Identifier: HistoricalCollectionsOfOhio1891V2 (find matches)
Title: Historical Collections of Ohio: An Encyclopedia of the State ; History Both General and Local, Geography with Descriptions of Its Counties, Cities and Villages, Its Agricultural, Manufacturing, Mining and Business Development, Sketches of Eminent and Interesting Characters, Etc., with Notes of a Tour over It in 1886 V 2
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Subjects: Ohio -- Biography Ohio -- History Ohio -- Local History Ohio -- Description and travel
Publisher: Columbus : Henry Howe & Son

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tons one mile(about six large car-loads) was sixty-four cents. Small as this was, it was ninecents more than the average of 1885. What was the result of this slight improvement which hurt nobody? It wasthe signal of the dawn of better times, after the long night of depression, and,instantly, fires were started in idle rolling mills, locomotive and car works, andevery industry in this great land, even gas and oil and real estate booms, felt theimprovement in the trade barometer. This little improvement gave the long-suffering four thousand stockholders of the L. S. & M. S. R. R. a little dividendof two per cent., or a million dollars, to be poured into the arteries of trade. As this road operates only a little more than one per cent, of the railroadmileage of the United States, I leave it to your imagination to estimate the aggre-gate benefit of a little more pay for this mighty torrent of freight. . . . There are on the pay-rolls of the L. S. & M. S. R. R. the names of 10,400
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The Pionker Railroad of the West men, among whom were distributed $510,000 in March. Then there is anotherlarge army of men working for the company indirectly—making steel rails, build-ing locomotives and cars, mining the 1,250 tons of coal consumed every day, andmanufacturing the-many supplies used. It is safe to say that one-tenth of thelarge population of the United States gain a livelihood by working for railroads,either directly or indirectly. The introduction of the Bessemer steel rails brought about a great reduction inthe rates for freight; the rate for 1887 being but thirty per cent of the rate for1886, and every dollar of this benefit has been enjoyed by the consumer and notby the railroads. The L. S. & M. S. R. R. earned in 1886 $15,859,455, and it has averagedfor seventeen years $16,006,1.61 per annum. Now, it is my opinion, after con-siderable thought and research, that the aggregate earnings of all the craft tradingupon this great chain of lakes, from the St. Lawre

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