Some idea of the growing part played by roads in American life may be gathered from the following table showing some of the American road industries. The road and bridge contractors and the people who furnish material for the roads have a capital of perhaps 600 million dollars. The makers of automobiles and wagons have 10 times as large a capital. This is a third as much as the capital value of all the rail roads of the United States which the Interstate Commerce Commission estimates at $18,900,000,000, or about 7 per cent of the total wealth of the country.
The Main Problems of American Roads.—Three of the great prob lems in American roadmaking today are: (1) How a single road can accommodate horse-drawn traffic, heavy and relatively slow truck traffic, and rapid traffic in passenger cars. On the main highways it is almost impossible to accommodate all three. In a few places near the big cities separate roadways for trucks and for passenger traffic have been constructed but this is very expensive. (2) Who is to pay for the roads? This means not only how much shall be paid by township, county, state, and nation, but how much of the expense shall be borne by the users of the roads. A heavy auto truck wears out the roads far faster than a light touring car. Already the license rates for the dif ferent types of cars vary, but the rates by no means represent the rela tive wear and tear on the roads. (3) How can durable roads be built without undue expense? This has been discussed in Chapter VIII. It is particularly important for the United States and Canada, for nowhere else is there so much automobile traffic. The fact that in North America the automobile now creates the greatest need of good roads is beginning to lead to a development like that of Europe, but the problem is now far more difficult than formerly because of the increased wear and tear due to motor vehicles.
The Railway Conditions of America.—What the United States and Canada lack in roads they partly make up in railways. Including the whole United States and the southern quarter or chiefly inhabited part of Canada the two countries together have an area of approximately four million square miles or roughly that of Europe. In that area the American countries have about 300,000 miles of railways while the Euro pean countries have 200,000. More trains per mile of track, how ever, are run on the European railways than on those of Amer ica. Nevertheless, the general facilities for railway transportation in proportion to both the area and the num ber of people are much better in North Amer ica than in Europe.
The enormous part played by railroads in the United States may be judged by the fact that under the rates effective in 1920-1921 the country's total an nual bill for railroad service was nearly 7 bil lion dollars, about a quarter for passenger service and the rest for freight. The
of profit on the passenger service is now greater than on the freight service although formerly it was less.
One of the most striking features of the American railways is the great trunk lines. In the United States many of the main systems are oper ated under one management from the Atlantic coast to Chicago, St, Louis, or New Orleans, and under another from these places to the Pacific coast. In Canada much longer stretches such as the Canadiar. Pacific and the Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific are operate under a single management. There a single train or at least individua cars run from tide water on the east to tide water on the west. No where except on the Siberian railway is so long a stretch of line run as single unit. Curiously enough in the United States no trains and not even individual sleeping cars run regularly all the way from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. Nevertheless even in the United States the length of line operated as a single unit far exceeds that in any part of Europe except Russia.
The long distances covered by American railways has been one of the factors in causing American cars to be very large and easy riding compared with those of Europe. The sleeping and dining cars are largely an American product and nowhere else are they nearly so com mon as here. Freight cars in the United States and Canada are also much larger than in other parts of the world. They are also of highly specialized types such as those for fruit, stock, coal, oil, lumber, and general merchandise.
In the matter of equipment American railroads are still far from ideal. Only 36,000 miles of the 236,000 in the United States are double tracked; only 38,000 are under the automatic block system, and only 102,000 under any block system. Another great deficiency is the extent to which the ordinary freight car remains idle. The following table shows what happens to a typical freight car during the 52 weeks of a normal year: On loading and unloading tracks 14 weeks Being switched to and from loading and unloading tracks 6 II Awaiting shippers' orders 2 " Idle, because of arrival on Sundays and holidays 3 Repairs 5 Stored for lack of tonnage in slack seasons ,. 2 " Waiting in yards en route for trains to be made up, etc 5 On interchange tracks where freight is transferred from one railroad to another It Actual movement along the main line 6 " The average car spends half its time being loaded and unloaded, and another quarter in waiting around after it has started on its journey. If deductions are made for wrecks, washouts, breakdowns, congestion, etc., the normal time that a car actually moves on the main lin6 is reduced to 37 days or one-tenth of the year. These figures help to explain why freight rates are so high. Of course a large part of the delay is inevitable, but there is clearly room for much improvement.