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Show GOVERNMENT TO FfiGE II DEFICIT AT ENDOF YEAH 1 Railroad Receipts Dwindle and Unless Better Show- ing Is Made Control Will Be Expensive. FIGURES GIVEN IN OFFICIAL REPORT Director General Hopes to Be Able to Cut Operating Expenses and Economize in Other Ways. WASHINGTON". Keb. 7. Rallroada in 1&17 eaxnod about ICS.OOO.OOO, whJ-.li 1a near the a mount the government will h to pay the roads this year aa com-pcr..iat!on com-pcr..iat!on under iu.tlon.tJ operation. This wn.H Indicate, by figures on revemira, ex-peni-t-s and Income of all roads earning more than J1.0Acno I-M e:ir nvailaMo lo-iay In unofficial computations based on Interstate commerce commission reports re-ports for eleven mo-nths and an tMlmate for December. The um the Arnmerit will have lo p:iy th- roads ur:d'r th h:ll pending !n etintfre.- 1 extim-ted at '. 'V""1" '' i'hairmn i-'mlth of the senate -onimiitc-e hHvlnt; the r!lro:d bi'.l In rt:are Figures for. li'17 Miow tr.i :r ra'Iway Income continue to decline nr. It his In rerent months the government will face a. deficit in making Us compensation py-mentp. py-mentp. augmented by lncre-ss in affes and t lie constantly rising coet of materia ma-teria Is and fjppltes. On the other hard, the railroad administration admin-istration hopoa to be able to cut operating operat-ing exr"niiea suf floien y and economise on charge? necessary only under ee-mpetl-tie conditions to offel the declining in :ome. Declined in December. In Iece-nter. the last month under pri-nte pri-nte operation, rail earnings declined sharply, according ' early rrort.s from ra; Ircac. The a vet site rMuc.Lion of ln- : me a Miimaf-1 at SO per cent, caused hv the e or-mount ii? cost of operation, dou,-!: incre.'i-fed hy the bitter - inter ve.nT her of ie.e?nher. together with a t- j'i ti dr-'p in revenues resulting from H i fUr con t 'on and embargoes. ompared ith the rstlmste-i Income of .r' l.'tst vear. the figures for 1316 were $l.-7.F..t3.-'ft0; for 1315. $7 IS, ; fr PI 4, .'2,C0.t"0, and for 1S13, Jm - L;t.st ear the total reem;es from railway rail-way -operations vere 51.0'""v"o and operating expenfrs were $2.L.0w,fi'u. l'-auii? a net re- Airje of $1 . 1 77.'"'WfV From rhv tere deducted J'l 7,0'.,0.ftOn t i a u I minor it ems of uneohet t f hl. revenue to compute the n income figure. h is comparaide in a general way to the h.u' of government compensation. Increase From Small Roads. Thepe figures will he Increased about 4 per tern by odd it ion of reports from numerous small roAds havfpg operating revenue- of lf-s than Jl rnhir) a year, whose, records are not included with tho reports of standard class one roads. The reason for the decline In net in-cf-me lasr year is shown graphjr all v bv ti e report. Operating revenues were u per i.ent greater tlian tho $.1.ii22,odoMri of W'l. nut exp-'n.-sfp ran more than 2" er -.ent above the ?J,73,0i)0,lhij mark of the year previously. Nearly all item? of expentw were higher. Wage increases are estimated at o" per cent. Cost of coal, train supplies and repairs re-pairs went up by hounds, with which the immense receipt-s from freight and other I revenues did not keep pave. i People traveled more In 1317 than in the year previous, hut the Increased revenues did not po far in counteracting I the steadily declining income. War caused an immense Increase in hauling, .and irom freight the roads received most I of their revenues. ' 1916 Banner Year. These revenues are estimated at $.S0S.-000,000, $.S0S.