Railroad Buying

Purchases by railroads cover almost the whole field of commodities and are always important as a factor in general business prosperity. Many lines of industry have owed much of their activity in the past few years to the heavy spending of railway officials. In 1923. capital expenditures for locomotives amounted to $208,966,280; for cars. $472,757,711; and for other improvements. $377,425,435--or a total of $1,059,149,426. During the present year, authorized expenditures for locomotives are $101,233,000; for cars, $412,264,000: and for other improvements $563,800,000--or $1,077,297,000 altogether.

In the opinion of many students of business, these large sums have sufficed to put U. S. roads generally in very good physical shape; the ease with which the roads have handled a record traffic this fall is cited as proof.