Show IN RAILWAY CIRCLES The Demurrage System and How it Works OME ASTONISHING FIGURES The Western States Passenger Association Asso-ciation Unused Tickets Personal Per-sonal and General Pont The demurrage system recently in ngurated in this city proves very satis factory it la said to the railway com pauses althougL some shippers are not quite so muoh in love with it as they might be The larger shippers how ever claim that the system has its ad antajes because it has a tendency to discourage thj practice heretofore indulged dulged in of making warehouses cut of cars The railways too they claim have acted very fairly in the matter and wherever just cause is shown the demurrage has been remitted The Omaha bureau was the first to start in business A little over a year ago and from a report of the commissioner at Omaha recently published the following follow-ing facts have been cleaned In Oo tober 1836 before the bureau began its labors the daily average number of ara in the various yards at Omaha was 2312 This was almost a blockade This number varied through the various vari-ous months down to August 1887 wnen the average number was 2213 The succeeding month when the bureau I was organized the number was reduced to 1926 in October to 1 066 in N > vem bel to 828 and in December 1888 the average daily number was 652 During Dur-ing heavy rushes of freight the number has been larger but it has also been down as low as 511 in February 1888 This means two things First thd rail roads switched the cars promptly to the proper unloading places f and second the consignees unloaded the cars quite as promptly It will be seen that there isa double advantage in this for while the railroad has the use of the extra number of cars the consi me receives his material quicker than otherwise other-wise the yaids are also free from blockade This idea and en additional pecuniary one is expressed in the following lowing note appended to the table showing the reduction of the average The daily average decrease for the fifteen months amounts to 955 cars per day or 436434 cars for the 457 days since the bureau was opened which akan at the low figure of 50 cents per day makes a saving of 21217 in car service since the demurrage system went into effect The Union Pacific hallway has taken off three switch engines the Burlington ti Missouri two and the Missouri Pacific one This saving amounts to 6000 per month or 90 003 for the fifteen months which added to the saving in car service makes the total saving 5308217 The total amount of demurraca collected lected in that period was 10609 93 and the expenses of conducting the bureau 6437 02 so that the net profit which J various companies realize for the seofj cars held beyond the limit was l l o t TWO KINDS OF ADVEETISIKO One kind of advertising staoks hih buKding adjectives regardless of their ropiiety tho other presents plaa statements of interest to the public Its It-s for eyery railroad to adVertise ad-Vertise itself as the shortest quickest eapest best and all the other ests U Iu Tcseping with their reputation for taking the first step of advancement in every line of railroad conduct the Penn sylvania Lines were fist to drop the high flown methods of advertising and to give their announcements asimple rjd dignified tone It is well known that the track equipment and methods Of operation of this railway system are of a nature that elicits the ndnrralion patrons competitors alike About I all that is theiefore necessary for the Pennsylvania officers to do in the way advertising isfo announce tie time of their trains In the description of the fast express trains that leave St JSuis every day for the east over these lines there is however abundant op jSrtunity for the use of commendatory adjectives They carry Pullman Vesti bule cars through to Baltimore Wash ngton Philadelphia and New You in quick time and present comforts and conveniences that canaot but be appreciated appre-ciated by their patrons For full i i fOrmation apply to JM Chesbrongh Assistant General Passenger Agent 100 North fourth Street St Louis Mo PEBOKAL AND GENERAL Imc Union Pacific has heretofore been run on fine sent out from Omah but Superintendent Korty has jus completed an arrangement which goesinto effect March 1 whereby time will be signaled from Washington University Uni-versity atSt Louis The standard for regulating sigonls is 10 6clocK am central time Telegraph wiles are connected con-nected with an automatic clock in the observatory Time is announced by vibrations of the pendulum which breaks the current and notifies the main offices all over the line THE FInS orange train1rpf the season sea-son indulged in some remarkable wheeling ling l-ing between Ogden and Omaha The train was made up of twelve freight cars loaded with oranges consigned to various points in Minnesota Dakota Iowa and Illinois The run from Ogden to Omaha a distance of 1032 milea was made in thirtyeight hours and fifty minutes which would be an average of over twentysix miles per boor a rate of speed which railroad men state is something extraordinary for freight trains to make and spec ally in the winter time A PBOMINENT railroad authority states It is claimed that tbe fact that the railroad companies are ready and willing to redeem the unused portions of all tickets which purchasers for any reason have failed to use has changed tbe sentiment of the people generally in regard to the business of ticKet scalping and an amendment to the Mt to regulate commerce prohibiting his practice by a national lav would undauntedly un-dauntedly receive tbe support of the better class of business men throughout through-out the country as the public can plainly see that whatever reduction were then made by the railroad companies com-panies would go direc ly to the pools and not be largely I absorbed by a in d die class which has built itself up without with-out benefiting either the public or the railways II JOHN L BtAiB the railroad king ha the following to say of the recent agree nent adopted by the Western States Passenger Association Uniform commission com-mission means that the ticket agent who got from 2 to 5 and sent tho business busi-ness over the line that paid the largest amount will now get no more from one road than he does from another Tne railroads will save themselves a large sum of money The money paid for passenger ares will 0 into the treasury of a railroad where it belongs instead of the pocket of the local ticket agent o scalper and stockholders will also get a profit on their investment and passenger business will be equal ized and distributed over all 1nes instead in-stead of being concentrated upon the I few paying large commissions A general gen-eral passenger agent will have to do business on his own brains and not buy it at a IOSR in order to show that he is the man for his place It is not the volume of business but die profits bat show skillful management and good capacity |