Show ITS EFFECT UPON THE ROADS In a late issue of the Railway Age a table is given showing the gross earnings of one hundred and one railways during tho first five months of the present year These roads with a mileage of about 60000 miles earned during the period indicated 120039635 against 110454 175 in the same period last ear an actual gain of 18605510 or nearly 17 per cent The increase of mileage is about 5 per cent compared with last year Among those showing tho greatest great-est gains the Atchison tho New York Central Grand Trunk Denver Rio Grande the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and a number of others show gains from nearly 2000000 to 100000 In order to ascertain the effects of the InterState law on the railways the returns re-turns for last month offer onie basis for calculation The returns of the 101 railways rail-ways mentioned in the table for tho month of May show a gain in gross earnings earn-ings of over 15 per cent with an increase of about 5 per cent in the mileage The mileage of 69000 miles covered by these roads is about 45 per cent of the mileage operated in this country This makes a I tolerably fair basis of i comparison although al-though many of the principal systems are not included It would seem therefore that the operation of the new law has not reducod the aggregate But on the other hand concludes the Age it must bs remembered that general gen-eral business is much better this year than it was a year ago and that railway I construction which necessitates a vast I amount of freight carriage is going on J with extraordinary activity so that a large increase in earnings is expected Whether it would have been larger or smaller if the new law had not been passed no ono can safely tell |