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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.
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A GENERAL FREIGHT AND
PASSENGER POST
A PRACTICAL SOLUTION OF THE
RAILROAD PROBLEM
BY
JAMES LEWIS COWLES
Member of the Connecticut Bar. Author of " Distance Not a Factor
in Railway Traffic," The Engineering Magazine, Sept., '93 ;
li Equality of Opportunity, The Arena, Dec., '95, etc.
THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
Ube Knickerbocker press
1902
COPYRIGHT, 1896
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
GENERAL
ttbe fmfcfeerbocfeer prese, flew
I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO THE MEMORY OF
MY SAINTED WIFE
" LIGHT, STRENGTH, SWEETNESS "
96034
PREFACE.
THE conclusions presented in this monograph,
which treats of the circulation of persons and of
property through the arteries and veins of the body
politic, rest upon the following fundamental prin-
ciples.
First. Railways are post-roads and are, there-
fore, subject, both as to state and interstate com-
merce, to the eighth section of the first article of
the Constitution of the United States.
Second. Railway trains are post-wagons and the
Post-office can only fulfil the object of its being
when these post-wagons are entirely subject to its
jurisdiction.
Third. The transportation of persons and prop-
erty is as legitimate a function of the Post-office as
is the transportation of letters.
(The first Act passed by the English Parliament
for the establishment of a Postal Department, in
the American Colonies, the Ninth of Queen Anne,
Chapter Ten, made it the duty of American post-
masters to provide horses and guides for travellers,
and each traveller was allowed to carry merchan-
dise up to eighty pounds in weight on the guide's
horse free. For a hundred and fifty years the Post-
VI PREFACE.
office Packet Service of England was the only
regular vehicle for over-sea travel, and this service
was only turned over to private hands in 1830.)
Fourth. Railway rates should be determined by
the cost and not by the value of the service ren-
dered. Any rate that will pay the cost of the
shortest haul of a person or of a piece of property,
within a railway system, will pay the cost of the
average haul, and is therefore the cost of service
rate.
Fifth. The whole business of public transpor-
tation should be pooled under the control of the
Post-office, and the rate charged for the shortest
distance for any particular service (the cost of ser-
vice rate) should be adopted as the uniform stand-
ard rate for that class of service for all distances,
within the limits of the Postal system.
This is simply the " Penny Post " scheme of Sir
Rowland Hill, extended to cover the general busi-
ness of transportation, and it presents, I believe, a
practical solution of the transportation problem.
Mr. Hill published his " Penny Post " pamphlet in
the spring of 1837. In January, 1840, his scheme
was English law and was in course of application.
What took three years in the era 1837-1840,
ought to be accomplished now in as many months.
It is surely within the limits of possibility that
when the twentieth century opens, the scheme set
forth in this book may be American law and may
be in full operation within the limits of the United
States.
PREFACE. vii
" Of all inventions, the alphabet and printing-
press excepted, those which abridge distance have
done most for the civilization of our species.
Every improvement in the means of locomotion
benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well
as materially, and not only facilitates the inter-
change of the various productions of nature and
of art, but tends to remove national and provincial
antipathies and to bind together all members of the
human family."
; ' To the consumer, the ideally perfect condition
of things would be a tariff for the conveyance of
merchandise based on the same principle as the
' Penny Post.' Commodities would be conveyed
at a low price, and producers, over an immense
area, would be able to send them to market. To
the consumer it would be in every way desirable
that all disadvantages of distance or * geographical
disadvantages ' should disappear." 3
" As a question of purely public policy that is
to say if the interests of the (railway) corporation
were, in all respects, identical with the interests of
the community as a whole the effect of distance
on operating expenses would be the only one which
there would be need to consider, and its effect on
revenue (the making of rates) should not be con-
sidered at all. For, since the real service rendered
1 Macaulay.
2 J. Grierson, General Manager, Great Western Railway
of England.
VI 11 PREFACE.
and paid for is the transportation of persons and
property from one terminus to another, the precise
length of track should have no more effect upon
the price paid than the precise amount of curva-
ture or rise and fall, and much less than the ruling
grades. All should be considered or none should
be." '
The railways serving New York City have had a
uniform rate on milk for the last forty years. In
1887, when this grouped rate covered a zone of 220
miles, certain Orange County farmers complained
to the Interstate Commerce Commission that this
system deprived them of their natural geographical
advantages and demanded an adjustment of rates
according to distance. The Commission, however,
decided in favor of the existing custom, saying :
" It has served the people well. It tends to pro-
mote consumption and to stimulate production. It
is not apparent how any other system could be de-
vised that would present results equally useful or
more just." " It (the Commission) is moreover
impressed with the belief that the present system
is, upon the whole, the best system that could be
devised for the general good of all engaged in the
traffic."
Eight years later this zone of uniform milk rate
covered distances up to 330 miles, and Commis-
sioner George R. Blanchard, of the Joint-Traffic
Association, testified, before the Interstate Com-
1 Arthur M. Wellington, Economic Theory of Railway
Location.
PREFACE. IX
merce Commission, in December, 1895, tnat tnere
was no reason why it should not be extended to a
thousand miles.
But Messrs. Rogers, Locke, & Milburn, Coun-
sel of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western
Railroad, go even further than Mr. Blanchard, for
they say :
" The distance (within which this rate should be
uniform) need only be limited by the length of time
required to make it with the train and meet the
wants of the New York market, with milk not
affected by its transportation."
In other words, if milk can be brought from San
Francisco to New York in good condition, then
the milk rate should be the same for all distances
between San Francisco and New York, and for
this reason, "because of the fact that the expense inci-
dent to the mere length of haul is so small in compari-
son with the other necessary charges when taken in
connection with the special service"
" The cost of train operation is not appreciably
more whether there be 200 cans in a car, or 160
cans in a car, or ten cans in a car. The same
crew, the same messengers and organization, and
the same terminal service would have to be main-
tained whether the can be carried from Bingham-
ton or not, or from Sussex County or not, and the
cost of the delivery of the can at the Hoboken terminal
is in no real sense dependent upon the length of its
haul!'
See Defendants' Brief, page eleven, in the case,
X PREFACE.
" The Milk Producers' Association versus the D.
L. and W. R. R. and others."
" When rates are based upon the value of ser-
vices rendered, we necessarily have discrimina-
tion," and yet, " It is the universal custom among
railroads, the world over, to base their charges
upon the value of the service rendered and not
upon the cost although the latter would seem to
be the safer plan, if they could only put it in
force." 1
The cost of the service is the only safe basis for
the determination of transportation taxes, and the
cost of service rate, levied, collected, and distribu-
ted by officers of the General Government, would
necessarily put an end to discriminations, and would
furnish an ample revenue for the support of our
entire transportation system.
The freight cars owned and leased by the rail-
roads of the United States (private cars are left
out of the calculation), making but two paying
hauls a week, at $7.00 a car, per haul, would earn
over $877,000,000 a year, as against less than $700,-
000,000 received from the entire freight traffic in
1894, and less than $830,000,000 earned in 1893.
An average car-load of fourteen tons, at fifty cents
a ton, would bring in a revenue of $7.00 a car per
haul, and a twelve-ton load, at sixty cents a ton,
would yield $7.20 a car trip. 1
The same freight locomotives that now haul
1 E. Porter Alexander, Railway Practice.
2 Number of freight cars in use in 1894, 1,205,169. /. C. C.
Report, 1895.
PREFACE. XI
average train loads of 175 tons could haul 700
tons, and the same passenger locomotives that run
hither and thither with average loads of 44 passen-
gers, could haul from 500 to 700 passengers, and
the difference in the cost of the business would
hardly be appreciable.
Our great passenger locomotives are able to haul
ten-car trains on a time schedule of forty miles an
hour. Such a train would furnish seats for 640
persons. The average trip of the American rail-
way traveller is less than twenty-seven miles, but
if the average trip on a transcontinental ten-car
express were 200 miles, the train would empty
itself sixteen times in a journey from New York to
San Francisco, and would thus afford seats for
10,000 persons, each taking an average trip of 200
miles. Even if the train were but half filled, its
earnings at one dollar a trip would be over $5000,
over $1.50 a train-mile, or more than the earnings
of the average train of the New York, New Haven,
and Hartford Railroad in 1894.'
Is it not altogether reasonable to estimate that
with the transportation business pooled under
the control of the Post-office with a demur-
rage limit of eight hours, the demurrage limit of
Holland and Belgium, and with trains sent
from the starting-point to destination over the
shortest and most level routes a uniform prepaid
rate of $1.00 a ton on box-car freight and forty
cents a ton on products carried in open cars,
would furnish an ample revenue from freight
1 Distance from New York to San Francisco, about 3300
miles.
Xli PREFACE.
traffic ? And is it not also reasonable to believe
that $1.00 would pay the full cost of the service
for the average trip, by ordinary cars on the fast-
est express, and that five cents a trip would meet
the cost, by way trains ?
The possibilities of the railroad are beyond
imagination. The continuance of the present
system, under which private railway managers de-
termine the movements of persons and property
according to the value of the service rendered,
will certainly secure to these officials the entire
control both of the business of the country and of
the Government and will result in an absolute
despotism.
On the other hand, the pooling of the business,
under the control of the Post-office, will just as
surely lead to the ever-increasing freedom and the
ever-increasing prosperity of the whole people.
The widening of the zone of a uniform milk rate,
noted on page viii, continued until it covered dis-
tances up to 417 miles, and on the West Shore Road
extended from the New Jersey Terminal nearly to
Buffalo. This movement, in the line of the equal-
ization of commercial opportunities, was suddenly
checked, however, by the Interstate Commerce
Commission, who, on the i3th of March, 1897,
reversed their decision in the Howell Milk Case of
September 24, 1888, on the ground, not that dis-
tance made any difference in the cost of the service
rendered by the railroads in the transportation of
a can or case of milk, but that the system of a
PREFACE. xiii
uniform rate deprived the near-by producer of his
NATURAL RIGHT (?) to the monopoly of the home
market; deprived him of the power, which he pos-
sessed before the invention of the railroad, to
regulate the amount of milk and the cost of milk
consumed by his neighbors.
Under the leadership of Judge Cooley, the Com-
mission looked upon the Royal-Railed Highway as
a matter of public convenience, of public security,
and of public prosperity; it had some regard for
the consumer and the far-away producer as well as
for the near-by producer; its chief concern, in
short, was the Common Welfare, and, having in
view the Common Welfare, it decided that the sys-
tem of a uniform rate was the best possible system
for all engaged in the traffic, a system than which
none other could be equally useful or more just.
From that decision Commissioner Morrison dissen-
ted. Nine years later, under Mr. Morrison's leader-
ship, the Commission decides that this same system
of a uniform rate is unreasonable and unjust, and,
being prejudicial to producers and shippers nearer
the point of delivery, it is, therefore, in violation of
sections i and 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce.
There was ample reason for reducing the uniform
rate on milk full one hundred per cent. The evi-
dence showed that the transport tax levied by the
Milk Contractor Westcott and his associates
Westcott clears over $50,000 a year from his milk
contract upon this essential of life was full three
times the cost of its transportation; there was also
XIV PREFACE.
good reason for making the toll on milk and cream
the same, for there is certainly no difference in the
cost of the transport of a forty-quart can, whether
it contains milk or cream. Such a procedure
would have saved to the whole body of milk con-
sumers and milk producers upwards of $1,300,000
a year, or more than one third of a cent on each of
the 320,000,000 quarts of milk consumed by the
men, women, and little children of the Greater
New York in 1895. The whole galaxy of railway
experts had testified in favor of the uniform rate,
had declared that the cost of the service in the
transportation of a can of milk was in no real sense
dependent on the length of the haul. The one
reasonable course for the Commission, as the repre-
sentative of the Government of the whole people,
was to have reduced the uniform rate. This would
have tended to put every community and every in-
dividual interested in the milk traffic on even stand-
ing ground; it would have been one more step in
the slow but steady movement toward equality of
commercial conditions.
The one thing, however, on which the decision
of March 13, 1897, lays especial stress is the fact
that of late the Commission has, uniformly, con-
demned the fixing of railway rates with a view of
equalizing commercial conditions. Their final
conclusion is ' ' That each community is ENTITLED
to the benefits arising from its location and natural
conditions," but such conclusions carry with them
a very dangerous boomerang.
PREFACE. XV
If it is the business of the Interstate Commission
to preserve to each community the benefits of its
location and natural conditions, then, per contra,
its power the power of the National Government
may be invoked to compel each unfortunately
located community, each community that happens
to be located inland, on one line of railroad, sub-
ject to the will of one railroad manager, to compel
such unhappy communities to submit to the evils
of their location and natural conditions, and forth-
with, the Commission becomes a pregnant power,
in the exaggeration of the natural inequalities of
commercial conditions, and a most potent instru-
ment of tyranny.
This very thing was done in the noted Readville
Case, decided by the Commission, October 30,
1890, and referred to on page 107. Readville is
an inland community on the railroad from New
York to Boston, and about eight miles from Bos-
ton. Because New York and Boston are seaports,
enjoying low rates of transport by sea, they are,
therefore, said the Commission, entitled to equally
low rates by rail over the land. The railways
charged eighteen cents a hundred on flour, New
York to Readville ; to Boston the railway rate was
but nine cents, and the Commission said these
rates were right and lawful. In effect, the Com-
mission made the distance from New York to Bos-
ton the same as that from Readville to Boston, nine
miles. It measures, on the railway map, 232 miles.
The result of this Readville decision and of other
XVI PREFACE.
similar decisions is seen in the report of the New
England Road of October 28, 1897, in which the
railway managers say boldly that they are to-day
levying three times as heavy transport taxes on
their pooled, local business as on the through busi-
ness over which their power is not yet absolute
business not yet pooled. The Commission has
made itself an instrument for driving the people
from their country homes to city dove-cotes; an in-
strument for the impoverishment and enslavement
of the common people.
The reasoning from natural conditions adopted
by the Commission, carried out to its logical con-
clusion, would banish the bicycle, enjoin the use of
the motor carriage, destroy railways and tramways,
abolish even our common highways and bridges
and remand us back to the happy natural condition
which prevailed throughout the Western Continent
when the Spaniards landed in Mexico, and the only
means of land transportation was by human burden
bearer, and that burden bearer usually a woman.
I take direct issue with the Commission both as
to the object of its existence and the object of the
existence of the railroad. The business both of
the one and of the other is to equalize commercial
conditions, to secure to every community and to
every individual within the limits of the United
States the nearest possible equality of transporta-
tion service.
The Commission has done valuable work in many
lines, but it is altogether mistaken in its theory as
PREFACE. xvil
to the determination of transport taxes and as to
the real business of the railway. In this connec-
tion it is interesting to note that, while the Com-
mission condemns the adoption of one wide zone
of uniform rates and of equal commercial conditions
for the whole people, it admits the principle of
grouped rates and of equal commercial conditions
within limits, determined by its peculiar methods
of guesswork and comparison.
Behold its just system of rates on milk brought
by railway to New York :
Group i. 40 miles from terminal.
Can Milk (forty quarts), 23 cents. Can Cream
(forty quarts), 41 cents.
Group 2. Next sixty miles (40 to 100 miles).
Can Milk, 26 cents. Can Cream, 44 cents.
Group 3. Next 90 miles (100 to 190 miles).
Can Milk, 29 cents. Can cream, 47 cents.
Group 4. 190 miles to 417 miles or more.
Can Milk, 32 cents. Can cream, 50 cents.
I fail to see anything affecting the cost of the
service in a grouped rate of forty miles that will
not hold good for any distance. What reason can
there be for adding three cents for the sixty miles
of group 2, and but three cents for the ninety miles
of group 3, and again three cents more for the two
hundred miles or so of group 4 ? And why charge
more for cream than for milk ? What business have
XV111 PREFACE.
either the railway managers or the Commission to
pry into the contents of the can ?
The Interstate Report of 1895 affords the follow-
ing valuable information : On the 30th of June,
1895, there were 30,000 railroad trains in use on
the Royal-Railed Highways of the United States.
The average train represents in its own cost and
its share of the cost of tracks, stations, etc., about
$365,000, or the value of a year's labor of a thou-
sand Massachusetts farmers. (See May number
of Yale Review, 1897, page 64.) The cost of its
daily operation, including its share in the mainte-
nance of the tracks, etc., which exist for its use, is a
little over sixty-six dollars a day, and to run it and
keep its iron road in good condition, requires the
constant service of twenty-six men. The total
daily charge against the average train, including
its share of the interest on the cost of the entire
equipment is about $100 a day. The average
freight train weighs hardly less than 400 tons, and
the average passenger train hardly less than 160
tons, or one ton per passenger seat. Both trains
are hauled by tireless iron horses easily capable of
making 300 miles a day.
My fourth proposition, page 6, that the transport
tax levied to meet the cost of the shortest distance
in any particular class of railway service will meet
the cost for any distance in that class of service,
within a railway system the long haul will very often
cost less than the short haul this proposition does
not mean that five-cent fares, with but forty persons
PREFACE. XIX
or less occupying the 160 seats in the average
$365,000 train throughout each zone of 25 miles,
in a daily course of 100 miles, would meet the ex-
penses chargeable to that train; neither does it
mean that under any imaginable condition, every
railroad train could be made to meet its expenses;
it does mean that, with five-cent fares in ordinary
railway service, the average train would require
seats for at least 200 passengers whose average
trips would probably be not over ten miles, and in
that case, the average train would earn, from its
five-cent uniform fares, $100 a day as against $80 a
day from its average fare of about fifty cents. With
daily runs of 300 miles the New Britain third-rail
electrics make 324 miles a day the five-cent train
would make average daily earnings of $300.
The cost of running the average passenger train
on the Genesee & Wyoming Valley Railroad is
about 95 cents a mile, but, with an average train-
load of only i-J persons, the cost to the road per
passenger mile is 67^ cents, and for the whole
length of the road 5^ miles the cost of the pas-
senger trip is about $3.70. On the New Haven
Road the cost per train mile is about 98 cents,
but, with train-loads of about 75 passengers, the
cost to the road, per passenger mile, is only about
lySg- cents. It actually costs the New Haven Road
less to haul a passenger the whole length of its
main line, New York to Boston, 232 miles, than it
costs the Genesee & Wyoming Valley Railroad to
haul a passenger over its line of but 5-^ miles. The
XX PREFACE.
52-mile passenger trip on the Genesee road costs
that road more than seven times as much as the
cost of the 24.02 miles trip of the average railway
passenger of the United States. A study of pages
404 to 473 of the Interstate Report of 1893 will dis-
close very many instances of this character.
In September, 1896, a uniform five-cent fare
was adopted on the Blue Island Line of the Chicago
& Northern Pacific Road. The Line is twenty
miles in length. Under the old mileage plan it did
not meet its expenses. A year later, with five- cent
fares, the Line was making money.
There is more money in a five-cents uniform fare
than in a three-cents-a-mile fare, says the Manager,
S. R. Ainslie.
The receipts of grain at New York by canal, up
to June 19, 1897, thirty-five days after the opening
of the Erie Canal, were 4,000,000 bushels; by rail,
13,365,370 bushels. Whether this grain was carried
by the railways at 1.8 mills per ton-mile, the re-
ported and not disputed rate of the summer of
1895, does not appear, but at this rate, in train-
loads of 1800 tons, the gross earnings per train-
mile would be $3.24, or double the earnings of the
average freight train of the country. {R. R.
Gazette, July 2, 1897). 1.8 mills per ton-mile is
but 22\ cents per ton, and less than $7 per car-load
of 30 tons for the average haul of 1895, about 123
miles.
George R. Blanchard sums up his long argument
on ' ' Railway Pools ' ' in this quotation from the
PREFACE. XXI
Report of the Committee of the German Empire
prior to its purchases of its main railway lines:
" The uniting of the property, of the traffic, and
of the management of the inland main lines under
THE STRONG ARM OF THE STATE, are the only
efficient and proper means to solve the task."
We have already had Mr. Blan chard's endorse-
ment of a uniform milk rate.
The conclusion is irresistible. The Royal-Railed
Highways of every country must be under the
management of the state, and of the state alone.
So long as these national highways are supported
by tolls, those tolls must be low, uniform, stable,
the same for all distances.
J. L. C.
NOTE. The figures used in the first edition of
this book as to train-loads, etc., and still retained
in some places, were taken from the Interstate
Commerce Report of 1894.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PACK.
I. THE POST-OFFICE SINCE 1839 . . I
II. ABUSES OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF
RAILWAY MANAGEMENT . . .26
III. DISTANCE A FALSE BASIS FOR THE DE
TERMINATION OF RAILWAY RATES . 69
IV. THE COST-OF-SERVICE PRINCIPLE AND
ITS APPLICATION TO PUBLIC TRANS-
PORTATION, UNDER THE CONTROL OF
THE POST-OFFICE .... IO5
V. THE UNITED RAILWAYS OF AMERICA VS.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA . 156
VI. PRUSSIAN RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION . 263
INDEX 2 9 J
xxiii
A GENERAL
FREIGHT AND PASSENGER POST.
CHAPTER I.
THE POST-OFFICE SINCE 1839.
NEARLY sixty years have passed since Rowland
Hill startled the people of England with his pro-
ject of a " Penny Post," proposing at one sweep to
reduce the average rate of inland postage from
about tenpence to a penny, and to carry a letter
from Land's End to John O'Groat's at the same
charge as from London to the nearest village.
The scheme involved both a radical reform in
rates and an equally radical change in the aims of
the government. At the close of the seventeenth
century, the Post-office was a part of the public
service, being run on the cost of the service princi-
ple. During the early part of the nineteenth cen-
tury, its chief end was taxation, and the rates were
determined on the modern railway principle of
exacting as nearly as possible the full value of the
2 A GENERAL FREIGHT
service rendered, or in other words " what the
traffic will bear."
In the days of Charles II., when the only means
of transportation were on foot or on horse-back,
the postal routes of England were divided into two
great groups, with a uniform rate of two pence up
to eighty miles from London and three pence for
greater distances. A hundred and seventy-five
years later, with the post-coach traversing the
smooth roads of Telford and McAdam, and with
the cost of distance practically annihilated, the
rates were three or four times higher than in the
olden time, and were carefully determined at so
much a mile.
In 1695, the postage from London to Liverpool
on a single letter was three pence ; in 1813, it was
eleven pence. " In 1695, a circuitous post would
be converted into a direct one, even though the
shorter distance carried less postage ; in 1813, a
direct post was being constantly refused on the
plea that a loss of postage would result."
The following rates were in force from 1812 to
1839 : four pence a single letter up to fifteen miles,
five pence for twenty miles, eight pence for eighty
miles, etc. For " double and treble letters," the
rates were two and three times higher than the
single rates, and for " ounce letters," four times
higher.
The complications in postal rates were almost
as bewildering as are the complications in freight
rates to-day. There was hardly a town in the king-
AND PASSENGER POST. 3
dom where accurate information could be obtained
as to the rate on a letter addressed to another
town.
The high charges forbade the use of the mails
to the poor, hindered the development of trade
and of commerce, and, in the end, greatly injured
the postal revenue. In 1838, the net receipts were
actually less than in 1815, although in the mean-
time the population had increased by some six
million.
The postal laws of England were in perfect
harmony with the rest of that system of class legis-
lation which, as Thorold Rogers says, had been con-
cocted for the purpose of cheating the workman of
his wages, of tying him to the soil and of degrading
him to irremediable poverty. On the other hand,
the privileged classes sent their letters free. Franks
were sometimes sold and were often given to ser-
vants in lieu of wages.
It was under these circumstances that Mr. Hill
brought forward his apparently wild proposition.
" What ! " said the tax-gatherers, " carry a letter a
hundred miles at the same rate as for one mile ?
Mr. Hill is mad ; the idea is absurd ; it is impos-
sible." But the tax-payers, the common people,
those who bore the burdens of life, heard the re-
former gladly. The project was hardly made pub-
lic before it attracted great and hearty support.
Petition after petition was presented to Parliament
in favor of the scheme, and, in less than three years
after its first promulgation it was carried into effect.
4 A GENERAL FREIGHT
" Colony after colony, and state after state, fol-
lowed in the wake of Old England. Rates were
continually reduced and in nearly every instance
the revenues, at the reduced rates, were greater
than before the reductions."
If for a time the English Post-office proved an
exception to the rule, the fact may be easily ac-
counted for. Mr. Hill's opponents were, for several
years, in charge of his scheme and they desired its
failure. But, strange as it may appear, the potent
influence against its immediate success was the
railway. Instead of carrying the mails for less
than the stage lines, railway managers charged
very much more. They first drove off the stages
and then compelled the government to pay two,
three, and in some cases four times as much as the
stages had charged for a similar service.
Some towns were long without ordinary postal
facilities, owing to the high railway cha-rges. The
extravagant demands of the London and South-
western Railway Company for several years de-
prived the town of Alton of the advantages of a
daily mail. In not a few instances, the postal
authorities were obliged to abandon the railway
and go back to the post-wagon for the conveyance
of the mails. In one case, where speed was not a
matter of importance, Mr. Hill effected a saving of
$4000, and in another case of $10,000 annually,
by thus reverting from the locomotive to the horse,
for the carriage of mail bags.
The following quotation from Her Majesty's
AND PASSENGER POST. $
Mails, by William Lewins, is of great interest in
this connection : " The gain to the Post-office,"
says Mr. Lewins, " through railways is certainly
enormous ; besides the advantage of increased
speed, they make it possible to get through the
sorting and the carrying of the mails at the same
time, but here the gain ends ; and the cost to the
public of the service really done is heavy beyond
all proportion. The cost of carrying the mails by
coaches averaged twopence farthing per mile ; the
average cost under railways (now that so many
companies take bags by all trains) for 1864, averages
sixpence a mile, some railways charging five shil-
lings a mile for the service they render. The cost
of running a train may be reckoned, in most cases,
from a shilling to fifteen-pence a mile ; and thus
the Post-office, for the use of a fraction of a train,
may be said to be paying at the ratio of from fifty
to two hundred and fifty per cent, in excess of the
whole cost of running."
No wonder that there was a falling off in the net
receipts of the English Post-office at the opening
of the railway era. The wonder is that the
" Penny-Post " could have survived such exac-
tions.
But the taxes imposed on our National Govern-
ment, by the farmers of our post-roads, were even
more exorbitant than those levied in England.
Under the Act of July 7, 1838, the lowest compen-
sation given to the railroads, for the transportation
of the mails, was twenty-five per cent, higher than
O A GENERAL FREIGHT
the highest compensation allowed to the old stage
lines for a similar service, and this notwithstanding
the fact that the cost of the service to the railroads
was hardly a fiftieth part the cost by stage. The rates
paid to the American roads were, in general, double
the English rates, and the American Postmaster-
General had no control of the running of trains,
and therefore no power to determine when the mails
should be delivered. Here are some of the figures
given by Postmaster-General Wycliffe, in 1843: New
York to Paterson, N. J., seven times a week by the
old stage contracts, $800 a year ; by rail, six times
a week, $1385 ; Buffalo to Niagara Falls, seven
times a week, in each case, by stage, $572, by rail
$1122 ; Springfield, Mass., to Albany, N. Y., six
times a week, in both cases, by stage, $4762, by
rail $10,000 ; and the railways claimed still more.
Postmaster-General Cave Johnson, in his report
of 1845, says : " Great and important advantages
are enjoyed by citizens, by the reduction of the
price of transportation, travel, etc., by the railroads,
but they have universally increased the price of
transporting the mails and, in some instances, to
the extent of 200 or 300 per cent, above the former
prices. It would be difficult to find a satisfactory
reason for the difference in the price of transport-
ing a thousand pounds of newspapers and letters,
and a thousand pounds of merchandise, in the
same car, between the same places and at the same
time ; yet more than ten times probably is de-
manded in the one case than in the other."
AND PASSENGER POST. 7
The Post-office to-day pays fifty per cent, more
for the transportation of a ton of mail-bags from
New York to Buffalo by railway, than it used to
cost to send ordinary freight the same distance by
boat and by wagon, in the days before the opening
of the Erie Canal. Books, carpets, cutlery, hats
and caps, boots and shoes, gloves and laces, are
carried from Liverpool, via steamer to New Orleans
and thence by railway to San Francisco, for $1.07
a hundred pounds. Our express companies carry
all sorts of parcels, from the domicile in New York
to the station, thence by rail a thousand miles to
Chicago, and deliver at the domicile in that city,
at a rate of $3.00 a hundred pounds, but the rail-
ways tax the Government eight cents a pound,
$8.00 a hundred, $160.00 a ton, for the transporta-
tion of its mail-bags for an average haul of not over
442 miles.
For the first ten years after the railroads began
to carry the mails there was a continual deficit in
the revenues of the post-office, and it was only met
by the increase of the business which followed the
decrease of the postage and the wide grouping of
rates, in 1845. The deficits in the business of the
Post-office in recent years are easily accounted for
by the burdensome taxes levied by our railway
kings. These taxes remain, in most cases, at the
same rate to-day as in 1878. In some instances
the receipts from the Post-office probably more
than pay the entire cost of the trains that carry the
mails.
