LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. OFFICE OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS, To His Excellency M. B. McSweeney, Governor of South Carolina. D. P. DUNCAN, Secretary. J. C. WILBORN, CHAIRMAN. 4362 REPORT. To the Honorable, the Senators and Members of the House of Reprepresentatives of South Carolina. In obedience to the law enacted in Section 1620 of the Revised Statutes of the State, we, the Board of Railroad Commisisoners, acting under the authority of said Section, do make and submit herewith our twenty-fourth Annual Report. An unbroken custom with former Commissioners has been to open the Report with their tabulations, one detailing the annual mileage growth, another showing the assessment per mile for taxation, and the third a general exhibit of earnings and expenditures. For convenience this plan will be followed here, with a fourth table added, which we have secured from the Interstate Commerce Commission, showing the average tax per mile paid by the railroads throughout the United States, by States. A study of the latter table will, of course, be new and per se, not particularly valuable information; but the comparison is a very striking one and may stimulate such investigation as may prove the wisdom of some changes in our present system of railroad taxation. In these tabulations the following order will be observed: 2. Railroad assessment per mile. 3. Tax per mile by States in the United States. 4. Earnings and expenditures. THE PROGRESS OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. This table shows that there are now in operation in this State 3,064 miles of railroad, exclusive of the Aiken and Augusta Railroad, an electric line opened up for freight and passengers since June 30. We have now one mile of railroad for every 10 square miles of territory, or a mile for every 440 of population. A comparison of these figures with those of other Southern States must be very gratifying to South Carolina. The beginning and growth has been as follows: The following table shows the progress of railroad construction in South Carolina; and also the total mileage up to date: The itemized mileage of each road will be found in Table No. 15 of Abstract Reports. RAILROAD ASSESSMENT PER MILE. The assessment of the railroads of the State is not a duty devolving upon the Commission, except through the ex-officio relationship of the Commission through its Chairman to the State Board of Equali-. zation. But the table of assessments are entered here because it is information very naturally looked for in a report from a Board of Railroad Commissioners. The assessment of the railroad property of the per mile, as fixed by the Board of Railroad Assessors and Board of Equalization: Ashley River R. R... Asheville and Spartanburg R. R.. Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line (Southern Ry.).. Berkeley R. R... Blue Ridge R. R... 3,000 00 Branchville and Bowman R. R... Carolina Midland R. R. (Southern Ry.) .. 1,500 00 10,000 00 1,500 00 2,500 00 8,000 00 Carolina Midland, Seivern Branch (Southern Ry.).. .... 13,000 00 5,000 00 13,000 00 4,000 00 6,000 00 10,000 00 7.500 00 2,750 00 Columbia and Greenville R. R. (Southern Ry.) 10,000 00 Columbia and Greenville, Abbeville Branch (So. Ry.) |