying faith in the future development of their country.
Now, the future demands for increased transportation facilities in the South are plainly indicated by past records, showing the growth of productive activities and the constant increase of tonnage to be moved.
If these requirements are to be met, demand and supply must move forward hand in hand. Additional tonnage will justify increased facilities and increased facilities will stimulate still greater tonnage.
During the past 25 years the total products of the South, from agriculture, forest, mines and manufactures, have increased in valuation over 225 per cent. During the last five years of this period, ending in 1906, the increase has been 50 per cent.
The common fallacy that a railroad is completed when opened for traffic has long since passed away, at least in the minds of intelligent men.
The railroad of today is no sooner completed as a single track, than it becomes necessary to provide industrial spurs; additional or enlarged terminals; replace its temporary structures by permanent ones; widen its excavations; strengthen its embankments; provide passing tracks, additional shop facilities, enlarged passenger and freight stations, warehouses, elevators, docks and wharves at water terminals, additional tracks, heavier rail, rock ballast, elimination of curves, reduction of grades, block signals, elimination of grade crossings, heavier engines, larger and better cars, to the end that the constantly growing requirements and exactions of modern traffic conditions may be met; all of which requires increased expenditures, which it is easily seen could not in any event be provided for out of earnings.
During the next ten years the railroads of the South will require $1,000,000,000 to enable them to fully provide for the increased demands for transportation facilities, an average of $100,000,000 per annum. Including the estimated increased mileage and the present capital investment, the resulting average capitalization would amount to $53,000 per mile, being $20,000 per mile under the present average capitalization of all the railroads of the United States today, which is $73,000 per mile.[B]