8 A GENERAL FK EIGHT
But notwithstanding the failure of the people's
representatives to compel the managers of our
" post-roads " to give to the public reasonable
postal transportation, and notwithstanding the
waste of postal revenues in bounties given to such
concerns as the Standard Oil Company's Anglo-
American Steamship Line, the extension of the
sphere of the Post-office has gone steadily, though
slowly, forward.
The Act of Congress of 1845 made the letter rate
five cents a half ounce within distances of three
hundred miles, and ten cents for longer distances.
In 1849, Congressman Palfrey, of Massachusetts,
advocated the abolition of the franking privilege,
a prepaid, uniform two-cent letter rate for all dis-
tances, and free city delivery. He believed that
the two-cent rate would speedily send the letters
up to 200,000,000 (the number of paying-letters
had increased under the Act of 1845 from 24,267,-
552 in 1843, to 58,069,075 in 1849), and make all
recourse to the general Treasury unnecessary. The
expenses of the department would be somewhat
increased, by such a multiplication of letters, but
not materially. " // is the keeping up of the system
that costs so much money, and not the amount of the
business. The increased cost for transportation would
be but trifling." The institution of free delivery
would save to the city of New York alone $900 a
day, or nearly a third of a million dollars a year.
But Mr. Palfrey was far ahead of his time. The
next step was not taken until 1851, when books
AND PASSENGER POST. 9
were first introduced into the mails and the rates
on letters were made three cents a half ounce for
distances within three thousand miles, and six cents
for greater distances. In 1855, prepayment by
stamps was made compulsory. It was not until
1863 that a uniform three-cent letter rate was
adopted, and a system of free delivery was inau-
gurated in our large cities. It was only in 1873
that the franking privilege was abolished, to be
revived in a modified form later.
The country waited for thirty-four years (until
1883), before it secured a Congress bold enough
and far-sighted enough to complete the scheme of
Mr. Palfrey and give to the people a uniform two-
cent letter rate. In 1885, the weight of letters was
increased to one ounce.
The English Post-office, as organized by James
I., in 1603, provided not only for the handling of
the correspondence of his subjects, but also for the
conveyance of their persons and property up to
thirty pounds in weight, and this inland traveller's
post was not abandoned until 1780, after an exist-
ence of 177 years. The Penny-Post, established
by Wm. Docwra, in 1683, carried parcels up to
one pound anywhere within a ten-mile circuit of
London, and as late as 1711 this service extended
to certain towns as far away as twenty miles from
the metropolis.
The Act of Parliament, Ninth of Queen Anne,
chapter 10, establishing a postal department in the
American Colonies, made it the especial duty of
10 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the Postmasters to furnish horses for the transpor-
tation of travellers at a rate of three pence a mile
for a horse and four pence a mile for a guide,
parcels up to eighty pounds to be carried on the
guide's horse free of charge.
We also note among the curious articles franked
to foreign parts, by the old English packet service,
the following :
" Fifteen hounds going to the King of the
Romans with a free pass."
" Two maid-servants going as laundresses to my
lord Ambassador Methuen."
" Dr. Crichton, carrying with him a cow and
divers other accessories."
Previous to 1689, the Harwich Post-office packets
running to Brill, in Holland, were entirely sup-
ported by the receipts from freight and from pas-
sengers, and in the year 1822 the Dublin-Holyhead
line carried over 16,000 passengers. In 1827, the
steam flotilla of the English postal department
comprised nineteen vessels of an aggregate of
4000 tons burden, and it was only in 1830 that the
regular over-sea mail service of England was
turned over to private hands.
These facts are of great interest, as showing the
original functions of the post-office, and as indicat-
ing its possibilities, but it is doubtful if the possi-
bilities of this wonderful public service were ever
thoroughly appreciated, and we know that for
many years previous to 1860, both in England and
in America, it was closely confined to the convey-
AND PASSENGER POST. II
ance of letters and newspapers. Up to that time
the interests of the private common carrier seem
nearly always to have prevailed against the interests
of the public.
The Act of Queen Anne was partially revived
by our National Government in 1861, when a
few articles of merchandise, maps, photographic
materials, scions, seeds, etc., were admitted to the
mails in very small parcels.
In 1864, this list was somewhat extended, and
finally, in 1879, it was made to cover almost any-
thing that could be carried in a mail-bag without
injury to the rest of the contents, the rate being
one cent an ounce, in parcels up to four pounds.
In 1885, it was further provided that publishers
and news-agents might send their merchandise,
paper-covered books, and newspapers, through the
mails to their customers, anywhere in the United
States, at one cent a pound, and in any quantity
from a pound to a car-load ; and to-day the con-
veyance of this kind of merchandise makes up two
thirds of the business of the Post-office. The aggre-
gate weight of second-class matter in 1895 was 312,-
000,000 pounds (156,000 tons), being an increase
over 1894 of 13,000,000 pounds or 6,500 tons. It
is said that a certain publisher in Maine has sent
out through the mails 1600 tons of books in a sin-
gle year, and a number of publishers, at some
seasons of the year, ship two tons a day. The
city of New York deposits in its Post-office 30,000
sacks of this merchandise every month. These
12 A GENERAL FREIGHT
figures give us some idea of the use that the public
will make of the mails when the Post-office is once
opened to the general service.
Postal cars, moveable post-offices, have been
hired of the railroads since 1863, but as will be
shown later, on terms that would have bankrupted
any ordinary business. This year, 1863, is also
notable for the gathering of the first Congress of
Nations for the formation of an International
Postal Union, and it is very gratifying to know
that the prime mover in this grand scheme was an
American, the Hon. John Kasson.
But although there has been a considerable ex-
tension of the postal service in this country in the
last half century, the Old World has gone far
beyond us. England has inaugurated a system of
Postal Savings' Banks that have proved of wonder-
ful utility ; she has also brought the telegraph
within the sphere of the Post-office, with the result
that English telegrams cost but half as much as
ours, and there is twice as much use of telegraphic
facilities in England as in this country.
But perhaps the greatest step, in advance that
the English Post-office has taken is in the exten-
sion of its service to the conveyance of parcels.
A national parcels post formed part of the com-
prehensive plan of Sir Rowland Hill, but it was
killed by the railroads, and their opposition was
only overcome when Postmaster-General Fawcett,
in 1883, agreed to give them 55 per cent, of all the
receipts from railway-carried parcels. This tax
AND PASSENGER POST. 13
has proved so burdensome that, in some cases, the
Government has abandoned the railway for the
post-wagon, for the conveyance of parcels as well
as of letters, but notwithstanding this drawback,
the experiment has proved a wonderful success.
The rates run from threepence a pound up to
eighteen-pence for an eleven pound parcel, not ex-
ceeding three and a half feet in length and six feet,
combined length and girth. Twopence extra in-
sures a parcel up to $25, and sixpence up to $125.
In 1889, nearly 40,000,000 parcels were sent through
the English Post-office, at a cost to the people of
a little over ten cents a parcel. And so well satis-
fied are the railway managers of England with the
project that, Sir George Findley, then manager of
the London and Northwestern Railway, in a speech
made in February, 1890, paid to it the following
tribute :
" The parcels post, compiared with its elder
brother, the letter post, is yet in its infancy, but it
has, at a bound, become one of the great insti-
tutions of the country and has fully justified its
inception."
That the English people thoroughly appreciate
the advantage of the freer trade and the greater
equality of service secured to themselves, by this
nationalization of the express business, is proved
by the fact that, in the year 1894 the number of
parcels transported in the mails, was over 56,600,000,
an increase of over 40 per cent, in five years.
14 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The conveyance of parcels by the Post-office has
been long common, in Europe, and at rates usually
lower than the English rates. In Germany, for
parcels up to eleven pounds, the charge is six and
a quarter cents up to ten miles, and for greater
distances within the limits of the empire, twelve
and a half cents. In Belgium, the uniform rate
for similar parcels is sixteen cents by express
trains, and ten cents by slow trains, in each case
delivered at the domicil.
Under the International Parcels Post Convention,
formed at Paris in 1880, and now including, probably,
half the civilized world, outside the United States,
the cost of carrying an eleven pound parcel across
each of the countries of the convention,' is but ten
cents, and the entire charge for the conveyance of
such a parcel from any post-office in Germany to
any office in Egypt, is only forty-five cents ; ten
cents across each of the countries, Germany, Swit-
zerland and Italy ; ten cents across the Mediterra-
nean, and five cents to the place of delivery in
Egypt. Sixty-five cents carries an eleven pound
parcel from France or Germany to nearly every
post-office in the greater part of South America.
In 1891, the people of Germany sent $27,000,000
worth of merchandise to their customers and friends
through the International Parcel Post ; Austria
sent over $55,000,000, and little Switzerland nearly
$20,000,000, and they received nearly as much in
return. It was an American who brought the
International Postal Union into being, but the de-
AND PASSENGER POST. 15
velopment of this greatest of " associations for the
preservation of international peace and for the ad-
vancement of international prosperity," has been
left to other hands, and the Government of the
United States still refuses to our people the grand
advantages which this Parcel Post Convention
holds out to them. Our authorities have, however,
concluded Parcel Post Conventions with a few of
the West India Islands, and with certain South
American countries, Mexico and the Sandwich
Islands, and it is a curious fact that eleven pound
parcels of merchandise may be exchanged between
certain of our great cities and these far away for-
eigners, through the Post-office, at a charge of but
twelve cents a pound, while the cost of a corre-
sponding service at home is sixteen cents a pound.
In 1893, the English Post-office handled 2,785,-
000,000 pieces of mail matter, at a profit of over
$14,000,000. Our Government, handling in the
same time about 5,000,000,000 pieces, made a loss
of $5,177,171, a loss increased in 1895 to nearly
$10,000,000. This deficit is easily accounted for,
however, as has been shown, by our exorbitant rail-
way taxes and by our unnecessary bounties to
subsidized steamers.
Such, in brief, is the story of the extension of
the sphere of the Post-office, inaugurated by the
wonderful reform of Sir Rowland Hill, in 1839.
The part played by the different governments in
this business, has been that of directors of their
respective public business corporations, either
1 6 A GENERAL FREIGHT
building or purchasing the different agencies of
public transportation and communication, or mak-
ing contracts with the various private agencies for
the use of their equipment, and providing the
necessary revenues by levying for each particular
service, a tax, at once low and uniform for all per-
sons, regardless of differences of distance and of
the volume of the traffic, and, in so far as this
theory of governmental duty has been applied, it
has everywhere proved a decided success.
As to the future, in this country, Postmaster-
General Wanamaker declared in his report of 1891,
that one-cent letter postage, three-cent telephones,
and ten cent telegrams were all near possibili-
ties under an enlightened and compact postal sys-
tem using the newest telegraphic inventions ;
and in his last report he said, " one-cent letter
postage to every place in the world is what this
nation is surely coming to." Mr. Wanamaker also
favored a consolidation of the third and fourth
classes of postal matter, with a uniform rate of one
cent for two ounces, or eight cents a pound, saying
that the high rate now charged for merchandise
prevented the proper use of the post-office by the
people, and that if the number of parcels were
doubled or trebled, the additional burden upon the
postal service resulting from the increase would be
very slight.
It seems to me, however, that a very sensible
classification of postal matter would be as fol-
lows :
AND PASSENGER POST. I/
First class : letters, at a rate of one cent an
ounce.
Second class : all free matter.
Third class : merchandise, with a uniform rate
of one cent a pound, in parcels from one pound to
sixty pounds, or from the dimensions of a pint to a
bushel, transported by passenger trains ; and in
parcels of from twenty-eight pounds to two hundred
pounds, or from the dimensions of a half bushel
to a barrel, at a half cent a pound, by fast freight
trains. 1
The objection that such rates would enlarge the
already great deficit in our postal revenues, I have
already answered. Our railways are post-roads ;
they can carry and they should be made to carry
merchandise for the Post-office as cheaply as they
now do it for the express companies. If this were
done, the Post-office would undoubtedly pay its
expenses even at these rates, and it would soon be
possible to lower them. But it is objected that
although this business may be done more cheaply
by the Post-office, it will not be done with the same
despatch as by private express companies. Ex-
perience, however, tells a different story.
The London Spectator is my authority for the
statement that until the agitation commenced in
England for a government parcels post, the rail-
roads seemed to despise the business. The air
they assumed was that of a person conferring a
favor, who will do the business offered when there
is no more important business on hand. Such a
1 See scheme suggested in Chapter V.
1 8 A GENERAL FREIGHT
matter as a fixed and low tariff and promptness of
despatch and delivery were quite beneath their
notice. All this was changed by Mr. Fawcett's
determination to give the public a parcels post, and
long before the parcels post became a reality.
The only agency that could subject the railway
companies to effectual competition was an institu-
tion having already in existence a machinery for
collection and distribution to all parts of the coun-
try, and the result was seen in the better work of
the companies. But in a direct trial as to despatch,
the Post-office beat the railroads. Mr. Shaw Le-
Fevre, when Postmaster-General, made the experi-
ment of sending off a hundred pair of parcels to
places selected haphazard, one of each pair, by the
Post-office, and one by the railroads. In seventy-
one of the hundred cases, the parcel was delivered
quicker by the post than by the railroad, the ad-
vantage in time being, on the average, five hours.
The Post-office, moreover, in every case, delivered
its parcel at the address, while, in many cases, the
railroad only brought it to the nearest station, a
custom which prevails to-day, to a considerable
extent with our American express companies,
which are in reality, little more than departments
of the railroads.
A friend of mine had a parcel sent from Titus-
ville, Penn., to Richmond, Va., a short time ago, by
express. The time occupied in transit, was seventy-
two hours, just twice that taken by the Post-office
for the carriage and delivery of a letter.
AND PASSENGER POST. 19
At my old home, in Farmington, Conn., an
extra charge of ten cents is made for the carriage
of parcels between the railway station and the
village, and it is next to impossible to learn be-
forehand what is to be the expressage on an out-
going parcel. Express rates are liable to be
changed any day, and as many times a day as suits
the whim of the general manager. There are no
public rate sheets. This further evil also follows :
namely, that persons of influence are frequently
able to secure free expressage, and to throw the
whole burden of the business upon their unfortu-
nate neighbors. These evils -are characteristic of
the private management of this class of public
business, and they are evils that can be met only
by placing it in the hands of the Government.
As to the economic advantage of the proposed
reform, the following testimony from one of the
largest manufacturing concerns of Ohio, is of great
value. Writing to me, in February, 1895, the sec-
retary of the company says that the savings accru-
ing from a parcels post system would be immense,
and that it would be a saving not only in express
charges but in time. " I know of instances where
lawsuits have resulted from delays of shipments,
and of instances where customers have failed to
meet their obligations to manufacturers, because
of the failure to receive in due time the repairs
necessary to operate their machinery. We have
hundreds and thousands of customers who live
anywhere from five to forty miles from railways,
2O A GENERAL FREIGHT
and who lose anywhere from three days to a week
on every order for repairs that they place, and the
loss of time figured up and saved to our customers
would be quite an object, and will run into thou-
sands of dollars when you embrace them all.
" Here is room for reform."
But why confine the business of the Post-office
to the mere handling of letters, newspapers, and
small parcels of merchandise ? Why cannot we
have "A General Freight and Passenger Post," as
well as a " Letter and Parcels Post ? " Is there any
essential difference between the transportation of
ordinary postal matter and of other freight
and of passengers ? Certainly not. The rail-
way is the common servant of all. Every piece
of postal matter, every ton of freight, and every
passenger is received, carried to its destina-
tion, and delivered by the same transportation
agencies. True, a letter or a newspaper is less in
bulk and in weight than a man or a ton of freight,
but it costs less to haul a ton of freight a thousand
miles in the great railway trains of to-day, than it
used to cost to carry a letter half that distance
with the old time transportation facilities. The
modern Post-office, moreover, deals with tons
instead of ounces, and its machinery can be
adapted to handle tons of other freight as easily
as it now handles tons of mail bags. According
to Postmaster-General Wilson's estimates, the
weight of the United States mails in 1895 was
over 234,000 tons. On some roads the mails
AND PASSENGER POST. 21
weigh a tenth as much as the passengers. The
receipts of the railways of the country for the
transportation of the mails in 1895 were more than
ten per cent, of the receipts from the passengers.
The grand principles on which the postal systems
of the world are based are as follows :
First. When once a postal system is established,
the machinery must run, and it makes no practical
difference in the cost of the business, whether a letter,
or a newspaper, or a parcel is carried one mile or a
thousand. Once the mail has started on its trip, it
is impossible to figure the difference in cost
whether a piece of postal matter is left at the first
office at which the mail stops, or goes to the farthest
office in the system. At every office a part of the
mail will be left and new matter taken on ; one
piece in a hundred perhaps will go the whole route
and there will always be room for it. The average
post will be short. If one could send a letter
round the world for nothing, the bulk of the postal
business would still consist of the exchange of
friendly and commercial messages between near
neighbors. Distance, in short, costs practically
nothing in the business of the Post-office and
therefore postal rates should be the same for all
distances.
This was the great discovery of Mr. Hill, and
the method by which he arrived at his conclusions,
is as follows : Out of an annual expenditure of
,700,000 in the business of the Post-office, the
total amount found to be chargeable to distance
22 A GENERAL FREIGHT
was but ^144,000 (about one fifth). Dividing this
by the number of paying letters, and allowing for
the greater weight of newspapers, it left the cost
for the average conveyance of each letter less than
one tenth of a penny, an amount so small that any
attempt to divide it, according to distance would
be manifestly absured.
Further investigation proved, moreover, that the
cost of conveyance per item of postal matter was
not infrequently less for a long distance than for a
short distance. Thus, in the case of the mail, on
the longest and most important route in the king-
dom, that from London to Edinburgh, some four
hundred miles in length, the cost of the conveyance
of the whole mail, per trip was five pounds, and
this amount, divided according to the weight of the
paying letters and newspapers, gave one sixth of a
penny as the absolute cost for the conveyance of
a newspaper of an average weight of one and one
half ounces, and one thirty-sixth of a penny for that
of a quarter-ounce letter.
These sums being the full cost for the whole
distance, Mr. Hill assumed that the same rating
would do for any place on the road. It was
admitted on all sides, that the chief labor was ex-
pended in making up, opening, and delivering the
mails ; therefore, the fact whether it was carried
one mile or one hundred, made comparatively little
difference in the expenditure of the Post-office.
The expense and trouble being much the same,
perhaps even less at Edinburgh than at some in-
AND PASSENGER POST. 23
termediate points, why should the charges be so
different ? But the case could be made still
stronger. The mail for Louth, containing, as it did,
comparatively few letters, cost the postal authori-
ties, as the simple expense of transit, five farthings
per letter.
Thus, an Edinburgh letter, costing an infini-
tesimal part of a farthing, paid a postage of one
shilling and three halfpence, while a letter for
Louth, costing the Post-office fifty times as much,
paid but ten pence. Mr. Hill's opponents were
therefore compelled either to accept his proposition,
or to stand as the defenders of the existing system
under which the highest price was often paid for
the cheapest business.
" At first sight, it looked extravagant that per-
sons residing at Penzance or the Giant's Causeway,
at Waterford or Wick, should pay the same postage
on their letters. In practical experience, however,
it was the nearest possible approximation to
perfect justice. The intrinsic value of the con-
veyance of a letter is a very different thing from
the cost of such conveyance. The value of the
service rendered by the Post-office in any particular
case, is exactly equal to the time, trouble, and expense
of the despatch of a private messenger on that par-
ticular errand, and may be fairly measured by
distance, but it is the glory of the modern Post-
office that, by the use of its vast machinery, this
burdensome expense is practically eliminated and
all the resulting benefits are equally divided among
24 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the whole people. On the other hand, the curse of
our present system of railway rates, based on
distance, consists in this, that it enables our railway
managers to guage their charges so as to take to
themselves nearly all the difference between the
cost of conveyance by human burden-bearer or by
ox-team and by railway. They are thus rapidly
absorbing the wealth of the entire country.
Second. The postal rate is a tax, a tax on com-
munication, a tax on the nervous system of the
body politic, and it is a tax especially burdensome
upon the poor. The postal rate, therefore, must
be as low as possible, and it must be the same for
all.
Third. The only power that can be safely en-
trusted with the right to levy postal taxes, is the
General Government.
The experience of more than half a century has
triumphantly demonstrated the truth of these prop-
ositions as applied to postal freight, and what is
true of the postal business is equally true of ordi-
nary railway traffic. The post-office and the rail-
road are indeed inseparably connected, and the
common interest demands that both shall be under
the same control, and shall be managed on the
same principles. Not until the different govern-
ments of the world have applied the postal prin-
ciple to telegraph and telephone rates on the one
hand, and to railway rates on the other, under the
control of the Post-office, will that great institution
be able to perform its whole duty, as the grand
AND PASSENGER POST. 2$
centre of the nation's circulating and nervous
system.
The office of the letter, the newspaper, the tele-
graph, and the telephone is to give mankind in-
formation as to where and how they may best
satisfy their wants and dispose of their wares.
The business of the different agencies of public
transportation (and the railway is the chief of
these agencies), is to provide the public with the
cheapest, the quickest, and the best possible ma-
chinery by which they can avail themselves of this
information. It is doubtful if any one has an
adequate idea of the evils that are certain to fol-
low the continuance of the present system of pri-
vate management of these great public works, with
its franking privileges for the favored few, and its
unjust and unstable taxation of the many, or, on
the other hand, of the blessings that are equally
certain to accrue to the people at large from the
proposed widening of the sphere of the Post-office,
with its system of equal, stable, just, and uniform
taxation for all.
26 A GENEKAL WEIGHT
CHAPTER II.
ABUSES OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF RAILWAY
MANAGEMENT.
THE railways are the circulating system of the
country ; the tracks are the arteries and veins ; the
trains are the life-bearing current ; the freight and
the passengers in the trains are the life itself. It
is no more possible to discover the difference in
the cost of the conveyance of freight and of pas-
sengers between the different stations of a railway
system, than it is to measure the difference in the
efforts of the human heart, whether the life essence
be transported from one valve of the heart to the
other, or from the life centre to the finger tips. In
the one case, as in the other, the office of the cir-
culating system is to relieve congestion here and
starvation there, to the end that there may be a
perfect body, complete in every part, and each
part dependent upon and subservient to every
other. In either case, the cost of transportation is
a matter of life and death. Check the flow of the
life blood to the hand and it withers and dries up ;
cut off an individual or a town from the national
system of circulation, or what is practically the
AND PASSENGER POST. 2J
same thing, discriminate against it in railway rates,
and it dies.
If Mr. Depew, President of the New York Cen-
tral Railroad, is to be believed, thousands of
towns in this country are thus dying to-day, be-
cause of the tariff discriminations of our railway
kings, and tens of thousands of individuals are
being deprived of opportunities to labor and to
enjoy the fruits of their labor by the same arbitrary
power.
" It is a matter of time only" (Mr. Depew is re-
ported to have said before the Interstate Commerce
Committee of Congress, in the winter of 1893),
" when the small dealer who is compelled to pay
the regular tariff will go to the wall. If this law
[the Interstate Commerce Act, which he claims to
be the cause of rate cutting] continues in force
five years longer, there will not be an independent
business man in any of the large cities of the
United States. It [this cutting of rates] is trans-
ferring the great business of the country from its
old position into the hands of a few great dealers,
and it is growing at a speed beyond anything we
know, forming great trusts and combinations" Note
that Mr. Depew attributes the growth of the trusts
to railway discriminations, and how it is done is
admirably told by Albert J. Stickney in his Rail-
road Problem. " A railway manager finds it more
convenient to deal with one man or one corpora-
tion, than to deal with a number of individuals ;
the manager therefore commences operations by
28 A GENERAL FREIGHT
giving to some enterprising party an advantage over
his neighbor in rates. The favored individual, of
course, soon obtains a complete monopoly in his
particular trade ; it may be in the product of mines
or of oil wells, of farms or of factories. After a
time, the grantees of these monopolies become
rich, and instead of receiving rebates as a favor,
they become masters of the railways and, by play-
ing one against another, they practically dictate the
rates they pay. Thus it has happened that in some
kinds of business, the oil business, for instance, a.
single concern, the Standard Oil Company, after
having received from the railroads ten million dol-
lars in the short space of eighteen months, has
gained an absolute monopoly."
In other classes of business, like that of dressed
beef and the handling of grain, the monopoly is in
the hands of three or four individuals. " They
parcel the United States out among themselves,"
says Mr. Depew, " and they send their products
[the product in which the railroads first made them
privileged dealers], by any railway they see fit.
To-day they send it over the New York Central ;
to-morrow they arbitrarily change it to the Penn-
sylvania Railroad. One of these privileged dealers,
for instance, is able to send five or ten cars of first-
class goods per day from Chicago to New York.
The regular rate is seventy-five cents a hundred,
but in order to get his trade, the railways offer
him a rate of thirty-five or forty cents." Taking
a carload of first-class freight at ten tons, this
AND PASSENGER POST. 2Q
great firm, at a rate of thirty-five cents, receives an
advantage over its competitors of $80 per car, from
$400 to $800 a day, and from $125,200 to $250,400
for the working year of 313 days, according as it
ships five or ten cars a day. In November, 1891,
the Federal grand jury returned an indictment
against Swift & Co., dressed beef shippers of
Chicago, for having received $30,000 in rebates
in the previous six months from the Nickel Plate
Road alone. Is it any wonder that in a short time
the competitors of such a firm are wiped out ?
And," says Mr. Depew, " this is going on at every
terminal of this country and by all lines, so that
you find business is being concentrated at the ter-
minals. It is being concentrated at Chicago, and
concentrated at New York, concentrated at Pitts-
burgh, at Philadelphia, and at Boston, and at other
terminals all over the country, while small places
are being wiped out ; their industries are being
taken from them.
" A bill is passed to prevent trusts ; manufac-
turers get round it by forming a big corporation.
The managers discover that, owing to discrimina-
tions in freight rates in favor of terminal points,
great savings are to be made by removing the
plants in the smaller towns and villages to these
terminals, so they take away the business from the
small town and close up the factory. The work-
men follow the business ; the town goes to ruin."
" And yet," says Mr. Depew, " the growth of this
country is dependent upon the building up of the
3O A GENERAL FREIGHT
smaller places. The best political and economic
results are against the concentration of business at
a few places and in a few hands."
And then the great railway manager goes on to
speak of the general impression that railways seek
to encourage these combinations because they can
thus deal with fewer people, and he says this is a
false impression. Unfortunately for Mr. Depew,
however, this impression is absolutely correct.
The investigations of the Hepburn Committee of
the New York Legislature, prove that on the very
road of which Mr. Depew is now President and of
which he was then the leading counsel, this system
of building up the rich at the expense of the poor
has been a prevailing practice. Mr. Wm. H. Van-
derbilt swore that, as a rule, all large shippers who
asked for them, got special rates, and among those
whose wealth he had thus helped to build up, he
mentioned the name of Mr. A. T. Stewart, the
great dry-goods merchant of New York City.
Drawbacks and rebates, he said, were very large.
The evidence showed that, in some towns, one
man paid three times the rates given to his
neighbor.
In these special rates, distance was altogether
lost sight of, one rate of twenty cents being made
to Little Falls, 217 miles from New York, while that
to Syracuse, 291 miles away, was but ten cents, and
the rate to Black-Rock, a distance of 455 miles,
was exactly the same as to Little Falls. The only
rule for the determination of the transportation
AND PASSENGER POST. 31
taxes levied on the New York Central Railroad.
was the will of the President and that of his traffic
manager. They changed the rates at some seasons
of the year three or four times a day, said Mr.
Vanderbilt.
This perversion of the use of this greatest of pub-
lic works continues, and must continue as long as
this business of managing our post-roads is farmed
out to private individuals and to private corpora-
tions. Nor can this evil condition of things be al-
together remedied by the collection of transporta-
tion taxes by State officials, as long as the value of
the service rendered by the railways, rather than
the cost of the service, continues to be the basis on
which these taxes are determined.
The growth of railway terminals and the concen-
tration of business in the hands of a few great con-
cerns at or beyond those terminals, at the expense
of the intervening country (so much bewailed by
Mr. Depew, and at the same time so much favored
by his influence), is no new thing in railway history,
nor is it confined to this country. It seems, in-
deed, to have been specially provided for in one of
the earliest charters ever granted to a railroad cor-
poration, namely, that given to the Stockton &
Darlington road, of England.
The provisions of this charter show that the rail-
way projectors of that early age well knew that dis-
tance was hardly worth considering as a factor in
the cost of railway service, while they fully realized
the tremendous power which it would have as a tax
32 A GENERAL FREIGHT
factor in enabling them not only to exact the full
value of that service from those living along their
lines, but also to take from them well-nigh the full
value of their property and of their earnings. The
Stockton & Darlington charter provided that its
projectors might levy a tax of eight cents a mile
per ton on coal used along their lines, while coal
for export, that is to say for use at terminals and
at places beyond the terminals, was to be taxed
but one cent per ton, per mile. And this system,
inaugurated on the Stockton & Darlington Rail-
road, seems to have been copied everywhere and
by all railway managers, whether at the head of
state or private roads. The prevailing custom
seems to have been to exact as nearly as possible
the full value of the service from local traffic, while
the through business has always been done as
nearly as possible on the basis of the cost of the
service, and notably in disregard of distance.