-000,000, as compared with 52,073.000.000 in tho banner net income year of 1016 Passenger revenues were $$10,000 000 as compared with J70S.00O.O00 the year ' before. be-fore. Receipts from mail were actually Hmaller than in 1916. despite the fact that the hulk of mail transported was much greater. Only J5S.703.000 was received from the government on this account, nearly $3,0i.'0,000 less than in !lt The reduction is attributed to the readjustment readjust-ment of the basis of payment from weight te space. . Receipts from express companies for hauling jumped from f ?0,;:,u"0 in 1916 to J106.000.OOO in 1017. Kor maintenance of way and structures railroads spent f -15 J. 900. "GO. about ?"S -000,000 more than the year before Kor maintenance of equipment the cost was $6D2,O0o.0l.O. as compared with $597 fin -OuO in i:)16. Wage Burden. The biggest increase came in so-called tianspnrtution expenses, which includes the principal Items of train operations. This amounted to S 1,525,000,000, or S'Ml-OHOJ'OO S'Ml-OHOJ'OO moro than the $1,1S4.uOoooo figure of 1916. A government commission estimated esti-mated the added financial wage burden on railroads caused by the Adamson act at ?61.0oe.o'.0. most of which Is included in transportation expense. Other wage increases are spread out in nearly every expense classification. In addition to short hauling and common com-mon use of facilities, the government hopes to offset big savings this year by eliminating expense of traffic solicitation solicita-tion agencies maintained b individual roads under the competitive svstoin. This expense constitutes a large part of the $t4.$00.000 item, classified in railroad reports re-ports of 1917 as "traffic expense." Taxes in 1917 showed a sudden increase in-crease In the last three months, when railroads were able to determine for the first time approximately what their war taxi's would be. They began In September! Septem-ber! to f-Kure on 'bo increases in their tax: accounts, and these Jumped from $17,000,000 In August, to an average of , $23.h00.000 in each of the later months, j Other comparisons by months show ' .(Continued on Page Four.) WHIT WILL FACE BIG DEFICIT (Continued from Pago One.) that, beginning in May, freight receipts increuso'i rapidiy. nf the Government was building cantonments and stimulating big war industries. Although the government govern-ment was niven ra tes averaging -n per cent lower than rates to private shippers, this traffic proved profitable because it was in Inixe .iiiantities. l-'ielht revenues 1 reached the peak in October, amounting 1 then to $70, 000. 000. and have dec!:nec rapidly since. December freight reve-nues reve-nues were estimated at not more t.":n j $200,000,000, t'r.i reduction tetr.e caused j bv br.d weather and embargoes. Total railway operating expenses :n- ! crea&ed every month s:nce iast Febru- . ary, when it ""as ? '''T. ;-.!"' "' to t v. ! Ovu in Xovemttr, n-. I ottm':er s f.gjre is estimated at even more. Analysis of Figures. An analysis of interstate commerce commission's figures by districts shows that although eastern roads receive! $l,,S,$2.0i'0.0'"'O operating revenues in the eleven months ending with November, as comrire-J with ? 1 . 'i 0 . 0 0 . 0 3 revenues we3T-:-m lir.es, thr net income was .t:5. I, was in the east that the greatest c:z-ses'.ion c:z-ses'.ion ar.d the dera:.?erner.t fror t-tarsoe? t-tarsoe? were iV-i in the lat rtc-'hf el Railway opera-.ir.E' ir.come of te ea."-rr; ea."-rr; iines was est. mated at '.: i :"or the year; wes'.ern "ir.es. V"..".-ani V"..".-ani southern lines. S 1 : 1 "b J 1 r ;.;.1T7 for the west ai.d ; 3 3 ? 3 I" south. f None of these figures include l- of buvlr.s new e'-.uiprr.ent. which i TC; rorte-3 under s ? z a r a ; e capital a yff j Thousands o: additional lot cmoyc : -- ( i rs and other rolling: sto;lt wre tctci" in liU;. |