30 paid 8 per cent., 36 paid over 8 per cent., 115 paid under 8 per cent., and 628 paid no dividends. Of these 809 companies, the earnings of 31 were insufficient to pay “operating-expenses,” the earnings of 170 were insufficient to pay “operating-expenses” and “interest,” and 216 defaulted on their “bond-interest.”
The Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the Central Pacific Railroad Company, did better than ever before in the year 1876, notwithstanding the fact that all other railroad companies suffered from the great depression of trade and industrial enterprise. (See pages XV and XVI of Poor's Manual, 1877.)
| Gross earnings | $31,033,803 | |
| Operating-expenses | 14,000,286 | |
| Net earnings | 17,033,517 | |
| Bonded interest, paid | $6,612,815 | |
| Eight per cent. dividend on stock | 7,299,000 | |
| 13,911,815 | ||
| Surplus | 3,121,702 |
Excepting these two companies from the calculation, but 34½ per cent. of the capital stock invested in railroads pays a dividend; the average rate per cent. of dividends paid is but 281100; but 68¾ per cent. of the bonded investment in railroads receives interest, and the average rate of interest is but 422100 per cent. The two railroads named pay 8 per cent. dividends on capital stock, and 621100 per cent. interest on their bonded debt.
On the “one-hundred miles basis” a comparison between all other roads in the United States and these two roads for the year 1876, is as follows, viz:
| Items. | All other roads. |
Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads. |
| Locomotives used. | 21 | 17 |
| Passenger-cars used | 20 | 20 |
| Freight-cars used | 510 | 319 |
| Capital stock | $2,912,919 | $4,652,112 |
| Bonded debt | 2,793,355 | 7,180,342 |
| Cost of road and equipment | 5,170,322 | 11,453,038 |
| Passenger-earnings | 184,859 | 453,795 |
| Freight-earnings | 397,754 | 806,054 |
| Total earnings, including mails, &c. | 686,214 | 1,378,465 |
| Operating-expenses | 436,604 | [1]621,867 |
| Net earnings | 249,610 | 756,598 |
| Bond-interest paid | 129,087 | 293,725 |
| Dividends on capital stock | 90,180 | 324,208 |
- ↑ Construction, new equipment, and improvements evidently enter largely into this amount for “operating-expenses.”
To illustrate still more fully the ability of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad Companies to earn money, and with a proper disposal of their earnings in due time to pay off all of their indebtedness