Terminals have had lower rates than intermedi-
ate stations, and the terminals, in their turn, have
been subjected to higher rates than were levied on
the same classes of freight shipped beyond the ter-
minals. Thus, flour shipped from Minneapolis for
consumption in Chicago, or Milwaukee, though pay-
ing less than from Minneapolis to intermediate sta-
tions, sometimes pays more, by a third, than flour
for shipment beyond those places.
It is a notorious fact that coal shipped from
Pennsylvania mines for use in Philadelphia, pays a
much higher transportation tax to Pennsylvania
AND PASSENGER POST. 33
railroads than coal carried to that port for ship-
ment beyond Philadelphia. Corn shipped from
Minneapolis to Boston has paid $44 per carload of
twenty tons, more than if taken on board ship at
Boston for foreign consumption. 1 Nothing indeed is
more common than such railway discriminations in
favor of foreigners at the expense of citizens in the
transportation of exports, nor are instances want-
ing of similar discriminations in the transporta-
tion of imports. In 1893, Representative Ikert, of
Ohio, testifying before the Ways and Means Com-
mittee of Congress, said : " The German manufac-
turer can ship his goods from Germany to distribut-
ing points in the interior of the United States at a
less cost than can the domestic manufacturer in
New Jersey or Ohio." At one time the rate on tin
plate from Liverpool, via Philadelphia and the
Pennsylvania Railroad to Chicago, was twenty-four
cents a hundred, while the rate from Philadelphia
to Chicago, on the same article, over the same road,
was twenty-eight cents a hundred.
The record in the Texas and Pacific case, lately
tried before the Supreme Court of the United
States, shows that the rate per hundred pounds
charged for the transportation, on through bills of
lading, of books, buttons, carpets, clothing, and
hosiery, from Liverpool and London, via New
Orleans, over the Texas and Pacific and Southern
Pacific railway systems to San Francisco, is $1.07.
On the same kind of domestic articles carried, it
may be in the same train, the transportation tax
1 Interstate Report, 1892, p. 284.
34 A GENERAL FREIGHT
over the same railroads is $2.88 from New Orleans
to San Francisco.
On foreign boots and shoes, cashmeres, con-
fectionery, cutlery, gloves, hats and caps, laces and
linens, the same blanket rate, $1.07 a hundred
pounds, is levied for transportation from these
English ports to San Francisco, while upon similar
American goods shipped from New Orleans to the
same destination, the railroad tax is $3.70 a hun-
dred. A more absurd system of taxation than this
could hardly be imagined, and yet the majority of
the United States Supreme Court (Justices Harlan
and Brown and Chief-Justice Fuller dissenting,
however,) has decided that it is both just and law-
ful, and that American railway managers may with
perfect impunity continue to tax Americans three
or four times as much as they tax foreigners for a
similar service. And, according to Mr. Grierson,
General Manager of the Great Western Railway of
England, this sort of discriminating " protection "
of foreign producers and of foreign consumers
against native producers and native consumers,
exists in every country where railroads have been
developed. The export rate on baled cotton goods
from Manchester to Hull is ijs. 6^/., while the local
rate is 31^. &d. From Manchester to London the
export rate is 25,?., while the local rate is 405. 8d.
American beef, on the other hand, is carried
from Liverpool to London for 25^. ($6.25) per
ton, while the rate from Wolverhampton to
London (hardly two thirds the distance) on Eng-
AND PASSENGER POST. 35
lish beef, is 45^. ($11.25) P er ton - The state roads
of Germany ship coal from German mines to Ham-
burg for foreign consumption, for $1.25 a ton less
than if it is to be used by Germans living in Ham-
burg. " The German-Dutch rates," says Mr. Grier-
son, " are invariably lower than the rates to inland
towns lying between the forwarding station and the
port."
Even Belgium levies a much heavier transporta-
tion tax on coal brought from the interior for the
use of her own citizens living at Antwerp than if it
is to be forwarded to strangers.
According to the Evening Post of New York, of
February 20, 1896, the New York roads were then
carrying Minneapolis manufactured flour from
' Buffalo to New York City for ten cents a hundred
pounds, while they charged New York State millers
eighteen cents for the same service. Everything,
indeed, in relation to the exchange of kindly ser-
vices between individuals and between nations
seems to be at sixes and sevens. On the one hand
we have the various governments of the world
(that of England being almost the only exception)
levying taxes on the transportation of imports
across their frontiers for the " protection of the
home market," and, on the other hand, we have
private railway corporations and the managers of
State roads making discriminations in transporta-
tion taxes within national frontiers which not only
tend to nullify the effect of the custom's tariffs,
but, in many cases, actually favor the foreigner at
36 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the expense of the citizen. Of the two, railway
tariffs have vastly more influence over life and over
business than have custom's tariffs.
Especially is this true of the United States. " In
America," says the English writer Acvvorth, " the
railway rate is a matter of life and death. In
America, rates vary from day to day as wildly as
the price of fish at Billingsgate. An oriental
despot, a Baber, or an Aurungzebe did not make
and unmake cities with more absolute and irre-
sistible power than did an American railway
king."
" We are told that the American railways have
ruined the English farmer ; people forget that
they have ruined the American farmer also."
" This power," says Mr. Stickney, " like a govern-
ment, has authority to make tariffs and to enforce
their collection. It claims a right which no civil-
ized government claims, and no sovereign has
dared to exercise for centuries, of rebating a por-
tion of its tariff, and thus discriminating between
its subjects in the collection of its revenues. It is
safe to say that if the Congress of the United
States should enact a law which established on any
commodity one impost duty for the city of New
York and a different duty for other cities, or one
duty for one firm and another duty for another
firm, no matter how slight the difference, the
people would resort to arms, if need be, rather
than submit." (See A. B. Stickney's Railway
Problem, page 31.)
AND PASSENGER POST. 37
" These railway kings," says Mr. Bryce, " have
power, more power that is, more opportunity to
make their will prevail, than perhaps any one in
political life, except the President or the Speaker,
who after all hold theirs only for four years and two
years, while the railroad monarch holds his for life.
When the master of one of the great Western lines
travels toward the Pacific in his palace car, his
journey is like a royal progress. Governors of
states and territories bow before him ; legislatures
receive him in solemn session ; cities and towns
seek to propitiate him, for has he not the means of
making or marring a city's fortunes ? " (Bryce's
American Commonwealths, vol. ii., page 653.)
In an article, in the Times of Hartford, Conn.,
of August 26, 1893, discussing the then proposed
consolidation of the Boston & Maine and the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
systems, we find the following : " When this is
accomplished, you will see a corporation with
$300,000,000 of capital and it will be the biggest
railroad combination in the country. We shall
have to go to Germany, where all the railways are
in the hands of the Government, to find anything
to compare with the New England Railroad system
as it will be five years hence. What then will the
office of Governor in any New England State be
worth, in comparison with that of President or
General Manager of this vast railway system ? A
United States Senatorship will be a poor prize in
comparison with that of Director of the New Eng-
38 A GENERAL FREIGHT
land Railway system. No doubt the salary of the
man at the head of the organization will be equal
to that of the President of the United States,
$50,000 a year."
Less than three years have passed and this pre-
diction is almost more than fulfilled. If not con-
solidated in law there is every reason to believe
that these two great corporations are consolidated
in fact, and that the government of the Consoli-
dated Railroad, long practically absolute in Con-
necticut has now extended its (chartered ?) power
of unlimited taxation over all New England. Ac-
cording to the Railroad Gazette of March 20, 1896,
the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
now owns all Southern New England, with its fast
growing cities as in fee simple. It has not only
absorbed our principal lines of land transportation ;
it has also obtained nearly complete control of
almost every important wharf in our chief New
England harbors and of almost every competing
steamboat line that plies along our coast. It has
already seized more than one of the trolley lines
which were built to secure to local travel a reason-
able service, at reasonable rates, and a decree has
gone forth from the Railroad Capital, in the city
of New Haven, that not another electric tramway
shall ever be laid down on any of the highways
which the people of Connecticut have built and
which the tracks of this road parallel. There is to
be no avenue of escape from the burdensome taxes
which this corporation sees fit to levy upon its sub-
AND PASSENGER POST. 39
jects. Recent events would seem to indicate that
even the church is not to be free from its encroach-
ments.
Henceforth the presiding council of this Impe-
rial Railroad Government are to regulate all the
conditions of life in New England. The wages of
New England labor, the profits of New England
business are to be determined by their will. Her
cities, towns, and villages are to wither and dry up
or to grow and flourish at their pleasure. It will
be of no avail for the factories of the interior to
move to the seaboard, for this railroad despotism
rules the sea as well as the land. It completely
dominates the navigation of Long Island Sound,
the great ship canal that bathes our southern bor-
der. A view taken from the top of Bunker Hill
monument will show that almost every dock in
Boston Harbor is in its control. From Eastport,
Maine, to New York City, the tariff laws of this de
facto consolidated government have infinitely more
influence upon life and upon business than have
the tariff laws of Congress.
Notwithstanding the fact that the New York,
New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, with its
comparatively level track and few curves, can haul
the heaviest loads at the lowest cost of almost any
road in the country its average freight rate per
mile is among the highest in the country. It is
nearly double the average rate in the United States ;
it is more than double the average rate in the
Middle States, in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and
40 A GENERAL / 'HEIGHT
Michigan. This is no eleemosynary corporation,
said General Freight Agent Mellen, at a meeting
of the Board of Trade of Hartford, Connecticut,
in the fall of 1895, and to make his meaning clear
he said that it was perfectly just and reasonable to
charge $60 for hauling a carload of peaches
from Harlem River to Hartford, no miles (a
whole freight train can be hauled the same dis-
tance for about $30) ; and with the same degree
of reason he charges $60 for the haul of the
peach-car to New Haven, 73 miles. A brick con-
cern located on a side-track of this road about 2|
miles from Hartford needs slack coal in its busi-
ness. Its value delivered on the cars at Meriden
is $30 for a carload of twenty tons. The rail-
road demands seventy-five cents a ton, $15 for
hauling this car 14 miles. The service would
add to the expenses of the road perhaps fifteen
cents. Again this same brick concern wants cer-
tain carloads of wood hauled from Hartford to its
side-track. The Connecticut farmer gets $2.15 for
growing, cutting, hauling, and loading this wood
upon the car. The railroad demands seventy-five
cents a cord for simply hauling the wood 2\ miles,
a service that would hardly add to the expenses of
the road five cents.
The passenger fares on the various lines of this
consolidated road are, in most cases, nearly as high
as they were in 1850, and, in some cases, con-
solidation has very much increased the fares.
On the main stem, the fare from New Haven to
AND PASSENGER POST. 41
New York to-day is one dollar and a half, the same
as in 1849, but from most of the stations west of
New Haven the fare for the round trip to New
York is from ten to twenty cents higher. From
Bridgeport the increase for the round trip is thirty
cents, from Hartford ten cents. From Boston, the
traveller of 1850, could make a trip to and fro New
York, over the three or more short lines of the
route via Springfield and New Haven, for one dol-
lar less than to-day over the consolidated through
line. The increased charge for the round trip from
New York to Kent, over that in force in 1850, is
thirty-six cents ; to Falls Village, forty cents ; to
Great Barrington, one dollar and ten cents ; to
Lee, Lenox, Stockbridge and Pittsfield, one dollar
and fifty cents, and yet the cost of running a rail-
road train, hauled by modern coal burning engines
over the consolidated steel track of to-day is far
less than it was over the short iron roads, with the
slow, wood burning engines of 1850.
In speed, in accommodation, in ease and com-
fort of travel, the gain to the public from the im-
provements made in the railroads, in the last half
century, has been wonderful, but, as I have shown,
the transportation tax levied on the traveller to-day
is very generally as high as it was at the commence-
ment of the railroad era, and it is full half as high
per mile as was the charge on the old stage lines,
although the cost to the railroad, where the trans-
portation tax is such that the people can use rail-
way trains up to their capacity, is not a fiftieth as
v
42 A GENERAL FREIGHT
much as by stage. In the transportation of freight
there has been a considerable reduction from the
cost by ox-cart, but there is no such thing as equal-
ity or uniformity or stability or certainty in the tax
levied on freight ; neither is there any such thing
as equality of service. I shall also show later that
freight taxes are vastly higher than they ought to be.
The evil of the situation lies right here. Un-
der the mileage system of rates applied in
local traffic, and the lack of any other rule
for the determination of through rates than
the will of the railway king, modified to some
extent by the wills of other railway kings, the
public are obliged to pay the actual value instead
of the mere cost of the service rendered by the rail-
ways, and the difference, amounting in many cases
to half and in some cases to the full value of the
products transported, is taken by the railroads,
which are thereby rapidly absorbing the greater
part of the wealth of the country. In the spring of
1895, certain farmers of my acquaintance endeav-
ored to make contracts with the railroads to carry
their crops to market for half what they would sell
for, but their propositions were laughed at. Hav-
ing the power the railroad managers preferred to
confiscate the entire proceeds. And this, as the
following instances will prove, they actually accom-
plished. Saving names of persons and of places, the
following are exact copies of original bills, relating
to sales and freight on watermelons, made in the
summer of 1895.
AND PASSENGER POST. 43
PHILADELPHIA, July 22, '95.
Sales by A. B., Commission Merchant in Fruit and
Vegetables.
For account, J. K. G. of G., South Carolina,
July 22.
Car 1389.
7/22 1109 melons at 12
cents $133 08
Freight $122 05
Charges, Commis-
sions ii 09
$133 14
Due A. B. from
farmer 06
PHILADELPHIA, July 26, '95.
one car No.
July 25, 1250 melons at g\
cents $118 75
Freight $85 84
Commissions n 88
Net proceeds 21 03 $118 75
The A. and B. Co.,
C VILLE. July 27, '95.
Mr. J. K. G.,
G., South Carolina.
DEAR SIR :
I enclose check for $53.00 net
amount for car 15185
Sold for $175 5
Less freight 122 50 $53 oo
Yours truly,
F. B. P.
44 A GENERAL FREIGHT
Please observe that on the carload of melons,
shipped to Philadelphia on the 22d of July, the
freight was $122.05 and three days later the rate
was reduced to $85.84 ; while on the car shipped
July 2yth to C ville, Va., perhaps two thirds
the distance to Philadelphia, the rate was the same
as on the first car and nearly fifty per cent, more
than the rate on the second car to Philadelphia.
Note also that, at this very time, the rate on flour
shipped from the North to the town of G., was
but $40, while that on the melons sent to the
North, perhaps in the same car, the same distance,
and over the same roads, was more than three times
as much. Mr. G. shipped eight carloads of melons
in the summer of 1895, for the transportation of
which the railroads exacted $1100, while Mr. G.
received about $123 for raising the melons, hauling
them from his farm to the station, and loading
them on to the cars.
No wonder that he became disgusted with the
business and turned over the rest of the crop to
his stock. And my friend's experience was the
same with regard to Irish potatoes ; and " The
worst of it is," he says, " there seems to be no
hope of anything better."
A company of Connecticut peach growers have
lately set out a peach orchard of some six hundred
acres at Fort Valley, Georgia. In 1895 they shipped
their first crop, of which some eighty-five cars came
North. The railway charges were as follows : For
icing, $90 per car to New York ; $100 a car to
AND PASSENGER POST. 45
Hartford ; for haulage, $174 per car for the haul
of about 1000 miles from Fort Valley to New
York, and $60 per car from New York to Hartford.
It is safe to say that the haul from Fort Valley to
Hartford did not cost the railroads anywhere near
$60 per car.
The Arena of October, '95, tells the following
story : " A carload of potatoes was shipped from
Colorado to Chicago in the summer of '95, and,
upon arrival at Chicago, the railroads confiscated
the whole load, and went after the shipper for $28
more. A gardener shipped thirty cases of green
peas from Texas to Chicago by express. The peas
sold on the market for $22 ; the express charges
were $26.50."
A short time ago, one of my friends had a book
sent from Philadelphia to Titusville. He paid one
dollar for the book, seventy-five cents for the ex-
pressage. A similar service performed by the Ger-
man Post-office would cost twelve and one half
cents.
Along in 1885, Daniel Buchanan went to the
new State of Washington to see what were the
prospects for settlement. Coming to the station
known as Ritzville, on the Northern Pacific Road,
he found the land in the vicinity well adapted to
the raising of grain, and examining into the matter
of transportation (for there is no use in raising
grain unless one can get it to market), he ascer-
tained that the rates to St. Paul from Washington
points were forty cents a hundred. These rates
46 A GENERAL FREIGHT
seemed to leave a reasonable margin for profit at
the price asked for the land, and accordingly Mr.
Buchanan bought two sections from the railroad
company. It is to be noted that the value of the
land was practically a matter of railway rates and
of railway facilities. At the rates then charged,
the land had some value, and Mr. Buchanan paid
that value. Higher rates would mean practical
confiscation not only of the land, but of all the
improvements thereon. For three years the rates
remained the same, and the production of grain
along the road increased rapidly. Then, in 1888,
in order to check production and to save itself the
necessity of providing additional facilities for the
transportation of the increasing produce, the com-
pany increased the rate on wheat to forty-five
cents. But this did not sufficiently dampen the
ardor of the farmers, and the next year the railroad
raised the rate on wheat to fifty cents, and on bar-
ley to fifty-six cents, the total increase being twenty-
five per cent, in the one case, and thirty-three and
one third per cent, in the other. Mr. Buchanan
appealed to the Interstate Commerce Commission.
They decided that, under the law, the action of
the railroad was perfectly justifiable. The in-
creased rate was not unreasonable, and, since Mr.
Buchanan had failed to secure from the railroad
company at the time of his purchase an agreement
not to increase rates in the future, he had no
remedy.
In other words, under the law, a man may be
AND PASSENGER POST. 47
induced to purchase land of a railway by the offer
of low rates, and when he is once located the rates
may be raised so as to practically force the settler
to give to the railway not only the original value
of the land, but the value of his improvements,
and the value of his labor for all the future. And
people wonder why Western farmers fail to pay the
interest on their mortgages !
We used to hear a great deal about the evils of
Irish landlordism, but recent investigations prove
that, both in Ireland and in America, the railway
manager has more to do with the untoward condi-
tions of life and of business than all other causes
put together.
" The real rulers of Ireland," says a recent writer,
" are the conference of representatives of the Irish
Railway and Steamship lines.
" The traffic is managed without regard to pub-
lic needs or convenience. The local rates are so
exorbitant as to have stamped out several once
flourishing industries and to have crippled those
that remain." " No idea exists save to put as
heavy a toll as possible upon everybody and every-
thing appearing at the station."
With a slight modification these statements apply
admirably well to the condition of things in this
country. The real rulers of the United States are
the Joint Traffic Association. Already within the
first brief year of its existence, this Association had
gone far towards attaining its declared end of
"strengthening rates everywhere." Freights on
48 A GENERAL FREIGHT
east-bound products from California by the Sunset
Route have been increased fifty per cent. The
local rates, on beef on the hoof, on the Michigan
Central, have been increased one hundred per cent.
Excursion rates from the central passenger district
to Niagara Falls are one hundred per cent, higher
in 1896 than they were in 1895.
The Eastern railway and coal pool has made the
price of stove coal at tide water for the summer
of 1896, one dollar and thirty cents a ton higher
than in the summer of 1895 and forty-five cents
higher than the summer average for the past six
years. (SeeTV^. Y. Herald, June 30, 1896.) And the
Western railway and coal pool is doing in the West
what the Eastern association has done in the East.
And this increase in the charges for transportation
has taken place in the face of enormous reductions,
in the actual cost of doing the business, and at a
time when the low value of products and of labor
demanded that the advantages accruing from the
improvements in transportation should be shared
by the whole people. The prices of Western pro-
duce were never lower ; the demand for Eastern
manufactures was probably never more stagnant.
Each needs the other's produce and the world
needs the surplus of both, but the managers of
our private systems of communication and trans-
portation stand between each man and his cus-
tomer, and allow the exchange of products and of
services only on terms which amount to practical
confiscation. 1
1 The prosperity of the West in 1897, sectional at best, can-
not be permanent.
AND PASSENGER POST. 49
Even this might be endured if it were likely to
result in any corresponding benefit to the masses of
the stockholders in these public service corpora-
tions. It is probable, however, that as a rule the
stockholders in these corporations will suffer with
the general public. As long ago as 1888, Franklin
B. Gowen of Pennsylvania, estimated that from
$50,000,000 to $100,000,000 of the transportation
taxes then exacted from the people by railroad
managers were distributed annually among a few
favored shippers, and " as a result of a personal
examination made as an expert for stockholders,"
he declared that one of the great trunk lines
had, in the previous twenty years, thus diverted
to favorites of the managers $100,000,000 of the
money belonging to the stockholders.
One of the most subtle methods by which rail-
road managers at once increase their profits, and,
at the same time, without cost to themselves, pur-
chase the support of the most powerful organs of
public opinion, is by the issue of passes. The fol-
lowing testimony sworn to before the Interstate
Commerce Commission, by the officers of the Bos-
ton & Maine three or four years ago, shows the
prevailing practice in New England and presumably
throughout the whole country. The persons to
whom free transportation is given, are divided into
ten classes.
Class I " includes sick, necessitous or indigent
persons, in short all cases of charity strictly."
As to the particular sick, necessitous or indigent
50 A GENERAL FREIGHT
persons upon whom the railway manager shall be-
stow these imperial favors, he is of course the sole
judge. Whether clergymen are placed in this cate-
gory or in Class X, which covers persons whose
" good-will is of importance to the corporation," we
are not informed. Special provision, however, was
made in the Interstate Act (was it done by railway
officials ?) to enable the growing railway state to
bring the church to its support by allowing " re-
duced rates to be given to ministers of religion,"
and we shall see later that no pains have been
spared, by railway managers, to carry out this par-
ticular provision of law both as to its intent and as
to its letter.
Class II " includes gentlemen long eminent in
the public service."
A traveller on one of the Pullman cars bound
for Washington, at the opening of the Fifty-fourth
Congress, is reported to have said that he was the
only person on the car who paid any fare. All
the rest, " gentlemen in the public service," Con-
gressmen, travelled free.
Class III is made up of " the proprietors of
summer hotels and large boarding-houses, con-
formably to a practice which has long existed
among all railroads in New England."
Class IV " includes wives of employees and other
immediate members of employees' families."
Do the wives and children of engineers and fire-
men, of brakemen and trackmen, of conductors
and station-masters, get free transportation over
AND PASSENGER POST. 51
our railroads? Not often, I think. It is far more
probable that this class is intended to cover those
railway employees who frequent legislative halls
and the chambers of municipal councils. We
have heard of such employees who, it is said, are
not only provided with free transportation but are
also paid thousands of dollars annually for their
valuable services.
Class V " includes all agents of ice companies and
all milk contractors doing business on the line of
the Boston & Maine Railroad, or any part thereof
extending between two states, said agents and con-
tractors travelling on trains in the conduct of their
business."
A word right here as to these milk contractors.
It is a very common practice for railway managers
to give to a single man or corporation the exclusive
control of all the milk business on their lines and
to refuse to farmers or other milk dealers, the
transportation of their milk except through the
agency of these favored individuals. Some of these
milk agreements, moreover, are so very lucrative
to the contractors that it is next to impossible to
avoid the conclusion that the profits are shared
with the individual railway official or the small
group of officials responsible for the agreements.
In his brief (pages 33 and 38) in the case of The
Milk Producers' Protective Association against the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and
others, tried in New York, in December, 1895,
Joseph H. Choate, counsel for the petitioners,
52 A GENERAL FREIGHT
shows that the milk contractor on the D., L. & W.
R.R., receives twenty per cent, of the entire
receipts of the road from its milk traffic, 6-^ cents
on every forty-quart can of milk and ten cents on
every forty-quart can of cream. Out of a total of
$489,000 paid to this road for the transportation
of 1,649,773 cans of milk and cream, in 1894, the
contractor received $97,000. The counsel of the
railroad, in their reply to Mr. Choate, (see pages 8
and 34 of their brief) admit that this contractor
" practically controls the milk business on the line
of the road because he has in his hands the dealers
who take the supply " ; and they further admit that
his current expenses, in 1894, were but $45,000.
His milk salary therefore for that year was $52,000,
or $2000 more than the salary of the President
of the United States. In 1895, he earned the
same income from the same business in nine
months that he had earned in 1894 in twelve
months. Mr. Choate speaks of this money as
" taken actually and absolutely out of the pockets
of the stockholders." I prefer to look at it as a
forced contribution from the farmers along the D.,
L. & W.'s lines and from the consumers of milk in
New York City and its neighborhood. It Is but
fair to add that, of this $52,000 salary, the defend-
ant's counsel estimate that $30,000 to $35,000 were
invested in creameries, so that the contractor's
clear pocket-money was only $19,000 for 1894, but
as the materials of the creameries were carried free
and as the creameries were to be sold for his ben-
AND PASSENGER POST. 53
efit, we may assume that they proved a very good
investment for his surplus.
The evidence in this case seems to be conclusive
that the rates charged, by the railroads west of the
Hudson, on milk for the New York market, are
two or three times higher than they would be on a
cost of the service basis. The farmers work their
farms, the railroads and railrcad contractors take
the farmers' legitimate profits. In addition to their
other powers these contractors seem to have no small
amount of influence in the distribution of passes.
Perhaps the most glaring instance of personal
injustice brought to light in this trial was that of
Messrs. Howell, Brothers, of Goshen, New York,
by the Ontario & Western Railroad. Some time
in 1890 or '91 these gentlemen established a cream-
ery on this road, covering the two points of Ham-
den and Delancy, for the manufacture of cream
from new milk by the centrifugal process. Fifteen
cans of milk were concentrated into one can of
cream and the consequent saving in transportation
was immense. Things appeared to go on very
well until the 26th of November, 1892, when the
firm received the following letter :
" NEW YORK, ONTARIO, & WESTERN RAILROAD Co,
" November 26, 1892.
" Howell, Bros., Goshen, New York.
" GENTLEMEN :
" Before you went on the Delhi Branch, we used
to have the milk from Hamden and Delancy but I
54 A GENERAL FREIGHT
regret, since you began operation, we have lost
half the bulk of our revenue. In looking back I
see that our receipts from these two stations were
over $17,000 a year. In May, June, and July, 1892,
your shipments were $355, $435, an ^ $53 respec-
tively. We have therefore determined to build
two creameries, one at Hawley's and one at De-
lancy, and to put a New York milk dealer in pos-
session and see if we cannot build up our milk
business to what it formerly was. I trust you will
appreciate our position in this matter. We do not,
of course, want to do anything to hurt your busi-
ness but, at the same time, we feel that this is one
of the finest milk territories in the East and should
be worked for all it is worth.
" J. C. ANDERSON,
" General Freight Agent." ,
This letter was followed by a proposition for an
appraisal of Messrs. Howell's property by disinter-
ested parties and by an agreement on the part of
the railroad company to accept the appraiser's
finding. This agreement, however, was no sooner
made than it was broken by the railway company
and Messrs. Howell were obliged to turn over their
creamery to the railroad appointee at his own
terms and at a heavy loss. Verily, Wm. H. Van-
derbilt made a great mistake, in 1879, when he
said, " The railroad corporation is organized pri-
marily for the benefit of the State." He should
have said, " The State exists simply for the rail-
AND PASSENGER POST. 55
road." But to return to the matter of passes
issued by the Boston & Maine Railroad.
Class VI includes the higher officers of state, in
the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
and Massachusetts and certain prominent officers of
the United States, like Collectors of Customs.
Class VII includes the Railroad Commission-
ers of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and
Massachusetts.
Class VIII includes the members of the Rail-
road Committee, for the time being, of each of the
legislatures of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
and Massachusetts.
Class IX includes persons who are trustees
under mortgages on the property of the corporation
who are entitled to inspect its property, by virtue
of deed or indenture constituting them trustees.
Class X called complimentary, includes persons
whose "good-will" is important to the corporation
and who, so long as the practice remains what it
now is, might justly take offence if, in the matter of
free transportation, they were to receive from the
Boston & Maine Road different treatment from
that received from other railroads.
A very interesting schedule really, but lacking in
one particular. The Boston & Maine Railway
managers are not sufficiently pious. For real
downright piety, one must go to the Pennsylvania
Railroad and, in evidence of it, read the following
reply reported to have been made by one of its
officials to some carping critic who complains of
56 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the worldly spirit of their clerical friends. The
following quotation from the New York Recorder,
published in The Coming Nation of Feb. 15, 1895,
bears this significant title : " Why the Pulpit is
Silent on the Subject of Railway Rates, Shaping
Public Opinion."
" The officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad sys-
tem cannot understand the complaint which has
been made by a neighbor in the business, that there
has been a misuse of the clerical half rate. ' No
road in the country has issued more of these tickets
than ours,' said Assistant General Passenger Agent
Boyd/and we have certainly had no cause to believe
that our clerical friends have in any way misused
their privileges. Last year (1894) we issued be-
tween 13,000 and 14,000 orders to clergymen on
our lines east and west of Pittsburg.
