A Gigantic Concern.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7765, 28 October 1896, Page 4

A Gigantic Concern.

m An English writer having boasted that the London and North-Western Railway waa the biggest corporation on earth, with its capital of L 121,000,000, its 60,000 employees, its 2300 engines, and earnings of over LI3OO per hour, the American Exporter has taken the matter up in the following terms:— "The North- Western Railway Co. is, no doubt, a gigantic corporation for a little country like England, and worth bragging about, but we have a bigger one here in the United States that might absorb it very easily. The Pennsylvania railroad, for example, has a capital of L 175,000,000, and 15,430 miles of track which traverse thirteen States. It has 3756 locomotives, which consume 20,000 tons of coal a day, and make runs equal to the distance around the globe every two hours. It has 3935 passenger cars, 154,000 freight cars, 350 Pullman cars, and 241 other cars for construction and other purposes, making a total of 158,524 cars, which make a journey equal to the circumference of the earth in every eight minutes. The locomotivea and cars, if placed on a single track, would reach from New York to Chicago. The rails of the Pennsylvania railroad, if laid end to end, would encircle the globe and overlap aboub 4000 miles. The total annual revenue of the road is L 27,500,000, equal to L 76.000 a day and L 3160 every hour of the day and night, which is two and a-half times as much as that of the North-Western of England. The North-Western boasts of 60,000 employees, but the Pennsylvania company has over 100,000, who, with their families, make up a total of about 500,000 persona dependent for their living upon the L 12,000,000 it distributes in wages every year." These figures of the American Exporter include all the systems which the Pennsylvania company controls, and to some extent is unfair to the London and North- Western comparison. Yet, if ire take the market value of the capitals of the two systems, it will be found that that of tho English company 'stands as high as that of the American champion railroad. Last year the total Pennsylvania systems received in gross earnings L 27,000,000, but of this L 19,000,000 was absorbed in working expenses, leaving the net profit at only L 8,000,000.