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Show PROSPEROUS YEAR AHEAD Employing over two million people at good wages, spending millions each week for materials and supplies,, the railroads are a good barometer of business. The number of freight cars ordered for use in the United States in 1922 amounted to 180,154, the largest total since 1912, contrasting with only 23,346 and 84,207 cars in years 1921 and 1920 respectively. respec-tively. Locomotives ordered foT domestic service in 1922 totaled 2.600, the largest figure since 1918 as compared with only 239 in 1921 and 1998 locomotives in 1920. Altogether, it is estimated that the railroads contracted for the expenditure of more than four hundred and seventy-one million dollars dol-lars during the year for freight and passenger cars and locomotives combined. The average cost of freight cars is now said to be about $1,700, passenger cars about $22,000 and locomotives about $50,000. Orders for equipment for 1923 are still larger than for 1922, and with no national shop strike, coal or Big Four Brotherhood strikes ahead, our country may expect increasing prosperity. |