" ' We give them not only to ministers of the
gospel, but also to missionaries and Salvation Army
officers ; but care is taken to see that only proper
persons get them, and I guess in that fact lies the
reason they do not get into the hands of unworthy
persons. Clergymen, in their work of shaping
public opinion and elevating the moral tone of the
people, are certainly a most worthy class, and this
corporation has always felt that liberal treatment
accorded them would serve the double purpose of
contributing to the good work, and of aiding a
most worthy class of at least badly paid workers.' "
To those acquainted with the history of this cor-
poration as set forth in the investigations of the
AND PASSENGER POST. 57
Hepburn Committee of the New York Legislature,
and in the various investigations made by Con-
gress, the high regard for public morals asserted in
this reported statement seems infinitely absurd.
There can be but one motive for the distribution
of special railway privileges among those who
shape public opinion, and whose "good-will" is
therefore of importance to railway managers. No
man whose life is consecrated to the advancement
of the common welfare will, I believe, accept such
favors when he once understands what is expected
of him in return.
But the list of American privileged classes is not
yet complete. It is especially provided by law
that every railroad company may exchange passes
or tickets with other railroads for their officers
and employees. Not infrequently this has been
interpreted to include their families, and now,
" after a long and interesting agitation, representa-
tives of the more prominent steamship lines are to
have annual passes over the roads west of Chicago,
parties to the Western Pass Agreement." Evi-
dently the abatement of " the free pass nuisance,"
spoken of by Van Oss in his work on American
railways, was but temporary. It seems more than
probable that, as was the case ten or twelve years ago,
so now, must " business men carry their annual."
" In the West at least one fifth of all passengers
travel on free passes. Another regrettable usance
is that railroad advertisements as a rule are paid
for with tickets which are frequently sold."
58 A GENERAL FREIGHT
As long ago as 1871, it was said that this deaden-
ing railway power cost the people of New Jersey at
least ten millions a year, from the depression it
caused to agriculture, while its effect upon the
political morality of the State and upon its educa-
tional interests was to make New Jersey a synonym
for sloth and backwardness in civilization. And
in Pennsylvania, " in the coal regions, where their
power is absolute, they have inaugurated a sub-
jection of labor to capital which is unsurpassed
anywhere in the civilized world. This region of
country presents a social order which, in the
degradation of labor and the supremacy of the
employer surpasses even the worst results which
slavery attained. The political influence, how-
ever, of these combined monopolies has been
strong enough to oblige the General Government
to station detachments of its troops, at its own ex-
pense, for the suppression of any discontent among
the miners, should their ignorance and degradation
lead to acts of violence." The Westminster Re-
view^ January, 1871.
In December, 1872, an article appeared in the
Atlantic Monthly, entitled : " The Fight of a Man
with a Railroad." Some time in the early part of
1868, John A. Coleman, of Providence, R. I., pur-
chased a ticket from Providence to New York
via the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Rail-
road. Detained by business in New Haven until
it was too late to continue his trip by rail, he made
the rest of the iourney by boat and, thus had his
AND PASSENGER POST. 59
coupon for the trip from New Haven to New York
on his hands. No opportunity came for its use
until June u, 1868, when, being in New York, it
occurred to Mr. Coleman that it might be available
for his return trip. He accordingly presented the
coupon to the guard stationed at the cars. The
officer declared the ticket good for nothing, and
ordered him not to board the train. Mr. Coleman
then purchased a ticket to Providence via New
Haven, and entered the cars, still determined, how-
ever, to use his idle coupon, if possible. The con-
ductor, on being offered the ticket, said that it was
good from New Haven to New York, but not for the
reverse trip, and demanded another ticket of Mr.
Coleman, adding that otherwise he would be put off
the train at Stamford. On arrival at the Stamford
station the conductor entered the car with five or
six assistants, and pointing to Mr. Coleman, said :
" This is the man, pull him out and put him on the
platform." A struggle ensued, in which Mr. Cole-
man was struck several times on the head, and was
finally thrown upon the platform. When he next
reached Boston, he attached the Boston Express
train, and brought suit in the Massachusetts Su-
perior Court for $10,000 damages. The case was
tried four times, and although in each of three out
of four trials the jury gave to the plaintiff over
$3,400 damages, it was not until the end of the
fourth trial, and after a four years' contest that the
corporation yielded.
In the long course of these various trials, one of
60 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the influential persons connected with the corpora-
tion made the remark which stands at the head of
the Atlantic article, and which ought, I think,
to be engraven on the mind of every American
citizen : " The Road has no personal animosity
against you, Mr. Coleman, but you represent the
public, and the Road is determined to make it so
terrible for the public to fight it, right or wrong,
that they will stop it. We are not going to be at-
tacked in this way!'
In 1877 there occurred the fearful riots at Pitts-
burgh, riots which, according to Van Oss, were
directly traceable to the exercise of this terrible
railroad power against the public welfare. He says
that Pittsburgh, " being for many years dependent
upon the Pennsylvania Railroad in its intercourse
with the East, has probably suffered more from
railway tyranny than any other city in the Union.
It is generally known how favorably the city of
natural gas is situated ; so favorable, indeed, that
in spite of adverse rates it has become the Ameri-
can Birmingham. Yet its iron and glass industries
went through many a crisis which can be traced
directly to railroad discriminations against its busi-
ness. The riots of 1877, for instance, caused by a
lockout, could have been averted if rates had been
more favorable ; it has been proven that in that
case Pittsburgh industries could have worked for
exportation, and that there was a sufficient profit
on railway transportation to admit of a very sub-
stantial reduction of the tariffs."
AND PASSENGER POST. 6 1
If further evidence be wanting as to the charac-
ter of this power, it has just been furnished by the in-
vestigations of Postmaster-General Wilson as to the
carnage of the railway mails. Notwithstanding the
enormous taxes levied upon the General Govern-
ment by the railways for mail transportation, it
appears that, for fifteen years past, railway man-
agers have been accustomed not only to pay no
postage on their own mail matter transported over
their own lines, but also to carry one another's
mails without making any return therefor to the
Government. It is said that an average of about
300,000 pieces per month of this unpaid postal
matter, some of them very bulky, pass through the
Chicago railway mail exchange alone, and the most
of them are letters which pass over other roads than
those on which they originate. The editor of the
Railway Review acknowledges that this is a plain
infraction of law and, very curiously, uses it as
an argument against the Government management
of railways. The laxity of the Post-office depart-
ment in not enforcing the law in respect to this
business is a good illustration, he thinks, of what
might be expected were our railways operated by
the Government. But there is another way of
looking at this matter. No ordinary Postmaster-
General would venture to criticise the acts of this
terrible power which has so often proved itself
stronger than the Government. It is altogether
possible that the enforcement of the law in this
case will turn the present postal deficit into a
handsome profit.
62 A GENERAL Fit EIGHT
One further evil, and perhaps the greatest of all
the evils incident to the private management of
these public works, is the custom of giving away
stocks and bonds (paper currency drawing interest),
sometimes for nothing, sometimes for ten cents on
the dollar, and then attempting, by means of high
transportation taxes, to force the public to redeem
these fraudulent paper issues in gold at one hun-
dred cents on the dollar. According to Von Oss,
(see his American Railroads as Investments^ page 139)
there were in existence of these stocks in 1892, some
$4,650,000,000 of which only $465,000,000, and
probably less, represented any real investment of
capital. The balance, over $4,000,000,000, was
simply the measure of the intent of railway mana-
gers to levy unnecessary taxes upon the people.
*' Hence shares now return," Von Oss says, " at
least eighteen per cent, upon actual investment.
True, those owning $1000 in shares receive but an
average of $18 per annum upon them ; but in the
majority of cases shares cost the investor nothing."
And as to bonds : " These bonds represent no par
investment ; the average price at which they
reached the first investor probably did not exceed
77, no matter what somebody who buys them to-day
pays for them." This adds some $1,500,000,000
more of paper issues representing little but fraud,
but which it was and is intended, none the less,
the public shall redeem at par in taxes paid in solid
gold. All that has been said to the contrary not-
withstanding, water emphatically begets a desire
AND PASSENGER POST. 63
on the part of railway managers to charge such
rates as will pay returns upon fictitious capital.
We see its hand in the recent rise in the price
of anthracite coal. 1 The New York Herald of
June 30, 1896, says: "All of the coal compa-
nies had yesterday fallen into line with an ad-
vance of twenty-five cents, making the price at
tide-water, $4.10 per ton. This is $1.35 a ton
above the level at which coal was sold a year
ago, and is 45 cents a ton above the average,
at this season, for the last six years." " The
advance made yesterday," says another great
New York daily, speaking of the same move-
ment, " is equal to $12,000,000 a year exacted from
consumers by the coal producers, whose trust is
now working perfectly for the first time in six
years."
As we read this story, we are forcibly re-
minded of the condition of things in France
before the great Revolution, and the more so
that almost every serious trouble that we have
had in this country in the last thirty years has
been due to the arbitrary acts of our railway
kings, who in their rule have been as dicta-
torial, as unmerciful, and as capricious as were
ever the old rulers of the French. Here, too, as
in old France, we find a court with its priv-
ileged classes provided with practically free trans-
portation over the king's highways, while the
workers on the farm, in the mine, the forest,
and the factory, tied by railway law to their
1 This refers to 1896.
64 A GENERAL FREIGHT
narrow homes, are compelled to work from year's
end to year's end to provide for the privileges
and the profits secured to these American roy-
alties, as they claim, by the divine right of their
charters.
In some cases, moreover, as for instance in Con-
necticut, the railway king, not satisfied with his
ordinary revenue, is actually going back to the
old French Corvee, and is compelling the peo-
ple to work, without pay, on his highway im-
provements. Of this character is every dollar
exacted from the people for the elimination of
grade crossings. The city of Bridgeport is thus
to contribute some $400,000 of the labor of its citi-
zens for the improvement of the Consolidated
Railway.
But our railway rulers do not rest even here.
While calling to their aid all the power of the
Government to compel their employees to run
such mail trains as they may find convenient,
railway managers change mail schedules and even
take off mail trains altogether at their pleasure,
and, in neither case, do these royal personages rec-
ognize the existence of the Government, except so
far as to send to its officials the newly-printed time-
tables.
As long ago as November 26, 1887, Postmaster-
General Vilas spoke of the relation of the Post-
office to the railways in the following language :
" The difficulties of solving this problem do not
diminish with the lapse of time ; they steadily in-
AND PASSENGER POST. 65
crease. The peril to the public is not lessened,
but augments yearly. There must be legislation
adapted to the conditions of the time, or this
wretched system, with its inequalities, its injus-
tice, unnecessary expenditure, irritating complica-
tions, and risk of signal disaster, must remain a
reproach to the Department until some serious
misfortune awakens decisive action. The statute
is seriously defective in its omission to require and
compel the service of the railroads in mail trans-
portation. So far as the statute goes, it is at the
mere option of these common carriers to serve the
Government, and it illustrates the defect and evil
of it to state that one road, the Old Colony Rail-
road Company of Massachusetts, has notified the
Department of its refusal to comply with the statute.
The managers of some of the New England roads
have refused to furnish the space or apartment in
a car necessary for the proper distribution of the
mails, and, as a result, this branch of the service has
been caused some embarrassment in that section,
and the people living adjacent to such lines given
just cause of complaint." 1
And then, proceeding to outline the legislation
needed for the common welfare, Mr. Vilas shows
that it would be a very great benefit to the Gov-
ernment to own its postal cars. The 432 cars
then in the service, 342 in ordinary use, 90 in re-
serve, could be bought, or their duplicates manu-
1 Report of the Superintendent Railway Mail Service,
November II, 1887.
66 A GENERAL FREIGHT
factured for $1,600,000, while the entire annual
cost, embracing all necessary labor and ordinary
repairs would not be over $720 for each of the 342
cars, in ordinary use, or $246,240, making a total
of $1,846,240.
Yet for the mere use of these cars, including
cleaning, etc., the Department was then paying
$1,881,580 a year, and the amount demanded for
the ensuing year was $2,000,000, this in addition
to the eight cents a pound paid under the general
item of transportation of the mails by railroads.
On one line $59,037.75 was annually paid for the
use of four cars that could be built and fully
equipped in the best modern style for less than
$17,500, and this in addition to the full weight pay
for transportation, amounting in this case to $504,-
573.69 annually. Mr. Vilas estimated that the pur-
chase of its postal cars would save to the Govern-
ment at least $1,500,000 a year, against which the
only charge would be the cost of casualties. " It
cannot be objected," he said, " that the Department
is unable to assume the charge of these cars. The
Department can easily discharge these functions.
It might receive the custody of all the cars in the
service and thenceforth care for them, on a month's
notice. With moderate addition to its force, the
railway mail-office can provide for the manufac-
ture of all necessary. Whatever may be done by
any private hands, may as well be done by the
Department. Ownership by the Government of
its postal cars cannot but much relieve the difficul-
AND PASSENGER POST. 6?
ties of the compensation problem. But it will be
indispensable, at the outset, whatever shall be at-
tempted, to exert the rightful prerogative of Gov-
ernment and impose it, as an imperative duty, on
all railway carriers, to accept and transport, at the
compensation established by law and according to
the statute and departmental regulations, all mails,
mail supplies, postal clerks, and inspectors on
duty, with sufficient sanctions to enforce compli-
ance. Unless such legislation be provided, no
success, upon any plan can be assured. The right
to this acquiescence in the purposes of the Govern-
ment is undeniable. The absence of means to
compel acknowledgment by obedience constitutes
a menace to the business of the country which
ought not to continue."
And yet this menace still continues and the
railroads continue to charge the Government for
the annual rental of its travelling post-offices far
more than it would cost to build them. In the
last fifteen years, the Government has paid out for
the use of these cars over $30,000,000, of which,
according to the estimate made by Mr. Vilas, in
1887, $1,500,000 a year at least, or a total of full
$22,500,000 has been absolutely wasted, and this
in addition to the other millions paid out for
so-called special facilities and for unnecessary
steamship subsidies, to say nothing of the extrava-
gant sums appropriated for ordinary railway mail-
service. And yet the deficiency in the postal ser-
vice is attributed to the cent a pound rate on
68 A GENERAL FREIGHT
second-class matter. Unquestionably there will
be a deficiency in the business of the Post-office so
long as the Government pays the railroads eight
cents a pound for doing only about half the ser-
vice for which it receives one cent. But is it
necessary to pay railway managers this enormous
tax ? Which is the Government of this country,
the Congress of the United States or the members
of the Joint Traffic Association, or is Congress but
the agent of this railway association ?
Certain of the trans-continental roads have been
battling before the United States Courts for the
last nine years for the legal right to carry foreign
books, carpets, cutlery, etc., from New Orleans to
San Francisco for eight tenths of a cent a pound
and as we have seen, they have just gained their
suit. Would these railroads have made the long
fight for these rates if they had not been profit-
able ? But if they can carry these foreign products
across the continent for eight tenths of a cent a
pound, then surely they can carry Government
mail-bags, average hauls of 442 miles for very much
less money. Five tenths of a cent a pound, ten
dollars a ton would be a large payment for such a
service. The probabilities are that with the Gov-
ernment ownership of postal cars, the business
could be done at a very much lower rate. The
conclusion of the whole matter seems to be that
the real governing powers of a country are the
powers that determine its public transportation
taxes.
AND PASSENGER POST. 69
CHAPTER III.
DISTANCE A FALSE BASIS FOR THE DETERMINATION
OF RAILWAY RATES.
THE evil in the present condition of the Ameri-
can railway world is almost as much in the principle
on which transportation taxes (local taxes) are de-
termined, as in the arbitrary power of the private
corporations by whom these taxes are farmed. The
ton-mile, passenger-mile basis of rates, says Mr.
Haines, late president of the American Railway
Association, is fallacious, misleading, untrue, and
without practical value to the railway superin-
tendent or railway manager. The local passenger
rate is lost sight of when competition or commuta-
tion or excursions are to be considered, and the
rate per ton-mile is the last thing thought of in
making freight tariffs, and finally he concludes his
notable address, delivered in New York, October
14, 1891, with the statement that he has sought to
impress his audience with the absurdities of the
ton-mile, passenger-mile basis of rates, and the in-
justice to railway managers of using such a basis
for measuring their operations or criticising their
management. It is but fair to add that, in this
70 A GENERAL FREIGHT
address, Mr. Haines is discussing through traffic.
We all know that, in local business, ton-miles and
passenger-miles continue to be measured out with
the greatest care and with the result that, instead
of one uniform tax, for each class of service for all
distances within a railway system, there are millions
of different taxes levied even on single systems. It
is said that there are thirty million different rates
on the London and Northwestern Railway system
/ of England.
I This mileage system is followed not because there
is any equity in it, not because distance measures
the real cost of the conveyance of persons or of
property by railway, but because it does fairly
measure the cost by the old methods of transporta-
tion in vogue before the invention of the railway
the cost of transportation on foot or on horseback
and because it thus enables the railway manager
to so guage his non-competitive rates that the
people will find it just a little cheaper and a little
quicker, just a little more convenient, and a little
more comfortable, to travel by train than to walk
or to hitch up their teams. A more effective means
for exacting all the traffic will bear and for keeping
the districts through which the railways pass in
their original human burden-bearer and ox-team
condition could not be devised. Our local railway
tariffs are usually from fifty to seventy-five per cent,
higher than their through tariffs, and they are ac-
companied by a correspondingly poorer service.
One of the friends of the New York, New Haven,
AND PASSENGER POST. Jl
& Hartford Railway Company testified before the
Railway Committee of the Connecticut Legislature,
in the winter of 1895, that he could wish for no
greater punishment for the managers of that road
in the next world than to be obliged to travel con-
tinually on their own accommodation trains.
But there is another evil connected with this
mileage system of rates that is also worthy of the
most thoughtful consideration. The longer the
track between stations, the more the miles to be
taxed to local traffic. The possible profit to be ex-
torted from this traffic by running trains over long
and crooked lines, leads to a waste of capital at the
outset, by encouraging the construction of unneces-
sary mileage in the building of new roads, and to a
perpetual waste of time and of labor in the opera-
tion of the roads, by discouraging the cutting out
of unnecessary miles in old lines.
The mileage taxes levied on the way traffic of the
New York Central bring in a revenue so much be-
yond the cost of running the trains that the com-
pany could not afford to allow their road to be
shortened by several miles, even if the work was
done at the expense of the State. They would lose
an opportunity to levy unnecessary taxes upon way
travel alone, amounting to at least forty cents a
train-mile for every mile of track cut out of their
main line. The fifty way travellers on the average
passenger train on the main line not only pay a
profit of forty cents a train-mile on the cost of their
own transportation, but also pay the entire cost of
72 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the transportation of the fifty through passengers
on the train. And this business of taxing way
traffic is ordinarily so profitable that, according to
the highest railway authority, it is rather worse
than money thrown away for any average road to
spend money in shortening its line. The only class
of road that can afford to shorten its lines is that
on which there is a great through business and
very little way traffic. A large non-competitive
business alone may entirely neutralize the pecuniary
value to the company of saving distance. 1
Bearing in mind these facts, it is almost amusing
to recall the lament of Mr. Depew over the decay
of the small towns and the ruin of the small deal-
ers in the districts through which the railroads run,
and the concentration of business in the hands of a
few great dealers at those terminals. The real won-
der is that, under the present condition of things,
any kind of business in which transportation plays
an important part continues to be done anywhere
except at the terminals, and that any business can
exist except it be in the hands of a trust big enough
to meet the railway king on equal terms.
Verily, if these be the results of determining
transportation taxes according to distance, then
there can be no doubt as to the soundness of the
conclusion " that as a matter of purely public policy
that is to say, if the interests of the railways were
identical with the interests of the community as a
1 A. M. Wellington's Economic Theory of Railway Location,
pp. 234-236.
AND PASSENGER POST. 73
whole, railway rates would be the same for all
distances." 1
But this mileage system of railway rates is not
only opposed to the public interest ; it is equally
opposed to the real interests of those who have
built the railroads, and it is also opposed to com-
mon sense and to right reason. " For, since the real
service rendered is the transportation of persons
and property from one terminus to another, the
precise length of track should have no more effect
upon the price paid than the precise amount of
curvature, or the rise and fall, and much less than
the rate of the ruling grades ; all should be con-
sidered or none should be.
" Not one single item of railway expenditure, large
or small, not even fuel or wear and tear of wheels,
varies in direct ratio to distance, or in anything like
direct ratio, and more than one half of them are
not a whit affected thereby. Grades, curvatures,
cost of construction, terminal expenses, volume of
traffic, whether the cars return full or empty, all
these have much more to do with the cost of ser-
vice than the mere distance transported." 3
It is estimated that it costs thirty per cent, more
to haul a train over a continuous II* 30' curve,
one mile long, than over a mile of tangent. The
same engine will not haul half as heavy a load on a
twenty-six feet grade as on a level ; on a fifty-two
feet grade, about a fourth as much ; on an eighty
1 Wellington, p. 197.
2 Wellington.
74 A GENERAL FREIGHT
feet grade, about one fifth, and on a grade of one
hundred and five feet, a light American engine will
hardly draw an eighth of its level load, and the
heaviest engine hardly one sixth. The mere stop-
ping and starting of a train running thirty miles an
hour, wastes power enough to haul it two miles,
and the cost of the stop of the average train is esti-
mated at about forty cents. In extreme cases
such as the Manhattan Elevated Road of New
York, where there are stations nearly every three
eighths of a mile, three fourths of the coal con-
sumed and one fourth of the time occupied, is due
to stops. It is said that even on express trains one
fourth of the time between termini is thus lost. The
New York Limited loses fifty-five minutes in its
eight regular stops between New York and Chi-
cago, and Wellington says that, including slowing
up through towns and yards, stops at crossings,
etc., it loses not less than three hours out of twenty-
four. With most fast trains the loss of time due to
these causes would be twice as much.
Even the cost of the road itself is not propor-
tioned to distance. A single mile of tunnel, or
through a crowded city, often costs more than a
score of miles in the open country. Some roads,
moreover, have more miles of siding at stations
than of main track between. Thus the New York
Central and Lake Shore Roads, in 1893, had 1090
miles of siding, 962 of main line ; the Erie, 557
miles of siding, 460 of main line, etc. The cost of
the terminals at New York is estimated at $35,000,-
AND PASSENGER POST. 75
ooo enough to build 1000 miles of main line at
$35,000 a mile and yet these terminals are said to
be smaller in extent and less expensive per head
than at most important cities, and very much
smaller than at some of them. The annual ter-
minal expenses at New York are estimated at
$10,000,000, and to meet them there is a fixed
terminal charge of four or five cents per 100
pounds, or from 20 to 25 per cent, of the entire
charge from Chicago to New York. Twenty-eight
per cent, of the locomotives in service in the State
of New York are switching engines, and it is esti-
mated that over one fifth of the motive power of
the entire railway service is expended in switching,
and this independent of the switching of regular
trains in transit.
Thus, with every step of our investigations, the
absurdity of the idea that distance is an important
factor in the cost of railway traffic becomes more
and more apparent. It is a very small factor even
in the cost of the movement of railway trains.
What folly to pretend that railway managers have
any right to use it as a means for subjecting the
movements of persons and of property on the rail-
ways to their wills. Were railway charters granted
in order to enable the public to receive the utmost
possible benefit from this greatest of all inventions,
or was it intended that railway fares and freight
rates should always be measured out according to
the cost of conveyance by human burden-bearers
and by ox-teams, or even by stage-coach ?
76 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The essential facts to be considered in the rail-
way business are as follows : When once a rail-
road is built, trains must run and it makes very
little difference in the cost of the business whether
the cars go full or empty, or whether a locomotive
runs alone or with a long and heavily laden train
behind it ; neither does it make a measurable dif-
ference in the cost, whether a part of the train-load
is left at one station or at another. Are the rates
so high that only a royal personage can purchase a
ticket ! Then that single individual must bear
the entire expense of the train that carries him
On the other hand, are the rates so low that a hun-
dred persons can avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity to travel, then each traveller will be obliged
to pay but a hundredth part of the cost of the
train, and that cost will be increased only by the
interest and wear and tear of one additional car
during the trip. The expense of moving the train
wiH be practically the same in either case, and it
will hardly make a whit difference whether one
passenger or all the passengers leave the train, at
the first station at which it stops, or go through to
the end of the journey. " When once a train has
started from Boston to San Francisco, there is not
a man living can tell the difference, in the cost of
running that train, whether a passenger gets off at
the first station out of Boston, or goes through to
the Golden Gate. At every station some pas-
sengers will leave the train, others will take their
places. One traveller, in a thousand perhaps, will
AND PASSENGER POST. JJ
go the whole journey. There will always be room
for him."
The fastest through train in the country, in its
trip of a thousand miles from New York to Chicago,
makes, on an average, one stop in every 125 miles,
and the principle which is applicable on the slowest
way-train, is equally applicable here. The cost of
carrying a traveller who goes but 125 miles is prac-
tically the same as that of the traveller who goes the
full thousand miles. The short-distance traveller
who occupies a seat at the beginning of the journey
prevents the occupation of his seat by a through
traveller, and there is a fair chance that as a result
of his short occupation his seat may remain empty
for the rest of the trip.
It is possible that the presence of a half dozen
short-distance travellers at the opening of a trip of
the New York Limited Express, may cause the
haulage of an additional car not only for 125 miles,
but for the whole thousand miles, and that with
very few passengers. The train is run for the
accommodation of all its occupants, wherever
they board it and wherever they leave it, and all
should pay the same short-distance tax.
The cost of railway transportation per ton and
per passenger is in inverse proportion to the num-
ber of tons and of passengers transported upon a
railway system, regardless of the distance they are
carried. It is said that if an English locomotive
runs with a load of fifty tons behind it, it consumes
twenty pounds of coal per mile ; when it is hauling
78 A GENERAL FREIGHT
600 tons, it burns perhaps sixty pounds, so that
between no load at all and a long and heavily
laden train the variation in locomotive expenses
is only the cost of forty pounds of coal per mile,
say six cents (six cents per mile for the haulage of
eighteen cars each weighing with its load thirty
tons). Mr. Wellington estimates that the addition
of thirty tons dead weight (and live weight is no
heavier than dead weight) to a train of five cars
will not increase the cost for coal, in this country,
over one cent a mile, and since all the passengers
that can be squeezed into five cars will not weigh
thirty tons, it therefore follows that the variation
in the haulage cost of a five-car train carrying 300
or 400 passengers and an empty five-car train is
but one cent a mile.
Professor Hadley says that on any line where a
good canal can run, a railroad can handle a net
train-load of 600 tons, at a direct expense for fuel,
trainmen, and train repairs (that is for expenses due
to distance) of not over forty cents, and sometimes
as low as thirty cents a mile, or one twentieth to one
fifteenth of a cent a mile per ton. In other words,
the cost of the average haul of the country, 126 miles,
in train-loads of 600 tons, on such roads as the New
York Central, is not over seven to nine cents a ton,
and with loads up to the capacity of our large loco-
motives (1800 tons or more, on the New York
Central) the cost per ton and per passenger due to
distance is even less than these figures.
Taking the entire expenses of an eight-car
AND PASSENGER POST. 79
passenger train, on the New York, New Haven
& Hartford Railroad main line, at $1.00 a mile (the
cost of the average passenger train on that road
for the year ending June 30, 1893, was less than
ninety-eight cents a mile), the total cost for a 100-
mile trip, is $100, or less than twenty cents for
each of its 520 seats, for the whole distance. The
average trip of the traveller on this road, however,
is but 17.04 miles, so that the average train empties
itself five and eight-tenth times on a loo-mile
journey, and therefore the actual seating capacity of
an eight car way-train on such a trip is over 3000,
and the cost of each seat for the average ride
of 17.04 miles, some of the travellers going the whole
distance, others but from one station to the next,
is less than three and one third cents, and even
if the train is but half filled, the cost per pas-
senger per trip is but seven cents. But the
modern locomotive can haul a twelve-car train
on this road at almost the same speed that it
can haul eight cars, and with an additional
expense, including extra brakemen, and use
of the extra cars, of certainly less than $15.00
for the loo-mile trip, and these cars will afford
accommodation for 1500 more passengers, for the
average 1 7-mile ride, at a cost to the railroad of less
than one cent for each seat.
These figures are astonishing enough, but the
following statement made by the conservative Wil-
liam M. Acworth, the highest railway authority in
England, goes far beyond my estimates. Mr. Ac-
8O A GENERAL FREIGHT
worth says that if a passenger who would otherwise
have staid at home, were induced to go from London
to Glasgow, by the offer of a first-class ticket for
three-pence (six cents), the company would, unless
indeed there was no first-class seat available on the
train, secure a net profit of two and three-quarter
pence (five and one-half cents) for, the remaining
farthing (one half a cent) is an ample allowance
for the cost of haulage. The exact figures, in de-
tail, are as follows : For coal, three sixteenths of
a penny, the remaining one sixteenth of a penny is
more than sufficient to pay for the extra oil, and
stores, and water consumed, making a total of one
fourth of an English penny or one half of an Amer-
can cent. Add, say, another half a cent for the wear
and tear of the seat and you have one cent. Up
to the capacity of the railway trains of a country,
the cost of the additional passengers who could be
induced to travel by low fares, would not be over
one cent for a distance of 410 miles. 1
Taking the average American train, at two cars,
(sixty-five seats in a car) its forty-four occupants,
in 1895, could have taken eighty-six friends along
with them, for a 4io-mile ride, at an additional ex-
pense, to the railroads, of eighty-six cents. If there
were three cars in the average train of 1895, the
151 vacant seats could have been occupied, during
such a journey, at a cost to the railroads of $1.51.
