property to obviate deficits, especially when the road is put in thorough condition. To do this will presumably call for some $2,500,000, although the president of the company has stated $690,000 to be all that is required. That effectual betterments will have a most wholesome influence upon earnings cannot be doubted, and it may be assumed that the latter will be enhanced in such manner as will offset the increase in first charges to result from the issue of new bonds. At present the O. & M., owing to its heavy working expenses, (approaching 0.65c. per ton-mile in 1891, chiefly because all improvements had to be paid for out of earnings, the credit of the company being exhausted) is not able to compete with better roads, but efficiency up to date would change. this, and place the road in a position to cater vigourously and successfully for low freights, notably for the soft coals. from the Illinois coal district, which its Springfield division taps; this fuel constitutes one-third of the tonnage shipped over its lines. The company's inability to carry low freights at cheap rates and still with profit is chiefly responsible for the curious and deplorable phenomenon that the freight movement in 1891 was smaller than in 1883, whereas on most lines in the same region it has considerably increased during the same period.

Table showing Mileage and Freight and Passenger Movement on the Ohio and Mississippi RR. since 1881.

Subjoined are the usual tables relating to earnings, expenses, income and financial condition of the company. Earnings and Expenses.

Balance..

1,210,052 1.219,845 1,193.048 1,133,461 def.37,639 sur.82,429 def.173,244 sur.110,681

This includes $50,500 to equipment trust in 1838-89 and 1889-90, and $60,500 in 1890-91.

Classified Statement of Tonnage Transported for the fiscal years ending June 30th, 1890 and 1891.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MINOR MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL GROUP.

Although it lies beyond the scope of this work to give details of every railway in the United States, it seems desirable to add a few data relating to a number of smaller lines of considerable import either as local competitors or connections of the greater systems to be found in the Central States as we have chosen to name the group of Commonwealths in which the railways dealt with in chapters XXII to XXIX are situated. It goes almost without saying that a region so comparatively densely populated as this, and enjoying such a wealth of agricultural and industrial resources, possesses a number of small lines to which the greatest local importance is attached, and it is equally evident that either as disturbing or assisting factors these minor systems have a great bearing upon the trunk lines or their allies.

There are five groups of these railways. The most conspicuous among them is composed of lines connecting Cleveland and Pittsburg with the surrounding mining districts, and, as it were, clustered around the Northeastern section of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio system. Next comes a group of roads terminating in Toledo; a third is to be found in Michigan, a fourth in Southern Indiana and Ohio, and a fifth runs from the Ohio river north. Apart from these there are, of course, the trunk lines or parts thereof already referred to, and a few lines belonging to systems

the centre of which does not lie in this region, and which therefore are dealt with elsewhere.

It is quite superflous to remark that the portions of the powerful trunk lines to be found in this section of the country play very important roles (see p. 379). The four roads forming part of the Vanderbilt system with its commanding situation, the 'Western Lines' of the Pennsylvania, and the trans-Ohio portion of the Baltimore and Ohio necessarily occupy a prominent position in local traffic as well as in through business. The New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, though less important than the central parts of other trunk lines, is indispensable to the Erie, and of considerable account in local business; and the same holds good of the Chicago and Atlantic. Then the Grand Trunk and the Wabash, though merely parts of systems centreing elsewhere, have a bearing upon transportation business; and it will be necessary to briefly refer to these various lines if we wish to give a correct sketch of the railroad situation in the Central States.

The Chicago and Erie derives its importance chiefly from the fact that it is the Chicago connection of the Erie system. In Marion the road, 268 miles long, meets the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and thence it goes in an almost straight line to Hammond, Ind., where it connects with Chicago by using the tracks of the Chicago and Western Indiana RR., whose terminals it also shares and whose property it owns in part. The C. & E. proper is 249 miles long, 19 miles of the tracks it uses being the property of the Chicago and Western Indiana.

The present company is a reorganisation of the Chicago and Atlantic, which defaulted on interest in November, 1884, and was sold in foreclosure August 12th, 1890. The New York, Lake Erie & Western owns the entire stock of $100,000 and guarantees the interest on the first mortgage bonds. The funded debt consists of $12,000,000 5 p.c. first mortgage bonds and $10,000,000 5p.c. non cumulative incomes. Of the former

American Railroads,

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