CARO NORTHERN RAILWAY. The Caro Northern Railway Company was incorporated on September 15, 1906, under the laws of Texas. It is controlled by the, stockholders of the Saner-Whitman Lumber Company, through the ownership of practically the entire capital stock, amounting to $100,000. There are no bonds. The president and general manager of the railroad are also officers of the lumber company.

It extends from a connection with the Texas & New Orleans Railroad at Caro, Tex., in a general northerly direction about 18 miles to Mount Enterprise. The equipment consists of 2 locomotives, 1 passenger car, and 2 box cars. The lumber company owns separate equipment, consisting of locomotives and logging cars.

The mill of the lumber company is located at a point called Wydeck, about one-half mile from the junction. There are also a number of sawmills and cotton gins along the line.

The tap line operates one mixed train in each direction daily on regular schedule, and handles passengers, mail, and express. The passenger revenue for the last fiscal year was about $1,700. For the year ending June 30, 1910, the total traffic handled was 1,348 carloads of lumber, of which 897 cars were supplied by the con-trolling interests and 451 cars by others, and 294 carloads of traffic other than lumber, of which 98 cars were supplied by the controlling interests and 196 cars by others.

The lumber company hauls the logs from the loading point on the logging spurs to the mill under trackage rights over the tap line, for which it pays the tap line $4 per train for the round trip, which amounts to approximately 33-1/3 cents per car for the average train of 12 cars. On lumber shipments, the tap line handles the empty and loaded cars between the mill and the junction, a distance of six-tenths of a mile. For outbound shipments of lumber, bills of lading and waybills are issued by the agent of the tap line at Wydeck.

It receives divisions from the Texas & New Orleans on lumber of from three-fourths of a cent to 3 cents on interstate business, and from three-fourths of a cent to 4 cents on state business. On through class rates applying to and from points on the tap line, the tap line receives 12-1/2 per cent of the St. Louis or Missouri River rate, which amounts to from 2 cents to 2-1/2 cents per 100 pounds.

The annual report for the year 1910 shows a total freight revenue of $21,085.31; passenger, $1,538.18; mail, $499.44; express, $458.28; it received from the lumber company for trackage rights, $1481.50; or a total operating revenue of $25,062.71. The operating expenses were $24,443.55 and the net operating revenue $619.16. The payment of taxes and hire of equipment caused a net corporate loss of $2,702.16, but there was an accumulated surplus from previous operation of $7,601.35, which left a surplus June 30, 1910, of $4,899.19.

The only service performed by this tap line in handling the products of the mill of the controlling company is to switch the lumber from the mill to the trunk line, a distance of one-half mile. The divisions now received by it are altogether excessive. From no point of view may this allowance lawfully exceed a reasonable switching charge, which we think should not exceed a maximum of $2 a car.