The world will realize, some day, the truth of
1 See " Taxes on Transport," Nineteenth Century Magazine,
January, 1892.
AND PASSENGER POST. 8 1
the statement made in 1849 by Mr. Palfrey with
reference to the Post-office, namely, that in business
of such a character, the cost of running the machinery
is practically the same whatever be the volume of the
traffic. This truth is, indeed, most wonderfully
exemplified in the railroad experience of many dif-
ferent countries during the last twenty-five years.
The following is from my article, " Equality of
Opportunity How Can We Secure It ? " in the
Arena of December, 1895 :
" In i88i,the third-class fares on the East India
Railway were reduced from about three fourths of
a cent to half a cent a mile, and * From the very
first the effect of the reduced fare was clearly
seen, not only in the increased numbers and in the
slow but steady increase of receipts, but also in the
manifest advantage which it gave to good's traffic,
in facilitating the movements of smaller traders.'
" In 1892, the net earnings of this road, with
fares of but two and a half pies (five twelfths of
a cent) a mile, were nine and sixty-two hun-
dredths per cent, on its capital. The Madras road
has lately adopted a rate of two pies (about one
third of a cent) a mile, and with very encouraging
results. It is believed that for the carriage of food,
grains, minerals, and the lowest class of passen-
gers, the Indian rates are the lowest in the world.
' At the same time,' says Horace Bell, the consult-
ing engineer of the State railways of India, ' it is
by no means to be assumed that rates and fares
have reached their lowest remunerative level. In-
82 A GENERAL FREIGHT
deed, there is every reason to believe that, in the class
of goods above mentioned, and in third-class pas-
sengers, further reductions are to be made in the
near future, and on sufficiently profitable con-
ditions.
' The statistics of the railways which serve the
poor and populous districts point to the certainty
that, with large numbers (and large numbers
always follow low fares), low speeds, and properly
fitted vehicles, passengers could be carried at one
pie (one sixth of a cent) a mile, and leave a profit
of 20 to 30 per cent. ; the cost of carriage (per ton
of freight and per passenger) is a quantity varying
with the volume of traffic, and it may be found
that an even lower rate is possible.' " (Mr. Bell
puts the value of the pie at one twelfth of an
English penny, one sixth of a cent.)
And high speed, up to the capacity of a locomo-
tive for hauling its load, is far more profitable than
low speed, for the higher the speed of the trains,
the greater the possible use of the whole equip-
ment. The cost of the extra fuel and water re-
quired is hardly worth considering in comparison
with the extra service which the trainmen and
trains are thus enabled to render. " Twenty-five
years ago," says J. M. McConnell, Superintendent
of motive power on the Union Pacific Road, " with
a schedule of twenty-two miles an hour, it would
have been considered an impossibility for an
engine to haul ten cars on a schedule of forty
miles an hour, yet it is now done every day and
AND PASSENGER POST. 83
these (modern) engines maintain a speed of fifty-
five miles an hour between stations, with ten cars.
In 1894, it cost the Union Pacific Road $1,040,000
less to haul their freight cars than it did, compar-
ing the same number, in 1890 all due to the
increased service of locomotives and to no other
cause." The average train-load of this road in-
creased from 15.86 cars in 1890 to 21.88 cars in
1895, and this increase of load was attended by a
decrease of locomotive expenses from 26.45 cents
a mile to 25.03 cents, and by a consequent decrease
in the cost of hauling a loaded freight car from
3.17 cents a mile in 1890 to 2.01 cents in 1895.
The cost per mile of hauling freight cars on the
Soo Line in 1895 was but one cent. In other
words the actual cost of distance in the handling
of freight on the Soo Line, in carloads of twenty
tons, in 1895, was but six and three-tenths cents per
ton for the average haul of the United States, 126
miles. The secret of low cost of railway traffic
is, large train-loads moved quickly to their des-
tination and trains kept in constant use. 1
The lowest average load of the passenger trains
of the Indian roads is over 126. The Madras road
carries more than 260 in its average train, and the
Bengal, Northwestern, & Tirhoot road more than
290. With average passenger trips of ten miles
(the average trip on the Providence & Worcester
road of Massachusetts is but 8.39 miles, and on the
New York & New England it is but 11.84 miles),
1 Railway Review, for 1896, pp. 32, 116, and 173.
84 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the trains of the New York Central would empty
themselves, on an average, ten times in a 100-
mile journey, and with average loads of 300, these
trains, at five-cent fares (one half a cent a mile
for the average trip) would earn $150 in a 100-
mile journey, or $1.50 a train mile. An average
train-load of two hundred would yield $1.00 a mile
and this, with twenty cents a mile from express
and mail matter, would bring the earnings up to
$1.20 against the actual earnings of the average
passenger trains of this road, for the year ending
June 30, 1894, of less than $1.19 per mile. And
Mr. McConnell's experience teaches us that such
trains might be hauled at even less cost than the
present trains.
In thinly settled Russia, under the new tariff of
December, 1894, the third-class fare for short dis-
tances, .666 of a mile to 106.8 miles, is but little
over three fourths of a cent a mile, and for longer
distances the fares are still lower. A passenger
can travel 106 miles for eighty-one cents, and 464
miles, or farther than from New York to Buffalo,
for $2.32. For a trip of 1989 miles, the fare is but
$5.95, and our Consul at St. Petersburgh says that,
if travel increases, as it has increased under pre-
vious reductions of fares, there is every reason to
believe that these low rates will not only be a great
benefit to the Russian people, but will also prove
profitable to the railways.
Special workingmen's trains have been running
for many years on the railroads of Belgium, on
AND PASSENGER POST. 8$
which it is possible to buy weekly tickets to and
from their work, six days in a week.
3 miles from their homes for 21 cents a week.
/- it ti it it it ti it 11
12 " " " " " 37 " " "
o II II II II tl tt U tt
lo 41
It tl II II It tl II (t
2 4 45
s it tl II II II ' tl tt
ll tl II II II It II It
4 2 57
Consul Wilson of Brussels, in his report of 1883,
earnestly advocated the running of such trains on our
roads, saying that these trains had enabled vast num-
bers of workingmen to live, at more moderate rates,
outside the dense centres of industry where they
were employed, while at the same time, they largely
increased the profits of the roads. So well satis-
fied are the Belgian authorities with their policy of
running their railroads for the encouragement of
the material industries of the country and for the
convenience of the public, rather than for the pay-
ment of large dividends, that some two years ago,
they commenced selling passenger tickets good for
fifteen days for any distance over the entire system
of government roads, some 2500 miles, at the fol-
lowing rates :
50 francs or $10.00 for a first-class ticket.
38 " " 7.60 " " second-class ticket.
25 " " 5.00 " " third-class ticket.
" The effect of the liberal railway policy of Bel-
86 A GENERAL FREIGHT
guim has been to make it a most attractive coun-
try for working people. Although one of the most
thickly settled districts in the world, the immigra-
tion into Belguim, since the inauguration of her
progressive railway policy has steadily exceeded
the emigration.
" Side by side with the state administration of
the Belgian roads and the successive reduction of
rates and fares, Belgium has developed a degree of
prosperity unequalled by any other nation of similar
population and resources in the world. On the
other hand, Ireland, suffering under a system of
transportation taxes levied by private corporations
who care nothing for the districts through which
the railroads pass, is to-day one of the most back-
ward countries on the face of the earth. The
result of the present system is that rates (railway
rates) prevent the development of local resources
that existing industries are strangled and that
profits are devoured by transit charges. There is
a constant reiteration of the same class of evidence,
pointing to works closed, mills stopped, undertak-
ings abandoned, and a decrease of native produc-
tion, all of which is assigned sometimes partially
and sometimes wholly to the railway system. It is
probable that agriculture suffers most but all indus-
tries are crushed while no attempt can be made to
establish any industry. Enterprise can take no
root in the country. The coal and mineral rates
prohibit inland manufactures." 1
1 Charles Waring, Stale Ownership of Railways.
AND PASSENGER POST. 8/
The same experience follows the same policy
everywhere. Transport taxes high, uncertain, un-
stable, discourage trade and paralyze industry ; on
the other hand, transport taxes low, certain, stable,
always encourage trade and stimulate industry.
The people always respond, almost at a moment's
notice, to the opportunities which low transport
taxes secure to them.
" During one of the trunk line wars, the passen-
ger rates on all the lines between San Francisco
and Chicago were reduced from $120 to $15.
The result was that the big passenger coaches,
having a capacity of sixty persons, ran full all the
time, instead of three fourths empty, and the rail-
roads received for their haul, about 2600 miles,
$900 per car, whereas the rate for a carload of
cattle, for any such haul, would, at the most, have
been but $220. 'This low rate, I am told,' says
Moreton Frewin, * was actually found profitable to
the roads and it stimulated enormously the general
through business. The Chicago drygoods and
other houses trebled their drummers, and every
intervening point, like Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake,
etc., recognized at once a great development of
local enterprises."
The railroads of to-day would find $5 a passen-
ger, or $300 a car, a wonderfully profitable busi-
ness for such a trip. It is indeed probable that
the cattle rate of $220 a car would provide an
ample income to the transcontinental roads, if it
were applied to human beings for the trip from
88 A GENERAL FREIGHT
San Francisco to Chicago. Humanity, unlike cat-
tle, load and unload, and take care of themselves ;
the haul of the cattle car and of the passenger car
costs practically the same ; if there be any differ-
ence in favor of the cattle car, that difference in-
cluding the increased cost due to the interest and
the repairs of the more expensive passenger car
is far more than made up by the greater use of
equipment made possible by the greater speed of
the passenger train.
We have seen that a ten-car passenger train is
capable of making a schedule of forty miles an
hour ; then such a train can certainly make the
ordinary thirty-mile schedule of the transcontinen-
tal roads, and can haul six hundred passengers from
the lakes to the Golden Gate in less than eighty-
seven hours, earning in that interval, at five dollars
a passenger, $3000 or $1.15 a train mile from its
passengers alone. Add twenty cents a train-mile
from mail and express transportation, a low esti-
mate, and you have a total of $1.35 a mile, five
cents more than the average earnings of the New
York Central in 1890, and fifteen cents more than
those trains earned in 1894. At $3.50 a passenger,
about $220 a car, such trains would earn, on a Chi-
cago to San Francisco trip, as much per mile as the
average passenger trains of the country earned in
1894, and twelve-car trains would earn vastly more.
These calculations are based on the expectation
that all the travellers in these trains would take the
through trip, but this seldom happens. I doubt if
AND PASSENGER POST. 89
the average trip, even on such trains, would be over
three hundred miles, in which case a fifty-cent fare,
per trip, would enable a car to earn far more than
$220, in the journey from the lakes to the Pacific.
Would not Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake, and all the
other towns along the transcontinental lines recog-
nize a mighty development of enterprise under such
conditions ? And then suppose these low passenger
rates to be accompanied by similar low, uniform,
stable freight rates, and suppose these rates to be
accompanied by a vastly improved service, what
would not be the development of this country
under such government railway management ?
The possibilities in this direction have been ad-
mirably exemplified in the following cases :
" More than thirty years ago there was a contest
between the South Eastern and the Great Western
Railways of England, for the London and Reading
traffic, that lasted a year and a half. The distance
on the South Eastern is sixty-seven miles, and the
company carried passengers the round trip 134
miles, by every train, for seventy-five cents, first-
class, and fifty cents, second-class ; and at the half-
yearly meetings the chairman of the company said
that the company had lost nothing by the low fares.
They paid the same dividends, and they were very-
well satisfied to go on. Nevertheless, the South East-
ern and the Great Western were charging, on one part
of their lines, about ten times as much as they were
charging on other parts, and on those parts where
they were carrying lowest, their profits amounted to
90 A GENERAL FREIGHT
about two hundred and fifty per cent, on the cost
of conveyance by each train.
" The most remarkable case of this character,
however, that ever happened in Great Britain,
previous to 1865," says William Gait, " was the re-
sult of a sudden reduction of fares on the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow line, some ten years earlier, to
about one-eighth of the ordinary charge. This was
the result of a quarrel with the Caledonian com-
pany. The Edinburgh and Glasgow line is forty-
six miles in length, and the regular fares for the
three classes respectively, were eight, six, and four
shillings ; these were suddenly reduced to one shil-
ling, ninepence, and sixpence (twenty-five, eighteen,
and twelve cents for a forty-six mile trip).
" The Caledonian, of course, followed suit, carry-
ing at the same fares. For a year and a half this
contest continued, to the great satisfaction, no
doubt, of those two great Scotch cities, but to the
serious injury of the stockholders."
" Those of the Edinburgh and Glasgow line re-
ceived one per cent. ; of the Caledonia, one-half
per cent, less dividends."
Even in that far-away time, it was proved, by
the testimony of the chairman of the Eastern
Counties Railway, that coal could be transported
from Peterborough to London, seventy-six miles,
for twenty-five cents a ton, and the total cost of
running a freight train, carrying 190 tons of coal,
was less than fourteen pence (twenty-eight cents) a
mile, this including the train's share in keeping up
AND PASSENGER POST. 91
the permanent way and of general management
and office expenses.
But recent experience in this country affords,
perhaps, the best evidence as to the possibilities of
railway service.
On the 8th of August, 1895, three excursion
trains were run over the Cleveland, Canton and
Southern Railroad from Zanesville, Ohio, to Cleve-
land and return, 286 miles, for seventy-five cents
the round trip, less than three-tenths of a cent a
mile. Each of these trains consisted of ten cars,
carrying 700 passengers. The receipts, therefore,
amounted to $525 per train trip, $1.835 P er train
mile ; fully seventy-five per cent, more than the
earnings of the average passenger train of the
country, and ten per cent, more than the earnings
of the average train of the New York, New Haven
and Hartford Railroad in 1890, when it was paying
ten per cent, dividends.
These trains made about the same speed as the
regular trains, and at very little more cost. They had
the same number of hands, and on the round trip
each consumed about twenty tons of coal at a cost
of, perhaps, ten cents a passenger. Granting the
cost to have been fifty per cent, more than its regu-
lar trains, $0.4719 per train-mile, in 1893, the cost
to the railroad was but little over one-tenth of a
cent a mile per passenger, or less than thirty cents
for the whole trip, and the profit on each passenger
was over one hundred and fifty per cent.
As to freight, the Railroad Gazette tells us that,
92 A GENERAL FREIGHT
at times, during the summer of 1895, the New York
Central and Hudson River Railroad hauled grain
from Buffalo to New York, 440 miles, for 3.96
cents a hundred pounds, less than eighty cents a
ton, and these low rates, resulting in train-loads of
1800 tons, sixty cars of thirty tons each, earned
for the road over $3.24 a train-mile, or more than
double the average earnings per freight-train mile
of the country, $1.55744, in 1894, and far more
than the earnings per mile of its own average
freight train. It is safe to say that, even now, grain
can be transported from Buffalo to New York over
the New York Central and Hudson River Road for
fifty cents a ton at a very handsome profit ; 1800
tons at fifty cents a ton equals $900. The cost of
running the average freight train on this road, in
1893, was $1.38654 per mile, and for 440 miles,
$610.08, leaving a profit on trains of 1800 tons, at
fifty cents a ton, of nearly three hundred dollars
per train trip.
But if this be true now, what will not be possible
with the new locomotives of Mr. Westinghouse,
which promise to do the same amount of work as
the present engines, with but one-eighth the amount
of fuel ? It is further to be noted that the simple
addition of air-brakes and block signals to the
New York Central has nearly doubled the capacity
of its freight equipment, while it has decreased the
number of brakemen employed on its through
trains by fully one-third. Note too the statement
of the editor of the Bond Record vi February, 1896,
AND PASSENGER POST. 93
that the pooling of railway business by the Joint
Traffic Association has already reduced the ex-
penses of some of the companies from $100,000 to
$150,000 a year in the small item of switching
charges alone. We may also study the statistics
of the Consolidated road of Connecticut in this
connection with great advantage, and, turning to
these statistics, we discover that the average ton-
nage of its freight trains of 1892 and of 1893 might
be almost doubled without adding a single pound
to the weight of the train, and without adding one
cent to the cost of freight transportation. Taking
the average w.eight of a freight car at io tons,
the average trains of 1892 and 1893 consisted of
about 290 tons of cars and no tons of freight,
total 400 tons ; in 1895, of 225 tons of cars and
143.28 tons of freight, total about 369 tons. The
21.48 car-train of 1895 carried on an average
33 tons more freight than the 27.6 car-train of
1892 and 1893, and yet one-fourth of the cars of
1895 ran empty and the loaded cars carried less
than half their capacity. If the rates were so low
that the people could use the facilities offered, it
would be easy to carry the average load of the
train of 1895 up to 175 tons, and the cost of haul-
age, the distance factor in transportation, would
not be a cent more than for the 27.6 car-trains of
1893 with their 290 tons of cars and no tons of
freight.
If the additional 64 tons were made up of
goods in bulk, products loaded and unloaded by
94 A GENERAL FREIGHT
shippers and consignees, there would be no in-
creased cost for handling. These trains, indeed,
could easily haul 400 tons with scarcely any more
expense than at present, and with such average
train-loads this Consolidated road would receive
a far higher net income from a uniform, stable tax
of fifty cents a ton, regardless both of distance and
of classification, than it now receives from its 143-
ton trains with an average tax of $1.23087 per ton.
If rules were adopted making freight bills pay-
able in advance, say by postage stamps, and limit-
ing the time for loading and unloading cars to
twelve hours [milk trains are unloaded and loaded
at Jersey City in less than eight hours, while in
New England the demurrage limit for the unload-
ing and loading of a freight car is eight days], I
think I am safe in saying that the freight equip-
ment of the country would be fully quadrupled' in
its capacity for service, with the result that we
might probably have a uniform grouped rate for
the whole country of fifty cents a ton regardless of
classification, and this fifty cent uniform, stable
rate would prove far more profitable than the
present average freight rate of the country, of
about $1.00 per ton per haul, 1 made up, as it is, of
hundreds of millions of different rates, determined
not on any settled principle, but, as the editor of
the Railway Review says, " on guesswork, modified
by a comparison," and that comparison always in
favor of the biggest dealer. The statement of H.
T. Newcomb in the North American Review of
1 This refers to 1894.
AND PASSENGER POST. 95
July, 1896, that the average freight car of this
country now does little over twelve full days' work
in the course of a year, goes far in the support of
these conclusions. With a reasonable system of
classification it would seem possible to reduce the
transportation tax on coal and products of its class
to twenty-five cents per ton per haul.
As to the low cost at which freight can be
handled in small packages, English experience,
both past and present, furnishes us most valuable
information. As long ago as 1859, there was much
parcels delivery in England by private carriers, at
rates of from one to two cents a pound. Parcels
under seven pounds were carried upwards of sev-
enty miles for twelve cents, and parcels under
twenty-eight pounds, thirty-nine miles for sixteen
cents. In 1889, an English clergyman, Henry P.
Dunster, published an article in the Nineteenth
Century Magazine, in which, after showing how
English railway discriminations, in favor of for-
eign agricultural products as against native prod-
ucts, injured English agriculture, he proposed the
extension of the service of the Post-office to cover
general produce, at a rate of sixpence for packages
up to fourteen pounds in weight, ninepence for
twenty-eight pounds, and one shilling for fifty-six
pounds. " However," he says, " a uniform charge
of sixpence for all packages up to fifty-six pounds
would be a greater boon, and I feel persuaded that
when the service is in full working order this low
charge would be found sufficient to cover expenses
A GENERAL
and leave a profit. If the Great Eastern Railway
can carry three-gallon cans of salt water, in weight,
I apprehend, much exceeding fifty-six pounds each,
over their entire system, delivering these cans within
a large area in London and elsewhere, and collect
all ' empties,' at a uniform charge of sixpence, is it
too much to expect that the Post-office can manage
the same weight at the same cost ? For such a
service as is here suggested, small farmers and
their customers would be brought close together.
Farm produce would be cheaper to the consumers
and more remunerative to the growers ; both would
be fairly treated. The poor who had gardens in
the country would be able to send away the fruit
and vegetables which they had to spare to relieve
the wants of others of their own families who live
in cities and crowded districts where fresh fruits
and vegetables are seldom seen."
And then Mr. Dunster proceeds to suggest the
manufacture of package cases of such size and
shape as would accommodate both the consignor
of such products and the carrier. These sugges-
tions fell, for the time, on dull ears, but to-day they
are bringing forth fruit. The railroad managers of
England are, at last, waking up to the fact that
their power is in danger. Public ownership is in
the air, and to meet the demand for it, and if pos-
sible to prolong their rule, we find the Great
Eastern Railway leading off in what is perhaps
the most important railroad innovation of the
century.
AND PASSENGER POST. 97
In January of this year, 1896, this road, extend-
ing over more than a thousand miles of territory,
inaugurated an agricultural parcels post, with the
following uniform rates, regardless of distance :
Packages under 20 pounds, 8 cents ; 20 to 25
pounds, 10 cents ; 25 to 30 pounds, 12 cents ;
and so on up to 60 pounds, for which the charge
is one shilling or 25 cents, the charges to be pre-
paid and the products to be packed in boxes of a
certain shape furnished by the railroad at the fol-
lowing prices : 2o-pound size, for 3 cents ; 35-
pound, for 6 cents, and 6o-pounds for 10 cents.
The object in furnishing the boxes is twofold :
first to have the products in shape convenient for
handling and packing in the cars, and, second, to
put an end to the handling of returned " empties."
And the Great Eastern Railway proposes not only
to carry these packages at these rates between any
two of its non-competitive stations, and on passen-
ger trains, but it will also, and without further
charge, deliver such packages at the consignee's
domicile, although this will involve a haul by
wagon, from its terminals, of anywhere from one
to eight miles.
That this movement of the English railways (for
the other roads are following the lead of the Great
Eastern) will check the demand for Government
ownership of the railways, I doubt ; but, in any
case, it shows what English railway managers
believe to be possible in the way of reducing rates,
and in the way of public service, and more than
7
98 A GENERAL FREIGHT
this, it is a great advance towards the adoption of
a uniform standard rate, regardless of distance,
within the whole English railway system ; it is one
more acknowledgment of the axiomatic truth that
the postal principle is the natural law for the deter-
mination of railway rates. (By the way, almost
the last word that comes to us from England is the
following query from the Colliery Guardian :
" Shall British iron and steel and other heavy in-
dustries be sacrificed on the altar of railway
monopoly ? " )
Evidently the actual cost of the transportation
of persons and of property by railway is a very
small item. It is not easy however to realize that
the cost of a long through trip and of a short way
journey is practically the same, and yet the longest
journey in a railway system may cost less than the
shortest.
In the first place, the through locomotive hauls
a much heavier train than the way locomotive, and
the through car generally carries a larger load.
Albert J. Fink makes the average load of the
through freight car three times that of the way car.
Through trains have been run, in some instances
from Chicago to New York over the high-grade
Pennsylvania road, with forty and forty-five full
loaded cars of thirty tons each, that is to say with
net loads of 1200 and 1350 tons, and we have seen
that, in 1895, trains of sixty cars of thirty tons
each, 1800 tons in all, were hauled from Buffalo
to New York over the New York Central. The
AND PASSENGER POST. 99
average number of cars in the Consolidated freight
train of Connecticut, in 1895, was but 21.48, of
which 5.51 cars ran empty and the rest carried on
an average less than nine tons and only 143.28
tons in all. The through train also runs much
faster than the way train. Instead of spending
time and fuel in stops, the through locomotive oc-
cupies itself with making miles between its distant
terminals. Some of our through freights make
over 300 miles, and we have one or two passenger
trains that make 1000 miles a day. It is doubt-
ful if the way freight makes 75 miles a day, and
even the way passenger train will probably average
less than 100 miles. The way train must make
three or four trips in order to do the amount of
business performed by the through train in one
trip.
But the average passenger trip and the average
haul of freight will always be short. If railway
transportation were altogether free, even then the
world would not go flying, neither would any part
of the world be flooded with the products of any
other. Under the best of circumstances, the aver-
age trip of the railway traveller of the United States
will be hardly more than 25 or 30 miles. The
masses of mankind must always labor for their
bread ; they can seldom spend time to go more
than an hour's journey from their homes.
Their places of labor and of trade, their schools
and their pleasure resorts, must always be near
at hand. The great bulk of the freight busi-
IOO A GENERAL FREIGHT
ness too must always consist in the exchange
of products between neighbors. The special
purpose, indeed, for which railroads are built
is the development of local traffic. " The
through business," says Mr. Fink, " is but a mere
incident of a road. The main stay of a road is or
ought to be local traffic. The local traffic of the
Pennsylvania (one of the greatest of the through
lines) from 1881 to 1885 was ten times its through
traffic, and of the two the local traffic continues
to increase much the more rapidly." From the
report of the Interstate Commerce Commission of
1893, it appears that of 531,183,988 passenger trips
taken on the railroads of this country in 1892,
only 153,741 extended across the continent less
than one in 3500.
Less than 1,000,000 tons of freight passed be-
tween Pacfiic Coast points and points on or east of
the Missouri River, in the year January, 1891, to
February, 1892, while the total freight handled by
the railroads in the year ending June 30, 1891, was
676,608,385 tons. As a mere incident of railway
business then, the through traffic ought to have
very little influence in determining our general
railway policy. Granting, however, to through
railway traffic its greatest possible importance, even
then the tax levied for any particular class of
service should be no greater for the longest haul
in a railway system than for the shortest, for the
cost in each case is practically the same.
The question arises, if the preceding statements
AND PASSENGER POST. IOI
be true, how happens it that our private railway
managers do not adopt the policy suggested ? How
happens it that railway managers never voluntarily
reduce rates ? The answer to this question is given
in the rather cynical language of the editor of the
Railway Gazette, in his issue of June 5, 1896. Com-
menting upon the refusal of the managers of the
Joint Traffic Association to approve certain pro-
posed excursions from Cleveland to Niagara Falls,
he says : " We surmise that one reason for the
action of the managers is the feeling that the roads
can make just as much money at a little higher rate"
and the result is a hundred per cent, higher rate
for 1896 than for 1895. In the same line, note the
statement of the Journal of Commerce of New
York of March 16, 1896, that one of the direct re-
sults of the Presidents' Joint Traffic Association
which now rules traffic affairs with an iron hand,
is to be the abandonment of two cent mileage
tickets.
Writing in 1892, Van Oss says that the transpor-
tation taxes levied by the Southern Pacific Rail-
road on the people of California were then so great
that California grapes could not compete east of
the Mississippi with those brought all the way from
Spain, while oranges and other fruits were less
marketable than they would be at lower rates.
Nearly all fruit was dried or canned and shipped
round the Horn to New York, whence it was sent
by rail to inland points, the journey of 15,000 miles
being frequently cheaper than the one of 2400.
IO2 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The price of a passenger ticket from Portland to
San Francisco, six hundred miles, was $37.50, over
six cents a mile. And the people were robbed of
their time as well as of their money. " The S. P.
trains have no competitors and hence pay little re-
gard to speed ; even express trains take things
easy, and one wonders what the local service is
like." Los Angeles is some four hundred miles
south of San Francisco. The S. P. trains, running
at about the rate of seventeen miles an hour, take
twenty-four hours to cover this distance, as against
eight or nine hours for a similar service in the
East. This in 1892. To-day the ton-mile, pas-
senger-mile taxes levied by the king of California
upon his subjects seem to be at a point altogether
beyond " what the traffic will bear." The people
are going back to horse teams for the movement of
their produce. The Railway Gazette of May 15,
1896, says that a large cargo of wool was recently
carried from Fresno to San Francisco, two hundred
miles, by wagon. The teamster was eight days on
the way with his six-horse team, and yet he saved
twenty-five per cent, on the rates charged by the
S. P. Railroad. He took a large load of freight
on his return trip.
Returning once more to the East we see an illus-
tration of the absorption of the property of the
people by railway magnates in the case of Jersey
City. Of the 10,325 acres of land in that munici-
pality, it is said that the railroads own 1185. Of
AND PASSENGER POST.
103
a total valuation of property in the city of $80,-
000,000, $22,500,000 are owned by railroads, and
this does not include the passenger depots, which
are valued at $10,000,000. Thus $32,500,000 of
ratables are taken out of a total of $80,000,000,
leaving the other $47,500,000 to bear almost all the
burdens of the maintenance of the municipality.
The condition of things in this country resulting
from the " what the traffic will bear " system of
levying taxes upon transportation and communica-
tion by private individuals, is certainly grave, but
recent events have proved that the people are not
yet powerless. New York has already entered
upon the enlargement of the Erie canal as a means
of saving its industries from railway rapacity.
