Railroad officers, with their great advantages for enlightenment, owe it to themselves and their men to see that the thousands under them have fair opportunities for rising in the world, and that the owners of the immense corporations which stand as masters of such vast armies fully understand their measure of responsibility in the premises. Science and invention, machinery and improved methods, have effected great changes in the railroad art, but the American nation, which travels more than any other, still recognizes the fact that faithful and efficient _men_ are an essential factor in the prosecution of that art. People desire to deal with a personality, and therefore wish to see the _personnel_ of the railroad service fostered and perfected. FOOTNOTES: [33] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 222. [34] The New York elevated roads run 3,500 trains a day, each one passing signals (likely to indicate danger) every hundred rods, almost. Who can expect engineers never to blunder in such innumerable operations? [35] Mr. Porter King, of Springfield, Mass., who has run an engine on the Boston & Albany road for forty-five years, and who served on the Mohawk & Hudson, the Long Island, and the New Jersey Railroads in 1833-44, when horses were the motive power and the reverse lever consisted of a pair of reins, ran until December, 1887, before his engine ever killed a person. [36] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 204. STATISTICAL RAILWAY STUDIES.[37] BY FLETCHER W. HEWES. Railway Mileage of the World--Railway Mileage of the United States--Annual Mileage and Increase--Mileage Compared with Area--Geographical Location of Railways--Centres of Mileage and of Population--Railway Systems--Trunk Lines Compared: By Mileage; Largest Receipts; Largest Net Results--Freight Traffic--Reduction of Freight Rates--Wheat Rates--The Freight Haul--Empty Freight Trains--Freight Profits--Passenger Traffic--Passenger Rates--Passenger Travel--Passenger Profits--General Considerations--Dividends--Net Earnings per Mile and Railway Building--Ratios of Increase--Construction and Maintenance--Employees and their Wages--Rolling Stock--Capital Invested. Although the United States was the second nation to open a line of railway, it operates to-day nearly half the mileage of the world, and it has so many miles of double, triple, and quadruple track that, were the data of trackage available, such a comparison would undoubtedly show it to more than equal all the rest of the world combined. Below is given a chart comparing the mileage of the principal railway countries. The list contains all countries having a mileage of over ten thousand kilometers.