Several of the States have passed laws compell-
ing the railroads to carry bicycles free. Like
straws floating upon the surface of a stream,
these events indicate the direction of the current.
A study of the following table, taken from Poor's
Manual of 1897, will, I trust, at once strengthen
the volume of this growing current of public opinion
and accelerate its velocity.
YEAR.
Ave. Train-
load, No.
Passengers.
Ave. Earn-
ings per
Train-mile.
Ave. Pas-
senger
Trip.
Ave. Passen-
ger Tax,
per Trip.
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
41-93
44-25
41.72
38.66
35- 6 7
Cents.
90.62
91.70
84.47
79.99
78.58
Miles.
2 3-59
25.09
23.87
23.88
24.38
Cents.
599
53-oo
48.34
49-25
49.58
104 A GENERAL FREIGHT
Poor's figures differ somewhat from those of the
Interstate Commission, but they convey the same
lesson.
The avowed policy of the New Haven Road to
tie the workman to the soil, not to allow him to
work in one town and to live in another town this
is the prevailing policy of the railway managers of
the United States, and to this end we find, nailed
upon the walls of the average passenger railroad
station, the following proclamation :
The regular transport tax levied on this road for
an hour's journey to and fro a man's job and his
home is $i. (On some roads it is $1.50; on other
roads, $2.) The object of this tax is to prohibit the
use of this road to all individuals who, like the aver-
age Massachusetts farmer, earn but one dollar a day. 1
And the tax has its intended results. It debars
the use of the railroads to the masses of the people;
it also, in a vast number of cases, debars stock-
holders in railroads from expected dividends.
Prohibitory rates prohibit profits.
" Certainly of the lines west of Chicago, and
probably (with one exception) of the lines west of
Buffalo and Pittsburgh, there is not a single road
but what conducts its passenger business at a loss."
(" Railroading under Existing Conditions," R.
R. Review, December 18, 1897.)
1 Yale Review, May, 1897, page 64.
AND PASSENGER POST. 105
CHAPTER IV.
THE COST OF SERVICE PRINCIPLE AND ITS APPLI-
CATION TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UNDER
THE CONTROL OF THE POST-OFFICE.
" AN ideal system of transportation," says E.
Porter Alexander, formerly one of the leading
railway managers of the South, " would be one in
which each shipper might sit quietly in his office
and contract to deliver freight at any town in the
United States, by referring to a printed tariff which
would show rates as uniform as the rates of postage
and not exorbitant in amount."
And, in his address before the Congressional
Committee, already referred to, describing what
the New York Central and the Pennsylvania roads
will do, when their power has been extended over
the whole country, Mr. Depew says : " Then the
strong lines will say to the weak lines : ' We will
see that you get your percentage ; we will transfer
enough of the entire consignable freight from our
lines to yours to bring up your percentage, to
enable you to support yourselves. If we cannot do
that, we will make a money pool and will transfer
sufficient money into your treasuries to support
106 A GENERAL FREIGHT
you.' Then when the great combination comes
along and wants special privileges, we will say :
* No, we have no privileges to grant ; there is our
tariff published in our office, published in our
freight depots and in our passenger stations. It is
like a government postage stamp everybody knows
what it is. And so far as the carriers of this
country are concerned, every man is treated alike.
That is the ideal position -toward which you have
been legislating ; that is what you have sought to
accomplish.' "
Now what are the characteristics of the postage
stamp ?
First. The postage stamp carries its parcel to its
destination, whether the distance be one mile or
35-
Second. Every man pays the same price for his
stamps, whether he buys one stamp or 10,000.
Third. The postage stamp is intended to repre-
sent the cost of the service rendered ; it is sold by
the government, and the revenues derived there-
from are distributed by government officials.
Once give to railway tariffs the characteristics
of the postage stamp, and we shall arrive at the
ideal position toward which we have been legisla-
ting. As yet, however, we have taken but a very
short step in this direction. The Interstate Act,
as its name implies, left each of our railway kings
in complete control of his own particular kingdom
that is to say, in control of the local traffic of the
districts through which the railways pass, while the
AND PASSENGER POST. 1 07
tariffs levied on the borders of their respective
kingdoms remained subject to such terms of peace
or war as the different potentates might agree upon.
The fourth section of the Act, the long and
short haul section, made distance the prime factor
in the determination of rates at non-competitive
points, and allowed it to be altogether disregarded
between places not similarly situated.
The Commission has decided that, under this
section, it is lawful for railway managers to carry
products for persons living at great terminals for
one-half the rates levied upon those living at inter-
mediate stations. Thus, in the noted Readville
case, the railways were allowed to charge eighteen
cents a hundred pounds on flour from New York
to Readville, while the tax from New York to
Boston, eight miles further on, was but nine cents.
Boston and other terminals, favored by nature with
their location on the ocean, the lakes, and on nav-
igable rivers, are thus, by law,/ given this further
artificial advantage of receiving their supplies and
sending off their products at half the rates levied
upon the intervening country. The result is to
leave the country between terminals almost as badly
off, so far as the cost of movement is concerned,
as before the railways were built. The local rates
levied by the railways in these cases are, indeed,
only just enough below the actual cost of convey-
ance on foot or on horseback, by wagon or by ox-
cart, to keep the people from reverting to these
original methods of transportation.
IO8 A GENERAL FREIGHT
Distance, as I have said before, measures very
accurately the cost of the old forms of private con-
veyance, and, by using distance for the determina-
tion of local rates, railway managers are very suc-
cessful in keeping the districts between terminals
in the same condition in which the railways found
them.
In many cases these intervening districts are, in
fact, worse off than they were in the olden time,
for they ran in debt to build the railroads only to
see their local enterprises and their brightest men
driven away by railway discriminations in favor of
the terminals.
But the height of absurdity in this business was
reached when the majority of the Supreme Court
of the United States decided that it was lawful for
American railway managers to charge three or four
times as much for the transportation of goods from
American workshops to their American customers
as was charged for the transportation of similar
goods from Europe to the same customers. 1 This
decision not only tends to nullify our customs
legislation ; it almost compels the American manu-
facturer, who would continue to supply the Ameri-
can market, to move his plant to Europe or Asia.
Evidently it would be a great step in advance to
so amend the Interstate Act that the tax for the
shortest haul, the tax representing the cost of the
average service, should be the uniform, standard
tax for all hauls.
1 See Texas and Pacific case.
AND PASSENGER POST. ICX)
Finally, the Interstate Act forbids pooling. In-
stead of looking at the railroads as the great circu-
lating system of the country, each line existing for
the development of its particular territory, and all
working together for the harmonious growth of the
whole, the Interstate Act regards each road as
somehow the competitor of every other. The idea
seems to me as ridiculous as it would be to regard
the arteries and veins of the human body as com-
petitors ; the arteries as competitors of the veins,
and each artery and vein as the competitor of every
other. It is no wonder that Mr. Depew styles
this giant piece of legislation a mere skeleton.
Yet it is something to have a skeleton, for we
may clothe it with flesh and blood and breathe
into it the breath of life.
The solution of the railroad problem involves
both our industrial and our political liberties. It
is as essential to our common welfare to-day that
the regulation of railroad tariffs should be taken
from our various railroad governments, and that
the revenues therefrom should be pooled under the
direction of the general Government, as it was to
the common welfare of our ancestors, in 1789, that
the regulation of the customs tariff should be taken
from the different States, and that the revenue
arising therefrom should be taken under the con-
trol of the same central power.
We are no longer a mere confederation of inde-
pendent States or of independent railroad provinces,
but a great nation of individuals, indissolubly
110 A GENERAL FREIGHT
bound together, and the strongest ties that unite
us are those of friendly and of commercial inter-
course ; that intercourse, moreover, is almost
entirely dependent upon the railways which, from
their birth, have been our great fost-roads and, as
such, have always been subject to the eighth sec-
tion of the first article of our national Constitution.
For many years the Post-office has handled the
commerce in paper-covered books, both within
states and across state boundaries. If it is within
the limits of the Constitution for the Postal De-
partment to undertake this branch of transporta-
tion, then it is equally constitutional to extend the
sphere of the Post-office to cover the entire busi-
ness of public transportation.
The Interstate Act requires a new baptism and a
new name, and the new Act may well be called
" An Act for the Establishment of a National and
an International Freight and Passenger Post."
This scheme does not necessitate the immediate
ownership of the railways by the Government ; it
is not absolutely essential for its success that the
Government should own one dollar's worth of rail-
way property. Its adoption, however, will make it
very desirable that the Government should own
the car-equipment of the country, and it is prob-
able that the bonds issued for this purpose could
be paid for in a very brief period out of the ordi-
nary revenues ; this, too, after paying the railroads
most handsomely for the haulage of the cars and
for other services.
AND PASSENGER POST.
Ill
The 7,937 (in round numbers 8000) postal, bag-
gage, and express cars in the United States could
be paid for in two or three years, even in one year,
out of the annual taxes now levied upon the people
for the transportation of the mails and of express
matter, and this after allowing the railroads a very
liberal amount for the haulage of these cars.
This equipment is certainly not worth over $2500
per car (the baggage and express cars of New
York State are only valued at $1500 per car),
and, at this rate, the 8000 cars would come
to $20,000,000
The interest on this amount, at 3^-
per cent, is 700,000
Allowing $720 a year for the care
and repair of the average car (the
amount estimated by Mr. Vilas
for postal cars, in his report of
1887), we have 5,760,000
The Fitchburg Railroad of Massachu-
setts furnishes its milk contractors
with cars, heated in winter, for
$573 P er car P er vear -
The Boston and Maine Road taxes
its milk contractors but $3000 per
year per car.
The cost of hauling a freight car on
the Soo Railroad, in 1895, was but
one cent a mile, at which rate the
cost of hauling one of these cars
on a passenger train, 300 miles a
112 A GENERAL FREIGHT
day, would be $3.00, or $1095 a
year.
But even allowing the railroads $5000
a year, for the mere haulage of the
average baggage, express and postal
car, the cost to the Government
would be only 40,000,000
Making a total of $46,460,000
The people paid the railroads, for the
transportation of mail and express
matter, in the year 1894, however,
as follows :
For the carriage of the
mails $30,094,957
For express service. . .. 23,035,300
Total $53,130,257
This shows a difference in favor of
the government ownership of pos-
tal, baggage, and express equip-
ment, per year of $6,670,257
At $3000 a year, per car, for haulage, the annual
saving to the people would be $22,670,257, or
$2,670,257 more than enough to pay for the entire
equipment in a single year.
Even if the railroads were allowed the exorbitant
rate of $5000 a year per car for haulage, the Gov-
ernment would require but three years' savings to
purchase this entire equipment, while having at the
same time the entire control of the property and
AND PASSENGER POST. 11$
carrying baggage absolutely free, or at a charge
only high enough to pay for the wages of the bag-
gage-masters for handling it, a charge which might
be distributed over all the baggage handled or
which could be easily met by a small charge on
extra baggage as at present. Where railway lines
pass through a thinly settled country, the ordinary
mail-agent would be able in many cases to attend
to the whole business of handling mail bags, trunks,
and express matter.
The Government ownership of our baggage, ex-
press, and postal cars would secure to the United
States the cheapest letter, parcels, and baggage
post in the world.
As to postal cars, it is quite as important that the
Government should own these traveling post-offices,
these wooden mail-bags, as that it should own its
leather mail-bags. Almost every great business
concern in the country finds it necessary to own
its cars to-day, and surely the Government, the
greatest business corporation of them all, should at
least own its postal cars.
The common welfare unquestionably demands
that the general government should both own and
operate the railways, and the change from private
to public ownership cannot come too soon. The
result would be not only no increase but a large
decrease in the interest account of the country,
while there would be an end forever of those issues
of fraudulent railway paper currency (over four
thousand million dollars in 1892) which are con-
114 A GENERAL FREIGHT
tinually increasing both the interest and the prin-
cipal of our national obligations. The scheme
would simply require the exchange of government
stock bonds or consols payable at the will of the
government, and bearing perhaps two and one half
per cent, interest for railway securities drawing
anywhere from one to twenty per cent. In 1892,
according to Van Oss, the people of the United
States were taxed, on the average, eighteen per cent.
on the actual capital represented by railway shares,
and 4.36 per cent, on the real capital invested in
railway bonds. It may by said that the fraudulent
issues of 1892 have been wiped out of existence in
the last four years, but the subjects of the New
York Central are still paying interest on stock that
is more than one-half water, and the returns of the
Interstate Commerce Commission show that the
old shares and bonds of bankrupt roads have
been frequently replaced by new issues having
little other basis for credit than the possible power
of railway managers to raise these securities from
the value of the paper on which they are written
up to par in solid gold by unnecessary taxes wrung
from the common people. The speculators of
1896 have, moreover, this advantage over those of
1892 : The Joint Traffic Association of New York
seems to have secured wellnigh absolute control
not only of the railways, but of the National and
State governments, and its power to levy taxes for
the payment of interest on these fictitious issues
seems to be practically illimitable. The protection
AND PASSENGER POST. 11$
of innocent speculators in stocks seems to be a
special function of our courts.
" The anthracite roads combined in 1896 with
the purpose of adding some $40,000,000 a year to
the cost of anthracite coal consumed by the people
of the United States; it was expected that the bitu-
minous roads would pile a similar extra burden
upon their constituents. How much the poor suf-
fered during the winter of 1896-97 from high-priced
fuel will never be known. How many coal miners,
anxious to work, starved through lack of employ-
ment, will also remain a riddle. This, however, is
known. In the summer of 1897, a large number of
coal miners, goaded to desperation, rose in a great
strike against their oppressors. But the strike
ended as such movements usually end, with the
practical discomfiture of the strikers. They gained,
perhaps, a promise of higher wages, but a score of
poor, ignorant men were shot, and the whole com-
munity suffered heavy loss. The place to strike is
at the ballot-box ; the thing to strike for is ' The
control of the National Highways by the National
Government.' " I have just alluded to speculators
in railway stocks and bonds. The case against the
speculators in produce and their associates, is well
stated in an article entitled " Railways Manufactur-
ing Anarchists," in The Republican, of Springfield,
Massachusetts, of August 2, 1896.
" Are the western farmers anarchists ? " asks The
Republican; "then, according to President A. B.
Stickney, of the Chicago Great Western railroad,
11 6 A GENERAL FREIGHT
they have reason to become so, and the railroads
have been largely responsible. Testifying before
the Interstate Commerce Commission, in a recent
investigation which, he claimed, certain other roads
had brought on, in the hope of catching him engaged
in unlawful practices, President Stickney turned
upon the accusing attorneys, and said : . . . 'You
charge the Kansas and Nebraska farmer thirteen
cents to haul his grain two hundred miles. You
charge the grain dealer six cents to haul that same
grain twice as far to Chicago. I tell you it is that
kind of business that is making anarchists west of
the Missouri River. Here is the trouble. I have
been acquainted with this northwestern country for
thirty-five years. In all that time there has never
been a year that the corn crop was moved until
after the corn was in the hands of dealers who had
the rate. Once the farmer is compelled to sell his
grain, then you fellows cut the rate for the dealer.
There is in Kansas, this year, 240,000,000 bushels
of corn. Not over 25,000,000 has been moved so
far this year. The farmer, the small dealer, has
not the rate. He is compelled to sell, and then
you fellows make the rate for the purchasers, and
then the corn moves.' That is to say," continues
The Republican, " the railroads beyond the Missouri
River make to the farmer, for carrying his grain to
the Missouri River dealer, what rate they please.
They make a mileage rate four times as high as is
charged the dealer for moving the grain over the
competitive distances between the Missouri River
AND PASSENGER POST. I I/
and Chicago. They play in with the dealers and
against the farmers, and they further freeze out
small shippers, from the Missouri River by making
secret rates in favor of the large ones."
And the railroads have been doing this for many
years, building up the strong at the expense of the
weak, and doing more than all other causes put
together probably to promote concentration of
great wealth in few hands. Well may the editor
conclude that the proposition for the public owner-
ship of railways is far from being as anarchistic
as that for a continuation of private management
within the limits of the present lawlessness.
Happily the protection of the taxpayer from the
lawless raids of the tax farmer does not require
that the government should take immediate posses-
sion of the entire property of the railways. It is,
however, essential, I think, to our continued ex-
istence as a free people, that the government should,
without delay, secure absolute control of railway
trains ; the taxes levied for the support of the rail-
ways, post-roads, should be determined on the
postal principle and should be collected and dis-
tributed by government officials. In other words,
the entire business of public transportation should
be pooled under the management of the Post-office.
In the proposed reform of our transportation
taxes it will probably be found advisable, at the be-
ginning, to follow the example of Sir Rowland Hill
in his reform of the old English postal system, and
to adopt, as the uniform rate for each class of ser-
Il8 A GENERAL FX EIGHT
vice for all distances, the lowest rate now charged
for the shortest distance for that class of service.
In some cases, however, as for instance in the
transportation of milk, it will be possible to com-
mence with a uniform rate much lower than the
lowest rate now charged for the shortest distance,
a rate for milk perhaps as low as ten cents for
a forty quart can. Even a ten cent rate would
secure to a car carrying but two hundred cans,
earnings of $20 a day, or $6260 per year of 313
days, or $7300 including Sundays. The average
cost of the service of transporting milk, regardless
of differences of distance up to 330 miles, on the
Erie, the Ontario and Western, the Lehigh and
Hudson, and the Susquehanna Railroads, in 1894,
was less than eight cents a can. The tax, however,
was fifty cents for a forty-quart can of cream, and
thirty-two cents a forty-quart can of milk. 1
This postal principle, this cost of the service
principle, is applicable to railway traffic, either
under the present system of railway management
or under government control of railways or under
government ownership. It may be applied within
State limits by acts of our different State Legisla-
tures. It would work miracles in human advance-
ment, whether it were adopted on the railroads of
Belgium, which are the property of the Belgian
people, or on the post-roads of the United States,
1 See brief of Joseph H. Choate, in the Milk Case tried in
New York before the Interstate Commerce Commission, in
December, 1895, pp. 3, 102.
AND PASSENGER POST. 119
which are farmed by joint-stock companies, but
not until applied under the national government
can any country reap its full benefits. It will in-
deed reach its full fruition only under some scheme
which shall embrace all the governments of the
earth in one great International Transportation
Union.
There is nothing new in this project, neither is it
based on mere theory. It is said that Napoleon
III. conceived the idea of extending the sphere of
the Post-office to cover the general railway business
of France. A similar scheme was advocated in
England some fifty years ago by William Gait, and
again, about twenty years later, by A. J. Williams,
and by Raphael Brandon. It has been recently
taken up by Charles Waring, who proposes a uni-
form rate of four shillings (one dollar) a ton per
haul for ordinary merchandise, and one shilling
(twenty-five cents) a ton for minerals on the rail-
ways of England, Scotland, and Wales, and for
Ireland a merchandise rate of eighty-three cents a
ton, and twenty-five cents for minerals. The
thought was suggested to me some years ago by
C. N. Yeomans, then manager of the New Haven
and Northampton road of Connecticut ; the idea
has evidently found lodgment in the fertile brains
of Mr. Depew and Mr. Alexander. " To the con-
sumer," says A. J. Grierson, Manager of the Great
Western Railway of England, " the ideally perfect
state of things would be a tariff for the conveyance
of merchandise based on the same principle as
I2O A GENERAL FREIGHT
the ' Penny Post.' Commodities would be con-
veyed at a low price, and producers over an im-
mense area would be able to send them to market.
To the consumer it would be in every way desira-
ble that all disadvantages of distance or geograph-
ical advantages should disappear."
Our express and telegraph companies have long
applied this postal principle, in a limited degree,
to their business. A parcel sent from New Haven
to Birmingham, Alabama, costs thirty cents ; the
charge on the same parcel from New Hav*en to
New York is twenty-five cents. The express com-
panies are carrying certain publications issued by
our state governments at a uniform rate through-
out the whole country, and it is an interesting fact
that the express rates are always just a little lower
than the rates which the Post-office levies. The
U. S. postage on a Massachusetts Railroad Report,
is thirteen cents; the express on the same book
from Boston to New Haven, Conn., is twelve
cents.
The postal principle has been almost universally
adopted on horse-car lines, cable roads, and elec-
tric tramways. It is the foundation of the pros-
perity of the elevated railways in our great cities.
The following facts will prove, moreover, that leg-
islation to secure the general grouping of stations
with uniform rates regardless of distance, within a
state or within the limits of a nation, would only
be the enactment into law of what is already a very
common custom and a rapidly growing custom, and
AND PASSENGER POST. 121
I would suggest that most of our legislation that is
of real value is based on custom. Law is, indeed,
little more than crystallized custom.
The grouping of stations with a uniform rate has
been customary from the first in the milk business
of the principal railway lines bringing milk to New
York City. On the milk trains of the New York,
Ontario and Western, the Erie, and the Susquehan-
na railways which, in 1887, carried nearly one-half
the milk consumed in New York, the rates during
that year were the same within zones of 21 to 183
miles, on the Erie ; 56 to 262 miles on the Ontario
and Western, and 29 to 84 miles, on the Susque-
hanna. About that time, certain Orange County
farmers living nearer the metropolis than some of
their competitors, brought suit before the Interstate
Commerce Commission to compel these railways to
adjust their milk rates according to distance, claim-
ing that the uniform rate deprived them of the
natural advantage of their location and was there-
fore contrary to law. The Commission decided,
however, in favor of the grouped rate, saying, " It
has served the people well. It tends to promote
consumption and to stimulate production. It is not
apparent how any other system could be devised
that would present results equally useful or more
just. To subdivide the rate according to distance,
or even to introduce a system of shorter grouping
of rates, would necessarily compel a new system of
receiving, delivering, and accounting, would cause
great inconvenience to carriers and dealers, would
122 A GENERAL f A' EIGHT
impede the rapid and reliable management of the
traffic, would restrict the extent of the territory re-
quired for future public demands, and apparently
would not, in the slightest degree, benefit the com-
plainants. It (the Commission) is moreover im-
pressed with the belief that the present system is,
upon the whole, the best that can be devised for
the general good of all engaged in the traffic."
In October, 1895, the milk producers of Orange
County again brought suit against the railways be-
fore the Interstate Commerce Commission, on the
same plea, adding, however, the complaint that the
uniform rate was too high. The decision of the
Commission in this last trial which it was my privi-
lege to attend, has not yet been given to the public,
but the testimony, while showing that the milk zone
has widened full fifty per cent, in seven years and
now covers distances up to 330 miles, sustained
the former decision at all points, and that decision
must, I believe, be confirmed. 1 It is a curious fact
that in this trial the representatives of the rail-
ways were to be seen pleading for the common
grouped rate, and the strongest witness in its favor
was George R. Blanchard, formerly Vice-President
of the Erie, and now one of the officials of the Joint
Traffic Association. When asked by Commissioner
Knapp, " If it is to the advantage of the railway
companies and of the consumers of milk to have a
uniform rate up to 330 miles, why not up to 1000 " ?
Mr. Blanchard's reply was, " I know of no reason."
But Messrs. Rogers, Locke and Milburn, the lead-
1 Decided against uniform rate. See Preface.
AND PASSENGER POST. 123
ing counsel of the defendant railways in this case,
go even farther than Mr. Hlam hard, fur they say,
''The distance (within which the rate should he
uniform) need only be limited by the length of
time required to make it with the train and meet
the wants of the New York market with milk not
affected by its t ransporl at ion." In other words, if
milk <an be brought from San Francisco to New
York in good condition, then the milk rate should
be the same for all distances between San Fran-
cisco and New York, and for this reason, " because
of the fact that the expense incident to the mere
length of haul is so small in comparison with the
oilier ne<cssary charges when taken into connection
with the special service. The cost of train operation
is not appreciably more whether there be 200 cans
in a car or 160 cans in a car or 10 cans in a car.
The same crew, the same messengers and organiza-
tion and the same terminal service would have to
be maintained whether the can be carried from
Binghamton or not, or from Sussex County or not,
and the cost of the delivery of the can at the
Hoboken terminal is in no real sense dependent
upon the length of its haul." 1
Our railway friends, moveover, do not rest with
the mere statement of these fundamental truths.
The fact that distance costs practically nothing in
the transportation of persons and of property by
railway ; the fact that, all things being taken into
consideration, the cost of the service is the same
1 See Defendant's Brief, page II.
124 A GENERAL FREIGHT
for the shortest haul as for the longest, is acknowl-
edged by the acts of railway managers not only in
this milk case but in thousands of other instances.
The grouping of stations with a uniform rate re-
gardless of differences of distance is widely applied
even now, and it is rapidly growing. It is very com-
mon in the coal regions. The entire Hocking Valley
is grouped. Large coal districts in Illinois, Wiscon-
sin, and other western states enjoy a uniform rate.
The coal rates are the same for all stations within
a radius of forty miles of Pittsburgh. Potatoes are
given the same rates from the different stations on
the lines and branch lines of the New York, Phila-
delphia, and Norfolk road, within limits of two
hundred miles. In the Delaware peninsula, the
rates on grain, flour, and other similar pruducts,
are extensively grouped. The coal rates are the
same on the Northampton division of the Consoli-
dated Railroad of Connecticut, for all stations be-
tween Mt. Carmel, nine miles from New Haven
and Westfield, some sixty miles. All the stations
on the Consolidated railway system, the New York
and New England, the Boston and Maine, and the
Vermont Valley roads, are in one great group in
relation to their through business with the Lehigh
Valley system which is divided into eleven groups.
All, or nearly all, the hundreds of railroad stations
in New England south of Portland, Maine, are in-
cluded in the group known as Boston Points, from
each of which the rates are the same, on the same
class of goods, to all the stations in even large
AND PASSENGER POST. 12$
groups in the South and West. In transconti-
nental traffic, all the Pacific Coast terminals from
Tacoma and Seattle, in Washington on the north,
to San Diego, California, in the south, are in one
group from which the rates are, in general, uniform
on similar goods to all stations in each of the six
great groups into which the territory of the United
States east of the Missouri River is divided. The
rates on oranges have been and probably are now
the same from Los Angeles to all stations east of the
Mississippi River, the same to Chicago, 2265 miles,
and to New York, 3180 miles.
The custom of giving large groups of stations a
uniform rate on similar products in through busi-
ness, has, indeed, become almost universal in this
country and, as I have shown, it is not uncommon
in local traffic. Milk, oranges, potatoes, grain,
coal, petroleum, passengers, are transported to-
day, in numberless instances, on our American rail-
ways at the same rates between stations varying in
distance from one another and from the starting
point from a score of miles to a thousand.
In January, 1894, the Canadian Pacific road sold
passenger tickets at the same rate (forty dollars,
first-class, and thirty dollars second-class) from St.
Paul, Minnesota, to Vancouver, 1660 miles; to
Portland, 1920 miles, and to San Francisco, 2760
miles. Several of the cities of New England are
grouped as to passenger rates to yet larger groups
of cities in the south, although the difference of
distance between the cities in these groups amounts
126 A GENERAL FK EIGHT
to fifty or sixty miles in the north, and to several
hundred in the south.
Nor is the grouping of stations confined to the
United States. The English rates on tin plates
are the same to Liverpool from Camarthen, on the
west, and from Monmouth on the east, though the
distances vary from 160 to 206 miles. The milk
rates on the Great Western Railway of England
are the same for distances of from ten miles to one
hundred, and we have seen that all the noncom-
petitive stations on the Great Eastern Railway,
covering a district of over a thousand miles, have
just been grouped for parcels up to twenty pounds
at eight cents, and from twenty to twenty-five
pounds at ten cents, and this by passenger trains.
The stations in the coal regions are very com-
monly grouped both in England and on the Con-
tinent. In Germany, the same charges are made
from coal stations to Bremen and to Hamburg,
although the latter is seventy-one miles further off
than the former.
In 1889, Hungary made certain radical changes
in its system of passenger transportation, and
especially in two particulars. First, the govern-
ment adopted a system of neighborhood tariffs
making the rates between any two adjacent stations
the same, regardless of differences of distance
namely, twelve cents first-class, six cents second-
class, and four cents third-class, and from any one
station to the second station, sixteen, nine, and six
cents. For all distances between 140 and 457
AND PASSENGER POST. I2/
miles, the stations were grouped with a uniform
rate, by ordinary trains, $3.20, $2.32, and $1.60 for
the respective classes. By express trains, the rates
were about twenty per cent, higher. The result
was that the neighborhood passenger traffic of
Hungary increased in the interval, 1889 to 1892,
from 2,912,400 to 20,412,100, over 600 per cent.,
and the long distance travel increased from 246,200
to 970,600, or 294 per cent.
One of the results of the reform of the railway
system of Hungary has been to throw the burden
of railroad expenses on the shoulders of those able
to bear it, namely, on the long-distance travellers
using express trains, the class corresponding to our
Pullman-car travellers. This class, numbering, in
1892, about a million, paid over twenty per cent, of
the entire passenger taxes. In the United States
this class does not pay one half the cost of their
own transportation.
The influence of the comparatively low, uniform^
five-cent fare on the Manhattan Elevated Road of
New York may well be styled magical. This road,
with only a hundred miles of track, and traversing
a district occupied by less than two million people,
carried, in 1893, over 214,000,000 passengers, three
eighths as many as were carried in the same period
by all the trains of our great railroad system of over
170,000 miles of track, and traversing a territory
inhabited by over 60,000,000 people. With five-
cent fares, the Manhattan Road, after paying over
$2,000,000 in rentals and interest on its bonds,
128 A GENERAL FREIGHT
earned nearly ten per cent, on its $30,000,000 of
stock (largely water). Its operating expenses were
less than three cents a passenger. Governor Flower
signed a bill, during his term of office, requiring
this road to so widen the sphere of its five-cent
fares as to include an extensive suburban district,'
and in giving his reasons for signing the measure,
he is reported to have said that it would not only
benefit the people, but would also increase the
profits of the road.
I believe that a similar result would follow to
every railway corporation that had the courage and
the foresight to adopt a similar policy. It would
promote consumption and stimulate production.
It would prove to be the best possible system of
rates for all engaged in railway traffic. Would a
railway corporation secure to itself the largest pos-
sible profits, and to the district which it serves,
the greatest possible development, then let it apply
to its local business the life-giving principle which
has been almost universally adopted in through
traffic, and make the rate for its shortest haul the
common rate for all hauls within its jurisdiction.
If distances of a thousand miles, and between
the stations of a dozen railway systems, can be
safely and profitably ignored in through railway
traffic ; if distances of scores, and of hundreds of
miles, can be safely disregarded in the local trans-
portation of milk and potatoes and grain, then
surely there is every reason to believe that a gen-
eral grouping of all the railway stations in the
AND PASSENGER POST. 1 29
country with a uniform rate will prove to be the
best possible system that can be devised for the
common good of all. What reason is there for
ignoring distance between Boston Common Points,
in their through business, that does not apply with
even greater force to their local business with one
another ?
Let us imagine for a moment what would be the
influence of such low, uniform transportation taxes
on a district served, say, by such a corporation as
the Consolidated Road of Connecticut, controlling
upwards of 2000 miles of territory. The lowest
regular passenger tax now levied by this road, as I
find it, is five cents. The highest express fare, by
ordinary cars, for the longest distance without stops
(that between New York and New Haven, seventy-
three miles), is $1.50. The lowest freight rates on
this road that I have discovered are those between
Southington and Plantsville, on the Northampton
division, distance one mile, and these rates are as
follows :
First class, $ .06 per hundred pounds or $1.20 a ton.
Second " $ .05 " " " " $1.00 "
Third " $ .04 " " " " $ .80 "
Fourth " $ .04 " " " " $ .80 "
Fifth " $ .03 " " " " $ .60 "
Sixth " $ . 02 J " " " $ .50 "
On wood, the lowest rate appears to be $4.80 a
car for soft wood and $6.00 for hard wood, for
hauls of not over ten miles ; on brick, $7.00 per
130 A GENERAL FREIGHT
g
car per ten-mile haul ; on spruce lumber, $8.00 for
the handling of a carload of 26,000 feet.
Under the proposed grouping of stations, the
entire tariff schedule of the Consolidated Road
would be reduced to very nearly this brief state-
ment, and it might be made yet more simple.
Under a system of rates based on the cost of the
service freight would be divided into but two or
three classes. With transportation taxes collected
in advance, and with the prompt handling of
freight cars, it would undoubtedly be possible to
make uniform rates of say six dollars per box-car
haul and five dollars per haul for the use of plat-
form cars with loads of any character up to the
car's capacity. The additions to the schedule for
fast trains making few stops, and for special ser-
vice, would cover, perhaps, a half sheet of note-
paper.
Under such a scheme every station and every
man at every station along the lines of the Con-
solidated Road would at once be placed on a par
with every other as to the cost of exchanging
services and products with his neighbors. The
low uniform rates, limited though they were to the
territory of a single railway corporation, would
rouse the whole community to new life. The five-
cent fares on way trains would widen the sphere
within which a laborer could find occupation to
thirty or forty miles from his home an hour's
journey. The earnings of the people would largely
increase, and with an increase of earnings would
AND PASSENGER POST. 13!
come an increase of purchasing power that would
afford a continually increasing demand upon the
freight department of the railroad. In winter, the
countryman, now kept at home in enforced idle-
ness by reason of high transportation taxes, would
be able to seek occupation in the city shops. In
summer, the factory hand would be able to re-
store his vigor by betaking himself to the open
fields. In summer or in winter, the poorest man
would find it possible to take himself and his
family to almost any station on the Consolidated
Road for a holiday. Under such a condition of
things, all Southern New England would become
one great city, within which the railroad trains
would run like a weaver's shuttle, weaving a web
that would bind the railway and the people to-
gether in harmonious prosperity. But it requires
little argument to demonstrate the utility of a gen-
eral grouping of railway rates to the people. The
advancement of the common welfare would be
nothing less than miraculous, and the railroads
would secure their full share in that advancement.
If the various States of our Union understand
their true interests, the very next session of their
legislatures will see the enactment of laws apply-
ing this beneficent cost of the service principle
to all railway traffic within their respective juris-
dictions. Our railroads, however, are but the
arteries and veins of our national circulating sys-
tem, and the movements of persons and of prop-
erty throughout the whole system ought to be
132 A GENERAL FREIGHT
determined by a law as uniform and as stable as
that which regulates the flow of the blood in the
human body. The uniform tax ought to be as low
as possible, and it ought to be determined by a
power representing the common interest and capa-
ble of enforcing its judgments. The scheme pro-
posed fulfils all these conditions. Once adopted,
it will, I believe, prove to be the best scheme that
could be devised for the general good of the whole
people. Best, unless, perhaps at some future time,
it may be found still better to make the ordinary
use of our great circulating system altogether free,
and to support the railways as our ordinary high-
ways, and as the Erie Canal and as the vertical
railways in our tall office buildings are supported,
by a general tax on the districts which the railways
serve.
The essential thing in railway business is fast-
running, well-filled trains kept in constant use,
and this result can only be obtained by making it
possible for the ordinary man to move himself and
his products from any one station to any other at a
low, uniform rate. Products of high value, like
persons of large wealth, are mere incidents of rail-
way transportation. If they were carried free (as
they often are), the loss to the railroads would be
comparatively little. It is commodities of low
value and persons of small incomes travelling short
distances that pay railway expenses and yield
railway profits.
From eighty to ninety per cent, of railway freight
AND PASSENGER POST. 133
is composed of commodities that must go at low
rates if they move at all, and what is true of
products is equally true of persons. Make all the
rates low, uniform, regardless of distance and of
the volume of traffic, and railway locomotives will
run with trains loaded very near the limit of
their capacity. Such business even at the lowest
rates, is far more profitable than light trains kept
three-fourths empty by rates at once so high, so un-
certain, and so discriminating, as to make the rail-
ways almost useless to the masses of the people.
The following dictum of the President of the
Pennsylvania road can hardly be too often re-
peated : " The man that gets into a Pullman car
does not pay fifty cents on the dollar of what it
costs to haul him. The man who gets his dinner
on the train to New York does not pay twenty-five
per cent, of the cost of that dinner. It is the poor
man who sits in a common car, and sits two or
three on a seat who supports the railways of this
country."
" In India," says Horace Bell, " the third-class
travel affords the backbone of coaching receipts ;
the other classes might, as far as profit is concerned, be
abolished ; indeed, on most lines, their removal would
be a positive gain." Not many years ago a lead-
ing railway manager in India stated that it would
pay him to give every first-class passenger twenty
rupees to stay away. " The English railway com-
panies," says Sir George Findlay, late General
Manager of the London and Northwestern Rail-
134 A GENERAL FREIGHT
way, " have spent and are spending large sums of
money in providing the most luxurious accommo-
dations for the benefit of the * Superior Classes,'
practically at their own expense ; it is the humble
and once despised third-class traveller who fur-
nishes the sinews of war." The Scotch Express,
with the weight of the sleeping car, carries its first-
class passenger at less, per ton mile, than the coal
rate. It is said that the balance of loss from the
first-and second-class services of all the railways
of England and Wales, north of the Thames, in
1890, was ,325,000, which, but for the maintenance
of these services, would have gone directly into the
pockets of the ordinary shareholders. In other
words, the third-class travellers on these English
railways not only paid all the expenses and a fair
profit on their own transportation, they also contrib-
uted $1,625,000 in a single year towards the trans-
portation of their first-and second-class brethren.
In 1890, out of 817,744,000 tickets sold on the
railways of Great Britain, 724,697,000 were third-
class, and they furnished nearly three-fourths of
the passenger revenues. The number of travellers
increased 27,719,688 during the next year, and of
these nearly 27,000,000 were third-class.
" These facts," says R. A. Cooper, in his pam-
phlet on Free Railway Travel, " show that the nation
travels third-class, and the only practical limit
to the number of those who would travel is the
cost of the tickets, for every reduction in fares has
been followed by an enormous increase of third-
AND PASSENGER POST. 135
class passengers. But vast as these numbers are, it
would be an error to suppose that the mass of the
people travel much. A small class, such as com-
mercial travellers, almost live on the rail, making
perhaps hundreds of journeys every year. A large
number travel very frequently, but are generally at
home and, as the average does not exceed twenty
single or ten return journeys per annum for each of
the whole population, it is evident that the mass use
the rail very seldom."
The people of the United States take hardly half
as many railroad trips during the year as do their
English brethren. Our 60,000,000 people, with
their 170,000 miles of railway, took less than 532,-
000,000 railway trips in 1891, as against over 845,-
000,000 by the English with less than half our
population, and with less than one-eighth of the
railway facilities. Will you have the reason for it ?
Is it not manifestly due to the cheap fares on the
English workingmen's trains and to their number-
less excursion trains?
The Great Eastern Railway runs forty-nine
Workmen's Trains, and issues 12,000 workmen's
return tickets per day, besides 5830 half- fare
tickets, 19,000 penny tickets, and 9500 two-penny
tickets. The fare between Enfield and London,
ten miles, is only two cents. And the Great East-
ern Railway has largely profited by its low work-
men's fares. 1 In some cases first-class passengers
1 See page 149, National Railways, by James Hole.
136 A GENERAL FREIGHT
can travel by express trains in England at one-fifth
of a penny (two fifths of a cent) per mile. Is it not
certain that, with five-cent fares per trip, by ordi-
nary cars, on way trains and with Corresponding
fares by express (say twenty per cent, higher, as in
Hungary), the most of us would increase our rail-
way journeys tenfold? The people living along
the lines of the Manhattan Elevated Road of New
York, take on an average, 113 trips on that road in
the course of a year. Is there not every reason to
believe that the patrons of all our great railways
would make a similar use of railway facilities if
they could pay the taxes levied ?
If the average trip of the Connecticut traveller
fell to ten miles (it is less than twelve miles on the
New England, and only about seventeen miles on
the Consolidated), then the proposed five-cent
grouped rate, on way trains, would be just one half
a cent a mile, a little more than the average rate
charged commuters on the Consolidated Road in
1892 (3^0 of a cent a mile), and just about the rate
which has proved so successful in filling the trains
of India, where the average train-load is nearly six
times what it is here, 250 passengers as against 44
in this country.
And why should we not enjoy as low rates as
the people of India ? Our roads have cost far less,
and the expense of their operation ought to be no
higher, certainly not on account of our higher
wages, for the American railway employee, like the
American in almost every other branch of employ-
AND PASSENGER POST. 137
ment, is the cheapest laborer on earth. He earns
for his employer full fifty per cent, more than his
English brother ; and the American will accom-
plish yet greater results when once the wonderful
machinery intrusted to his care is run according
to the law of its being. Recent improvements on
the New York Central have reduced the number
of hands on through freights one third, while at the
same time doubling the capacity of the freight
equipment. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas road
can haul 1000 tons as against 550 four years ago.
The train load which was twenty is now thirty-five
cars on the most of its line. As for the future the
possible advance in the reduction of expenses and
in the increased usefulness of our railway system
is immeasurable.
Extend the sphere of the Post-office to cover
the whole realm of railway transportation and, if
experience teaches anything, we may reasonably
expect that the movement of freight and of pas-
sengers will treble and quadruple, with very little
increase in any class of expenditure. It may even
be accompanied with an actual decrease of ex-
penses. The one grand difference will be that cars
that now go three fourths empty will then go full,
and locomotives which now run with almost no
loads behind them will' haul trains well up to their
capacity. In any case no harm can befall the rail-
roads from the proposed scheme. Whatever be the
risks involved they will be borne by the people.
Our common interest demands that our wonder-
138 A GENERAL FREIGHT
working circulating system shall be kept in the
best possible condition, while it should be used to
its utmost capacity, and common honesty demands
that both the labor expended in bringing it into
being and the labor employed in its operation,
should receive a generous recompense.
The Government, therefore, representing the
people, will, by solemn contract, guarantee both to
the railroads and to railroad employees a fair re-
turn for their services, and in the distribution of
the revenues received from its postal transporta-
tion taxes it will do what Mr. Depew promises to do,
if he is made absolute ruler of our circulating sys-
tem and of the country. The Government will
transfer from its general money pool (a pool in-
cluding all the receipts from the use of the rail-
ways) to the treasuries of the weaker and the
stronger lines alike, sufficient moneys to insure
their support, to each according to its necessities,
just as it now transfers money from the present pos-
tal pool for the support of the different post-offices. 1
Under such a scheme, the failure of a railway
company will be next to impossible ; the possible
savings both to the railways and to the country
will run up to scores, if not to hundreds of millions.
Railroad managers will indeed be deprived of their
power to tax the public, but they will be left with
all the power necessary for the performance of
1 Statement of Chauncey M. Depew before the Interstate
Commerce Committee, House of Representatives, Jan. 6,
1893, page 6.
AND PASSENGER POST. 139
their duties to their stockholders and for the ser-
vice of the public, and, according to Mr. Depew,
they were quite ready, a year or two ago, to ac-
cept this position, for he said, in hi? address before
the Interstate Commerce Committee of Congress
already quoted, " The railroad managers of the
United States are now unanimous in the belief that
the best thing that could happen for the country
and for the railways would be to strengthen the
hands of the Interstate Commerce Commission " ;
and, finally, he said : " Now, we do not care, as
railways, how much power you clothe the Commis-
sion with. All we do ask is that, since the Govern-
ment undertakes to regulate the railways, it will
regulate them upon the intelligent lines that ex-
perience has proved to be the only ones upon
which they can be operated." And experience in
the transportation of letters and newspapers and
of general merchandise by the different govern-
ments of the earth, and in the transportation of
general freight and of passengers, in the instances
cited, certainly indicates that the ideal system sug-
gested by the acts of the railroad managers them-
selves, and elaborated in this book, is the only
system that is at this time at once practical and just.
The rates under thi-s proposed scheme being in
general those now charged for the shortest distance
for each particular service (any higher rates would
certainly be both unjust and impracticable), the
uniform fare on way passenger trains, ordinary cars,
will be five cents per trip, but there is every reason
140 A GENERAL FREIGHT
to believe that after a little while even this tax
may be lowered. The electric cars on some of the
lines of Savannah, Geo., were run at one-cent fares
for six months of 1894, and with an undoubted
profit, for they earned from $15 to $18 a day as
against a cost that could have hardly been more
than $10 to $12. One-cent fares are by no means
an impossibility on our way railway trains, when
once they are run in the public interest.
Persons travelling without baggage ought not to
pay for the transportation of other people's property,
and there should therefore be a small tax (five
cents, perhaps) for each piece of regulation size
and weight placed in a baggage car. The Post-
office will carry such pieces from domicile to
domicile for not over 20 cents, and perhaps for 10
cents. Express companies carry parcels from
the domicile in New Haven to domicile in New
York for 25 cents a parcel, and the Post-office,
doing a larger business and with better arrange-
ments than the express companies, will he able to
carry pieces of baggage of a reasonable size and
weight cheaper than the express companies now
carry small parcels. The average trip of a passen-
ger, it is to be remembered, is less than 27 miles,
in the whole country. In the populous districts, as,
for instance, on the 1500 miles of the Consolidated
Road of Connecticut, the average trip is only
about 17 miles, and baggage goes only the same
distance as its owner.
Palace-car travellers, we are told, do not pay
AND PASSENGER POST.
141
one half the cost of their transportation, and yet
these are the travellers best able to bear the burden
of railway expenditure ; their cars weigh at least
a third more then ordinary cars ; they cost a third
more, while they carry hardly half as many passen-
gers. Palace-car fares ought certainly to be from
four to six times ordinary fares. Even in this case,
however, this class of fares will probably be lower
than they are to-day. If palace cars and sleeping
cars do not pay there are two reasons for it : first,
the unnecessarily high prices paid by the railways
to such private concerns as the Pullman Car Com-
pany for the use of its cars ; and, second, the fares
which are so high that only one seat in six, per-
haps, is occupied. Those whose " good-will " is
lightly regarded by our railway managers cannot
afford to travel in palace cars.
It was for the common interest, however, that
railways were built, and the common interest de-
mands the extension of the sphere of the Post-
office to cover this whole business, with passenger
and freight schedules, something as follows :
PASSENGER SCHEDULE. FARES PER TRIP.
Way trains, ordinary or second-class
cars
Palace or first-class cars.
Baggage, per piece, regu-
lation size and weight
or less, per railway
trip
Baggage, domicile to
domicile, by post ....
30
05
.20 tO
05
.10 to .20
I4 2 A GENERAL FREIGHT
with corresponding higher fares for fast trains mak-
ing few stops. (The fares, by express trains, in
Hungary are 20 per cent, higher than by ordinary
trains.) On such trains as the New York Limited,
making stops only about once in 125 miles, the
fares might be, perhaps, $1.00 by ordinary cars,
and $5.00 to $6.00 by palace cars. And instead of
the present cumbersome system of freight taxes,
with its scores of millions of different rates (the
London & Northwestern Railway of England, as
we have seen, has 30,000,000 different rates, and
on the entire railway system of England there are
said to be over 250,000,000), instead of this system,
with its expensive rate sheets, and its classes, based
on values, we should have but a single freight
schedule covering the whole country, and yet at
once so short and so simple that a child would be
able to understand it. Private freight cars would
be abolished.
On open cars, coal cars and the like, loaded and
unloaded by shippers and consignees, there would
be a uniform standard rate of say $6.00 per haul
per car of standard capacity, and for box cars, oil
cars and the like, a rate of perhaps $8.00, in all
cases regardless of the amount of the load, up
to the car's capacity, and regardless of classifica-
tion. 1 The time limit for loading and unloading
would be not over eight hours, the limit now in
vogue in Holland.
The grand purpose of this reform is to secure to
the public the greatest possible use of the railways,
1 The rates suggested in my Bill are $5.00 and $6.00.
AND PASSENGER POST. 143
and to this end every car should be sent from its
shipping point to its destination by the shortest,
quickest, and least expensive route, and should be
detained at terminals for the least possible time.
Products loaded and unloaded by government
officials would be packed according to government
regulations and would pay the same rates, whatever
the quantity. The present complicated systems of
classifying products according to their value would
pass away, and in their stead we should have a
single uniform system of two or three classes based,
as the new rates are to be based, on the cost of the
service rendered.
The scheme of classification suggested by A. J.
Williams in his State Appropriation of Railways is
founded on this principle and is very sensible. Mr.
Williams proposes a division of freight into three
classes, in the lowest of which he would place all
commodities that are practically undamageable
open-car freight, coal, sand, minerals, timber, etc.
On these third-class products the uniform rate
might be as low as twenty-five cents a ton, the rate
on the smallest package being, say, ten cents ! The
second-class commodities, not readily damageable,
would include the great majority of manufactured
goods, grain, etc., and the rate on this class should
certainly not be over eighty cents a ton, four cents
a hundred. First-class freight would include all
commodities readily damaged or perishable, or
which required extra care in handling, and these
might pay the first-class rate now charged for the
144 A GENERAL FREIGHT
shortest haul on the Consolidated Railroad of
Connecticut, six cents a hundred or $1.20 a ton.
The still simpler two-class system of open and
box-car freight would, however, meet all the de-
mands of the situation, with rates of twenty-five
cents a ton in the one case, and one dollar a ton in
the other. It would be an easy matter to arrange
for a system of insurance for goods perishable or
easily damaged.
Is this an insane proposition ? Is it inexpedient ?
Will it be impossible with such transportation taxes
to secure the necessary revenues ?
It is to be remembered that even now, with
average train-loads of but forty-four persons, the
average passenger fare of the country is but fifty-
three cents, and the same locomotive that hauls
these forty-four persons can haul five hundred at
practically the same cost. (The excursion trains
on the Cleveland, Canton, and Southern Railroad,
in August, 1895, hauled seven hundred passengers
at very little more cost than that of their average
passenger trains and at practically the same speed.)
The average passenger train, moreover, can easily
make twice as many trips during the year as at
present. The present average train-load of forty-
four persons earns on its average 26.43-mile trip
about twenty-three dollars. A train of one hundred
first-class passengers at twenty cents a trip, and of
one hundred second-class passengers at five cents,
would earn twenty-five dollars in the 26.43-mile
journey ; but these rates would so stimulate the
AND PASSENGER POST. 145
short-distance travel that, under such conditions,
the train would probably empty itself every thirteen
miles, and the return would probably be nearer
fifty dollars than twenty-five dollars.
The waste of power and of equipment under our
present railway regime is really criminal. The
average loads of our great passenger locomotives
are hardly up to the hauling capacity of a pair of
mules, and yet every excursion proves that the
people would fill the trains if only the regular rates
were within their ability. What inducement is
there for a man to seek employment an hour's
journey from his home when the transportation
tax to and fro would take every cent he could earn
in ten hours ? What were railroads built for ? To
encourage travel or to hinder it ? To enable men
to move themselves and their products at the least
possible cost, or to keep the cost of transportation
just as near as possible to that by ox-team and
human burden bearer ? Think of freight cars
creeping over the country at the snail's-pace of
only twenty miles a day, and with loads of little
over three tons l ; and yet that was the condition of
things in 1893, and in 1894 our 1,205,169 freight
cars earned on an average less than $1.90 a day,
and handled less than ten and a half tons of freight
a week. Would not he be a very poor farmer who
failed to get as much out of his ox-team ?
1 See Railway Review, Nov. 18, 1893, p. 692 ; Aug. 4, 1894,
p. 448.
146 A GENERAL FREIGHT
Four days out of five our freight cars lie abso-
lutely idle, obstructing side-tracks and rotting under
the influence of sun and wind and rain. They will
not average seventy-three paying hauls a year, and
they earn less than $590 a year. " The average
car-movement of the country is absurdly small,"
says the editor of the Railway Review, " and it is
so mainly because of the misuse of the cars by the
railways themselves."
The car accountant of the West Shore Road,
Mr. W. W. Wheatly, estimates the waste of capital
in this misused equipment at over $124,000,000,
with an interest account of at least $5,000,000 and
an annual expenditure of about $10,000,000, to
say nothing of track room to hold them, locomo-
tives to move them, and the other minor but nec-
essary expenses which their existence involves.
The number of these idle freight cars, says Mr.
Wheatly, is about 248,000, and yet, according to
Mr. Aldace F. Walker, railroad managers are pay-
ing $30,000,000 a year for the use of private cars. 1
The demurrage limit, that is, the time allowed
for unloading a freight car in New England, is
ninety-six hours, and as much more time may be
taken for loading. In slow Old England, and on
occasion in New York, they take less time to
handle the cargo of a great ship. On one of her
trips the Paris arrived alongside her quay, at
Southampton, at 7.30 P.M. of a Wednesday evening.
1 See Railway Review, Sept. 3, 1892, and Oct. 7, 1893.
AND PASSENGER POST. 147
Within thirteen and one-half minutes her 465 bags
of mail were landed and despatched by a special
train to London. At 7.40 P.M. her passengers be-
gan to disembark, and at 8.15 P.M. they left on
another train. At 10 P.M. the Paris commenced
unloading her cargo, and in the course of Thurs-
day she was cleared out. She took on board 2400
tons of coal, and, if it had not been for her extra-
ordinarily large return cargo, she would have been
ready for sea on Friday evening. As it was, she
sailed on Saturday at mid-day, less than sixty-six
hours after her arrival, with 250 saloon passengers,
with her saloon berths all occupied, and with a fair
complement of third-class passengers.
The Parts, at her English terminus, handles her
thousands of tons of cargo, her hundreds of bags
of mail, and her crowds of passengers, in less time
than it takes to handle the load of a petty freight
car in New England, and she makes her thousands
of miles across the Atlantic almost as quickly as
the average American freight car makes its baby
trip of 126 miles.
The unloading and loading of a great ship is
done in New York quite as quickly as on the other
side of the water. On one of her trips, the Berlin
arrived at her American terminus at 8 P.M. ; by i
o'clock P.M. of the following day, within less than
eight hours of daylight, she had discharged her
load of imports, shipped 1150 tons of coal, taken
on her cargo of exports, and sailed for England.
It certainly ought not to take over eight hours of
148 A GENERAL FREIGHT
daylight to load and unload a freight car. I have
seen thirty-ton coal cars loaded, in Boston, in less
than one hour.
Our total railroad freight revenues for the year
ending June 30, 1894, were $699,490,913, less than
$1.10 per ton for the 638,186,553 tons handled.
If the 1,205,169 cars belonging to the railroads
had made but two paying hauls a week in that
year, at $7.00 per car per haul, they would have
earned over $877,000,000, and an average load of
twelve tons, at an average rate of but 60 cents a
ton, would have produced $7.20 per car.
Is there anything so very wild in a plan that
leaves first-class freight at $1.20 a ton, second-class
at 80 cents, and the cheapest service at 40 cents a
ton ? Is there anything so very extravagant in the
statement that under the equitable rule of the
Post-office, with cars sent straight from shipping
point to destination over the most economical
route, at the highest economical speed, and un-
loaded and loaded in eight hours, it would be
possible for our freight equipment to earn an ample
revenue at rates of from $6 to $8 per haul per
car ? Is there really anything impracticable in
the scheme for a two-class freight system, with
general merchandise at $i a ton, and minerals at
twenty-five cents a ton, per haul ? Is there not,
indeed, every reason to believe that, after a very
brief experience under such a regime, there would
be an enormous increase in the net earnings both
of the railways and of the people, and in a short
AND PASSENGER POST. 149
time it would be possible to even lower these
rates.
The advantages of this reform ought, it seems to
me, to be patent to every one. Every station, and
every man at every station in the country, would
be on a par with every other as to passenger and
freight rates. Discriminations between individuals
and between places would be forever at an end.
The great cities would no longer grow at the ex-
pense of the intervening country. The -crowding
of men and women and little children into narrow
and dirty alleys, in order that they may be near
the great factories where they must labor, would
soon come to an end, for the factories would move
out into the open country, where land is less ex-
pensive, and where their operatives, enjoying some-
thing of God's green earth and clear sky, would do
better work and would get something of happiness
out of life. There would be no more rebates, no
more deadheads. Great armies of soliciting agents
would disappear. Freight stamps (for freight taxes
would be paid in advance) and baggage stamps
and passenger tickets would be on sale at drug
stores, hotels, and other convenient places, as or-
dinary postage stamps are to-day. Cut-rate ticket
offices would be abandoned. Speculation in rail-
way rates would cease, for the tariffs, once adopted
by the government, would be changed only after
due deliberation and with the full knowledge of
the whole people.
The adoption of this scheme and of a low cus-
150 A GENERAL FREIGHT
torn tariff would go far towards settling the trust
business. Combinations of producers would do
little harm if the consumer could supply his wants
from the farthest station, and from the smallest pro-
ducer, at the same freight rate as from the biggest
trust at the next railway station. It would be diffi-
cult to make a corner on coal, if the freight rate
from every station in the United States to every
other were not over $6.00 per carload of thirty
tons, and if every small coal miner in the country
were insured equal facilities with his big neighbor
in getting his product to market. But if at any
time there should be a coal combination that in-
cluded all the coal mines in the United States, then
we could join with other civilized governments in an
international transportation arrangement, after the
fashion of the International Post, under which we
could supply our wants from the ends of the earth.
The application of the postal principle to public
transportation, under the control of the Post-office,
would make the people once more masters both of
the political and the industrial situation. Coal
trusts and iron trusts all sorts of trusts, indeed,
would find it to their interest not to restrict, but to
increase, their outputs. It would not pay, under
such a system, to shut down factories, close up
mines, or to destroy farm products, as the old
Dutch monopolists did at one time in the East
Indies, with the intent of bringing about a scarcity
of the necessities of life and consequent high prices
and low wages.
AND PASSENGER POST. I$I
We hear much nowadays of over-production, but
it is all nonsense. We are not suffering from
over-production, but from under-distribution and
over-taxation, from laws and customs that fetter
trade and burden industry. We are suffering most
of all, however, I think, in this country, from a
system of managing our great post-roads under
which one man, the farmer of the taxes on say
5000 miles of these roads, may decree which out of
say a thousand cities and villages in his territory
shall prosper and which shall not, and which out
of say 10,000 individuals doing business in those
cities and villages shall make a living or shall be
reduced to beggary.
This world is filled with people, half clothed,
half fed, ill-sheltered from the summer's heat and
the winter's cold. These people are only too anxious
to find occupation, but law, custom, circumstances,
all too often deprive them of the opportunity, and
when the work is found it not infrequently hap-
pens that the workers are robbed of their reward
by men intrusted with governmental powers like
those now enjoyed by our railway kings. The
problem is how to abolish these cruel laws and
customs ; how to remove the obstacles, natural and
artificial, which separate the would-be laborer from
the would-be employer ; and, finally, how to secure
equality of rights and of privileges on our railways
and elsewhere for every human being. When all
are equally free to labor and to enjoy the products
of their labor, there will no longer be any cry of
152 A GENERAL FREIGHT
over-production on the one hand or of starvation on
the other.
I can think of nothing that would do so much to
bring about this happy state of things as the exten-
sion of the sphere of the Post-office over the general
business of public transportation. But of all the
benefits that will accompany the new regime, the
greatest perhaps is this : it will at once deprive
our railway corporations of their power to do evil,
and will make them public servants, dependent
for their corporate existence upon their perform-
ance of their public duties to the public satisfac-
tion. The consolidation of railway systems must,
I believe, continue until all our post-roads are both
owned and managed by the National Government.
The movement must, however, proceed step by
step ; first one road or system must be taken by the
government and then another. If, in the mean-
time, the New York Central or the Pennsylvania
gradually widens the sphere of its operations until
the one absorbs the other, the result will only be
for the public benefit. Let the government once
assume its legitimate function of determining, col-
lecting, and distributing transportation taxes and
there will be comparatively little trouble in solving
the rest of the railroad problem.
Take from the railway manager his imperial power
of giving passes and granting rebates ; his power
to discriminate between individuals and between
places ; subject him to the terms of a traffic con-
tract drawn up between himself and the National
AND PASSENGER POST. 153
Government, and he will no longer be able to cor-
rupt legislatures and bulldoze private citizens ; he
will no longer be able to build up one city and ruin
another. Under the new conditions, every con-
solidation would be for the public good as well as
for the advantage of the railroads. These consoli-
dations would lessen railway expenses and increase
business facilities. Government patronage, it is
true, would somewhat increase under the new
regime, but it would not increase anything like so
much as railroad patronage would diminish. The
patronage of such a ruler as President Roberts of
the Pennsylvania Railroad with his 100,000 sub-
ordinates is, I submit, an infinitely greater danger
to both our industrial and political liberties than
is or ever can be the patronage of the President of
the United States. Hundreds of ticket agents and
freight agents would be relieved of their present
unpleasant duties as deputy collectors of transpor-
tation taxes for private railroad corporations. The
remainder would serve as public servants, collect-
ing a tax so low and so simple that their work
would be a pleasure instead of a disagreeable
burden.
The postmen on the trains would be able, in
many cases, to attend to the baggage and parcels
business. Many of the country stations would
become post-offices, the postmaster being, at the
same time, the freight and express agent. This
would effect a large saving of moneys now paid for
the carriage of the mails to post-offices, and would
154 A GENERAL FREIGHT
facilitate the plan for the free distribution and
collection of mail matter in country districts.
" The highways of nations are the measure of
their civilization. Without roads there can be no
society, government, commerce, or intelligence.
In exact proportion to the abundance and excel-
lence of highways (and in exact proportion to the
cost of transportation on those highways) are the
exchanges of services between men, the communi-
cation of thought, the augmentation of wealth, the
growth of comfort, the development and the con-
solidation of the civilized state." l
" From a polyp up to man the increasing per-
fection of the circulating system marks the increas-
ing activity of life, the more perfect interdependence
of the various parts of the organization, a wider
range of sympathies, and an increasing ability to
dominate natural surroundings. From the savage
who lives without any interest in the rest of the
world, confined to his own horde, and wandering
through the trackless forests, up to the present
condition of society, with its iron roads, like
arteries carrying the material for social life where
it is called for, and with its telegraphs and tele-
phones extending like a network of nerves, bear-
ing prompt intelligence to the centres of all that
affects the parts, the history of the increasing
perfection of the means of transportation and
1 Report of the U. S. Committee on Pacific Railways, made
Feb. 19, 1869.
AND PASSENGER POST. 155
of communication, is the history of all human
advancement." *
The extension of the sphere of the Post-office to
cover the entire business of public transportation,
and the application of the cost of service principle
to the determination of rates is surely the next
great step in this advancement.
1 Westminster Review (slightly changed), Jan., 1871.
156 A GENERAL FREIGHT
CHAPTER V.
THE UNITED RAILWAYS OF AMERICA
VS.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
SINCE mankind were first welded into nations,
the Highway has always been the symbol of Gov-
ernment and THE OWNER OF THE HIGHWAY HAS
BEEN THE GOVERNMENT. This was true of the
ancient Oriental Empires; it was pre-eminently
true of the Roman Empire. Some incidental ad-
vantages may have accrued to the Roman subject
from the Roman Road, but its primary purpose was
to facilitate the movements of the Emperor's troops
and of the tribute exacted by those troops from the
Emperor's subjects. ' To the Oriental mind,"
says Trumbull, " a Road, the King's Highway,
included the idea of a kingdom planned and a
kingdom controlled. Again, it included the idea
of a Personal Sovereign, of a Sovereign whose Plan
is back of the Highway and whose Purpose is be-
fore it. In the earliest empire in history, the
symbol of Royal Greatness was Royal Road-Build-
ing. The ancient Oriental idea of a road, an idea
AND PASSENGER POST.
which still has large prominence in the East and
elsewhere, is of the Highway of the King. Roads
were originally built by the King, for the King,
and they were kept in repair or put in repair as the
King had need of them. Roads had their inciden-
tal advantages for the King's subjects, but only by
the King's grace." Trumbull's Studies of Oriental
Life, pages 223, 228.
The same thought is expressed in equally vivid
language by Henry D. Lloyd, in his study of the
modern Occident, entitled Wealth vs. Common-
wealth. " Ownership of the highways ends in the
ownership of every-thing and every-body that must
use the highways," and, in proof of this statement,
he recites the story of the great American trusts,
every one of which seems to have owed its quick
growth to the grace of some railway king. The
tendency of the system is obvious. " Grain," says
Mr. Lloyd, " is fated to go the way that oil, hard
coal, cattle, and meat have already gone. The
farmer may remain the nominal owner of his farm,
but he will be the real owner of nothing but the
paper title. First, the product of the farm, then
the farm. In America, rises the shadow of a coming
land ownership more concentrated, more cruel, with
the impersonal cruelty of corporate anonymity, than
the world has yet seen."
To the same purport is the following quotation
from the conservative New York Evening Post, to
the effect that the late manager of a certain railway,
and president of a joint traffic association had pre-
158 A GENERAL FREIGHT
sided at the birth of the mammoth steel trust, and
that it only broke up as a result of his death.
" A certain railway corporation was interested in
the [steel] rail-works at Scranton and another in
the Bethlehem works, while the Chicago roads were
naturally interested in the Chicago works. The
rail-makers showed the railroads the cost of the
rails, and the officers of these railroad-companies
added three dollars a ton for profits, thus establish-
ing the price. The deceased manager had the
most important part in fixing this policy and prac-
tice. His view was to allow a fair profit and to
distribute the orders among the existing works, so
that all could run moderately. ' ' It. It. Gazette,
March 5, 1897. And he succeeded. He pre-
vented the mills from running immoderately, and
he also prevented the railroads (outside the ring)
from getting rails at too moderate prices ; he like-
wise prevented the workmen in the rail mills from
earning immoderate wages. And, had he been in
active command, his decision as to the price of
rails would have been law, but he died. The prices
of rails, no longer controlled by his ALL-POWERFUL
HAND, fell almost at once and as a consequence of
the fall in price, there came, in a few short weeks,
orders for nearly 830,000 tons, orders to set idle
men at work making rails and to provide occupa-
tion for thousands of other idle men at laying
these low-priced rails on the National Highways.
Whether lower transport taxes will follow the use
of the lower-cost highways remains to be seen.
AND PASSENGER POST. I $9
" The King is dead, long live the King." The
successor of this fallen monarch of the West at his
coronation addressed his court in language of
which the following is a fair interpretation: The
business of the Association at Washington, known as
The Government of The United States of America,
is of some importance, but The Government of The
United Railways of America a certain traffic asso-
ciation is " quite as important to the stability of
credit, to the industries, and to the commercial
prosperity of the country. So far as I can, as
President, my best efforts will be given to carry
out the purposes for which this Association was
formed and with which I am in the heartiest
sympathy and accord." The Mail and Express,
March 3, 1897. But this language was modest com-
pared with his interview published in the New York
World, of April i, 1897, just after the Supreme
Court of the United States had declared the Gov-
ernment of The United Railways unconstitutional
and unlawful. On this occasion, the Lord of the
American Highways said bluntly that his business
of regulating the movements of persons and of pro-
duce on these Royal-Railed Highways had a
" more important bearing upon the return of pros-
perity a hundred times over than the legislation for
which this extra session [of Congress] had been
called." And he is right. The Iron Hand of the
Ruler of the National Highways, ever upon the
nation's pulse, regulating at his will the flow of
the nation's life-blood, has an infinitely greater in-
l6o A GENERAL FREIGHT
fluence upon the public convenience, the public
security, and the public prosperity than do the
acts of the Congress of the United States.
The relation of the two is well brought out in the
first of Joint Traffic Commissioner Blanchard's
articles on " Railway Pools, Their Equity and
Public Value," the article in which he compares
the taxes levied by the Government of The United
Railways and the Government of the United States.
During the years 1894-95-96, the gross amount of
taxes levied on the people by the Government of
The United States was $1,072,651,000; the trans-
port taxes levied for the same period, by The United
Railways, amounted to $3,408,200,000, or three
times as much.
Again, while the outstanding bonds of the United
States amount to but $847,364,460, the bonds of
The United Railways amount to $5,641,000,000,
about seven times as much. Legitimate and so-
called watered stocks Railroad Paper money
are roundly, at par, $5,000,000,000 more. The
interest on the United States debt is about $29,000,-
ooo; on The United Railway debt, about $2 5 2,000, -
ooo, and both are paid by the people. And the
Government of The United Railways surpasses the
Government of The United States as much in
the variety of taxes levied as in other character-
istics. " There are not less than two million
freight rates and passenger fares in this country,
applicable to Interstate Traffic," says Mr. Blanch-
ard, and who can enumerate the scores of millions
AND PASSENGER POST. l6l
of tariffs levied by our railway monarchs within the
different States ?
This mighty power, moreover, is rapidly concen-
trating itself in fewer and fewer hands. In its issue
of April 2, 1897, the Railway Age reported a certain
capitalist as saying that one third of the railway
mileage highway mileage of the United States
is now in one great railway pool controlled by a
voting trust, and that the basis of reorganization
will form a PROTECTION against any wholesale re-
duction of the Royal-Railed Highway taxes that
would have taken place under the Supreme Court
decision. The power to levy these highway taxes
upon the persons and produce of the country has
been taken away from freight agents and lodged
with the boards of directors and railroad presi-
dents. He might have added that, since the
tenure of office of these royal tax-collectors lay in
his Imperial hands, the taxes which they levied
were, in fact, decreed by his Imperial will. My
proposition is to take this Imperial power out of
his hands and to lodge it in the hands of the
United States Congress.
In the North American Review, of March, 1897,
James T. Wait speaks of the highway tariffs levied
by these gentlemen as follows: " There are some
cities and some divisions of the country which are
practically as much discriminated against as if we
had a system of protective tariffs between the
States. In many parts of the country the relation
of car-load to less than car-load rates is such that a
1 62 A GENERAL FREIGHT
large dealer is practically subsidized to the detri-
ment of his smaller competitors. In extreme cases,
there is a difference of 260 per cent, of the rate
and nearly the full value of the goods. The mul-
tiplicity of tariffs is astounding. On one road in
one pool of 502 miles of track, there were in
effect, October i, 1896, by actual count, 1605
distinct publications dignified by the name of
'tariffs,' and, in addition, numerous rate sheets
and circulars, some of which, like the Irishman's
'duck,' do not hold still long enough to be
counted. The yearly printing bill of one of our
large systems amounts to over $75,000, and their
printer has frequently $60,000 worth of type kept
standing in form for them. These tariffs posted,
as required by law, for the information of the' pub-
lic, are practically a sealed book. They are so in-
tricate that the ordinary man can make nothing out
of them."
As to the character of these railway magnates,
one of their number, M. E. Ingalls, writing in the
Engineering Magazine^ of July, 1896, said that
before the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act,
many of them had been insolent and lawless. For
a little while, they obeyed the law of 1887, but by
1895 they had become worse than ever. " If the
railway business of this country is to be conducted
in the future," said Mr. Ingalls, "as it was to an
alarming extent for, we will say, the two years end-
ing June 30, 1895, those of us engaged in this pro-
fession would lose the respect of ourselves and of
AND PASSENGER POST. 163
our fellow-citizens, and deservedly so. These I
know are strong words and harsh ones, but they
are true." There had been two grand causes for
these troubles: first, the inability of himself and
his fellow highway managers to exact sufficient
tribute from their subjects, and, secondly, their
perpetual disagreements as to a proper division of
the spoils. These troubles, however, were prob-
ably at an end. From the first day of the preced-
ing January, the highest possible taxes had been
most scrupulously exacted in all parts of the
country, and under the beneficent offices of the
Government of The United Railways, the spoils
would henceforth be fairly apportioned.
The advocates of the continuance of this railway
government are wont to lay great stress on the fact
that, in some parts of the country where the trans-
portation business is not yet pooled, there have
been some reductions in the Royal-Railed Highway
taxes in recent years. It is only just to these
gentlemen, however, to say that reductions in
railway rates have never been the result of regard
either for the welfare of the public in general or of
their own patrons in particular. Their invariable
rule has been and is to exact " All the traffic will
bear."
The spirit which controls them was clearly mani-
fested in the case of The Jerome Cotton Co., of St.
Louis vs. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Rail-
way, tried within the last two years before the
Interstate Commerce Commission.
164 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The distance from Eufala, Indian Territory, to
St. Louis, is 535 miles.
In 1889, with cotton at $50.62 a bale at St. Louis,
the rate was $3.00 a bale.
In 1889 to 1890, with cotton at $53.75 a bale at
St. Louis, the rate was $3.00 a bale.
In 1890-91, with cotton at $46.87 a bale at St.
Louis, the rate was $3.00 a bale.
In 1891-92, with cotton at $39.40 a bale at St.
Louis, the rate was $3.30 a bale.
In 1892-93, with cotton at $42.50 a bale at St.
Louis, the rate was $3.50 a bale.
In 1893-94, with cotton at $36.89 a bale at St.
Louis, the rate was $4.00 a bale.
In 1894-95, with cotton at $30.95 a bale at St.
Louis, the rate was $4.00 a bale.
The bale of cotton weighed 500 pounds. As
cotton went down in value, the transport tax went
up. This increase in the transport tax, moreover,
accompanied a large decrease in the cost of the
service to the railroad. The train which carried
but 550 tons in 1892, easily hauled 1000 tons in
18*95. The Vice-President and Manager of the
road stated that the two rules which guided them
in determining their highway taxes were to exact
all the traffic would bear, and to find a market for
the stuff. " Those are the things which guide us.
From that standpoint, any rate is reasonable under
which the traffic will move absolutely. It all
moves out every season. If it moves out, it must
be a reasonable rate."
AND PASSENGER POST. 165
If the highwayman leaves his victim his life, he
is a very reasonable highwayman.
Congressman Bell gave a striking instance of this
sweet reasonableness in his speech in Congress on
the Pacific Railways last winter. Seventeen sheep
pelts were carried 77 miles on a Colorado railroad.
The pelts sold for $13.86; of this the railroad took
$10, and left to the owner (?) $3.86.
In the case of the Colorado Iron and Fuel Co.
vs. The Southern Pacific Railroad, tried not long
ago before the Interstate Commerce Commission,
it was proved that the King of the Royal Highway
Pool of the Pacific Coast allowed this great iron
industry a concern employing 5000 men, having
a pay roll of $10,000 a day and a capital of $20,000,-
ooo to continue its existence only on condition
that it paid him, for a haul, mostly down grade,
1559 miles from Pueblo to San Francisco, on steel
rails, two and one third times, and on bar-iron,
three and one fifth times as much as was the trans-
port tax on similar products hauled 2418 miles
from Chicago and 3331 miles from New York, and
lifted up 5000 feet to the tops of the mountains.
The absurdity and gross injustice of the highway
taxation of our Royal Rulers was also clearly set
forth by George J. Kin del in the Evening Post, of
Denver, Col., of January 20, 1897. English crock-
ery is shipped to-day from Liverpool to Denver for
$1.12 per hundred, while from Trenton, New Jer-
sey, the tax is $1.53 per hundred. Both are carried
via the . . . Railroad to Denver. The Eng-
1 66 A GENERAL FREIGHT
lish product is carried 6000 miles, the American
2000 miles, yet the tax on the American crockery is
nearly forty per cent, greater than that levied on the
English. " For years," says Mr. Kindel, " I pur-
chased metallic bedsteads in England, not because
they were better or cheaper with the custom's tariff
added, but because I could save $75 a car in rail-
way tariffs," and then he goes on to speak of dis-
criminations between different sections of the
country similar to this railway discrimination in
favor of the foreigner against the citizen. On a
shipment of sixty tons of goods, made up of 1200
different articles put up in hundred-pound pack-
ages, the transport tax from Colorado Common
Points to the Pacific Coast is $3060. From the
Missouri River, five hundred miles farther, and in
the face of an up grade of 5000 feet, the tax on a
similar consignment to the Pacific Coast is but
$1407.60. Taking a car-load of first-class goods at
twelve tons, the tax for a similar service five car-
loads handled by shippers and by consignees
under my proposed bill and by the fastest trains,
would be $18 a car, $90 for the five cars, and it
would be the same whether the goods were shipped
from St. Louis or from Denver. The saving to
the producer and the consumer in the one case
would be over $1300, and in the other $2970.
The Government of the United Railways of
America The Joint Traffic Association of New
York completed its organization, November 19,
1895. The New York World, of Wednesday eve-
AND PASSENGER POST. \6?
ning, November 20, 1895, spoke of the birth of the
new Government of the country in the following
graphic language : "A Gigantic Trust is Born,"
" Competition Ended," " Freight Shippers Help-
less," " A Thousand Millions and all the Big Rail-
roads in the Deal."
" For years every commodity brought from the
great productive fields of the West and South to the
Eastern markets for consumption or export has
been obliged to pay TRIBUTE to the powerful rail-
road trust known as The Trunk Line Association.
By the organization of the New Joint Traffic Asso-
ciation, which was effected yesterday at the meeting
of the presidents and managers of more than fifty
railroad companies, and at which something like a
thousand million dollars of capital was represented,
the power of this great Trust was not only largely
increased, and the territory over which it can exer-
cise its power extended, but it has placed itself in
a position where it can levy a STILL MORE BURDEN-
SOME TAX UPON THE INDUSTRIES OF THE COUNTRY.
By the high rates which the POOLING ARRANGEMENT
heretofore in vogue has made possible, the enor-
mous quantities of wheat, corn, cotton, iron, and
other goods which have been shipped, have, in turn,
been obliged to pay this TAX to the railroad mo-
nopoly, and it is believed that when the railroad
managers have carried out the scheme just now in-
augurated, and have it well under way, they will be
able to make still greater extortions. In framing
the agreement which has been signed by the repre-
1 68 A GENERAL FREIGHT
sentatives of all the big trunk lines of the country,
its originators have been very careful to avoid any
allusion to the extension of the old pooling arrange-
ment, which it really amounts to, but say that the
purpose of the combination is to aid in fulfilling
the purposes of the Interstate Commerce Act
and to enable the various corporations in the
Trust to co-operate with each other, and, with
adjacent transportation associations, to establish
and maintain reasonable and just rates, fares,
rules, and regulations in state and interstate traf-
fic, and to secure greater economy in the man-
agement of the railroad systems of the country.
In other words, they want to make more money
out of the business by shutting out competition
and establishing firmer rates. In financial circles
to-day, the new Trust is the most interesting
and absorbing subject of discussion. It is re-
garded by railroad men as the most important
and radical move that has ever been made by the
railroad magnates of this country. The agreement
is to go into effect on January i, 1896, and will
continue for five years. Another meeting of the
managers is to be held on December i2th, when it
is expected that it will have received the ratifica-
tion of every company involved." Then, after
reciting the names of the signers, the author of the
article continues : " That all the other railroads
connected with the trunk lines in their revenue
systems will come into the agreement and ratify it,
there is said to be very little doubt, and when the
AND PASSENGER POST. 169
whole organization is complete the Pool will have
absolute control of the traffic over the largest and
richest portion of the country. The area affected
by the new association includes not only the whole
of New England, New York, and the Middle
States, but all the territory lying between the sea-
board and Chicago and St. Louis, the Lower
Mississippi Valley States and all the South Atlantic
and Gulf States. IN FACT, IT CAN LAY TRIBUTE
ON EVERY IMPORTANT TRANSPORTATION ROUTE IN
THE COUNTRY. The rates on IMPORTS AND EX-
PORTS of goods passing through all the great Atlan-
tic ports will be subject to the controlling influence
of the monopoly, and it will also govern the freights
on manufactured goods from New England, New
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, which are
destined for the great Western markets. In other
words, it is the intention of the managers of the
new pool to absolutely control both the east-bound
and the west-bound traffic of the country. The
provisions of the new agreement authorize a divi-
sion of competitive traffic, which is nothing more
or less than the old division of the spoils under
the trunk-line agreement. Another feature is the
abolition of independent agencies throughout the
country, and the establishment of joint agencies.
The joint association is to be run by a Board of
Control, which will be selected at the next meeting,
to be held December i2th. There will also be a
Board of Arbitration, consisting of three members,
who will decide all delicate questions that may
I/O A GENERAL FREIGHT
arise which cannot be settled by the Board of
Control."
Well - nigh two years have passed since this
United Railway Government was founded, and
they have been years of just such paralyzing stag-
nation as would inevitably follow the inauguration
of such a despotism. If, for the moment, there is
an apparent revival of prosperity, it is owing to a
combination of circumstances large crops in the
West and a failure of crops in the East and in the
Old World that cannot long continue. In any
case, the increased taxes levied upon industry by our
Railway Royalties will soon check the rising tide.
Their methods and their aims are well set forth
in the following paragraph from the New York
Times, of August 20, 1897: " The Board of Con-
trol of The . . . Association met yesterday at
143 Liberty Street. The rate situation the tax to
be levied on business and on travel was discussed,
and the general sentiment favored a stiffening and
maintaining of rates, because of the improved and
promising condition of affairs. Two sessions were
held, and there was entire harmony and a disposi-
tion to further the interests of the Association. On
the recommendation of the Northwestern lines, en-
dorsed by the Lake and Trunk lines, the Board
approved the increase, September ist, of the rate
on flour from Minneapolis, rail, lake and rail, from
17-^ cents a hundred to 22 cents." In other words,
the transport tax on flour sent from the overflowing
West to the hungry East, was increased about
AND PASSENGER POST. I /I
twenty-five per cent. The increase of the tax on
grain was put off till the next meeting of the Board.
This Royal Highway Board or shall we call it
Board of Royal Highwaymen which controls the
circulation of the life-blood of the American people,
accordingly met on the i6th of September, and de-
creed an increase of the tax on grain to 22-^ cents a
hundred the existing rate was 20 cents to go
into effect October i5th, and to continue at the
will of the Board. The nearer the East is to star-
vation, the higher is to be the transport tax on food
products. The nearer the approach of winter and
the colder the weather, the higher is to be the
transport tax on fuel. Whether we are to starve
or to freeze is to depend on the will of the manag-
ers, or THE MANAGER of our Royal-Railed High-
ways.
We have a striking exhibition of the Imperial
Power of this Highway Government in the case of
the Merchant's Excursions to and from New York
City, in August and September, 1897. During
certain portions of these months, certain non-
resident merchants living outside New England
and outside a hundred-mile zone of New York,
having been properly labelled, were granted the
privilege of a round trip to the Metropolis for two
thirds the usual tax. All other persons, though
travelling on the same trains, paid the regular tax.
The managers of these steel highways and those
whom they have ennobled are already the lords of
the fireside. They determine whether the homes
1/2 A GENERAL FREIGHT
of the multitude are to be lighted at night and on
what conditions. In his pamphlet on Trusts, dated
February, 1897, George Rice, of Marietta, Ohio,
draws a picture of the petroleum industry of the
United States which ought to arouse every citizen
to the dangers of the hour. After stating that the
paramount position of a certain company is entirely
due to railway discriminations, Me. Rice says that
his experience as an oil producer and refiner, and his
late investigations as to the prices of refined oils in
all parts of the country, conclusively establishes the
fact that, where competition does not exist, the
prices of refined oils are very high as compared
with the low prices of crude petroleum, and where
there is competition, the prices of the refined pro-
duct are reduced only so long as the competition
continues, and only to the competitor's customers.
" The average price for the best grade of oil that
from the Appalachian district or white-sand pools
at the wells, for the last five years, has been but
2.18 cents per gallon, while that of the inferior
grades the sulphur or Lima oils from Northwestern
Ohio has been but 1.28 cents. It costs but half
a cent per gallon to refine these oils, and not to
exceed half a cent per gallon more to pipe them to
the refineries, making a total average cost of the
refined product, at the point of shipment, of 2.83
cents. The best oil goes to the East and Middle
West; the South, Southwest, and Northwest are
compelled to take a poorer product at the same
price, because in these sections the greater railway
AND PASSENGER POST. 1 73
discrirnations have virtually wiped out all competi-
tion. Two thirds of the oil product of the United
States is exported, and the foreigner gets this two
thirds for the same amount of money that the
American pays for the remaining one third; in
other words, the price to the foreigner is but one
half that to the citizen.
" This trust determines at once what the con-
sumer pays for the finished product and what the
producer receives for the raw material. Its agent
determines the price of ninety-five per cent, of the
petroleum produced in the United States. In an
industry, representing in the value of its product
in 1896, the year's labor of 300,000 farmers, this
trust regulates the value of each man's labor at its
will. On the roth of November the agent was
kindly paying the oil producer for his wage in pro-
ducing a barrel of petroleum, $1.20; forty-eight
days later, on the 28th day of December, the oil
producer was receiving a wage of but ninety cents
a barrel, a cut of twenty-five per cent.
" The trust dictates to the rail lines the rates of
freight to be paid by its competitors while its own
rates are nominal. Its power over the rail lines is
such that they dare not reduce the mileage rate
allowed on its thousands of tank-cars. The Joint
Traffic Association has conformed to its wishes and
excepted petroleum from the rate-making control
of the Board of Managers, to be subject to special
contract. Throughout the territory of the South-
western Traffic Association, the rates between ter-
1/4 A GENERAL FREIGHT
minals are from 44 to 225 per cent, less than to
intermediate stations. Exclusive stop-over privi-
leges are, however, granted to this trust to stop and
divide up full-loaded tank-cars at one or more
stations en route, while its competitors are denied
this privilege. When a competitor, having his own
cars, asks for the privilege, he is politely informed
that it has been cancelled this although in the
office of the Interstate Commerce Commission it
stands uncancelled.
" From St. Louis to Hillendah, 1073 miles, the
oil rate is 55 cents a hundred, for a car of 24,000
pounds, $132 ; to Houston, eleven miles farther on,
the rate is but 33} cents, or $80 a car. The rate
for the shorter distance is $52 greater, or nearly
seventy per cent, greater than for the longer.
From Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, the rate is
$43.20 per car; to La Branch, nineteen miles from
New Orleans, $98.40." Trusts, George Rice.
The truth of Mr. Rice's statements as to the
poor product and high prices of this trust is corrob-
orated by the revolt of the merchants of Western
Massachusetts against the monopoly, inaugurated
early in January, 1898. Writing under date of
January, 3, 1898, the Springfield correspondent of
the New York World said that after numerous
complaints by their customers complaints that
had extended over many months upwards of a
hundred dealers had determined to free themselves
from the monopoly and to buy oil of independent
refineries, of whom they knew by experience better
AND PASSENGER POST. I?$
oil could be obtained at lower prices. " The
agents of the trust," says the writer, " have already
appeared in the field, and are doing their best to
frighten the men who are interested in the scheme.
One prominent local dealer says that a trust agent
approached him and said: ' See here, if you try to
fight the trust we will put the price down so low
that you cannot sell any oil. We will ruin you,
and then when any of you want to buy any more
oil from us, you '11 have to pay for it.' The ad-
vantage of the trust in this contest may be imagined
when we learn from Mr. Rice that one of the rail-
roads which serves a large portion of this district
has lately been discovered in making a discrimina-
tion in favor of this trust of no per cent." This
particular mode of discrimination was done by un-
derbilling, by which two cars of naphtha, contain-
ing 100,986 pounds, were carried at less than half
weight, or at 24,000 pounds per car, or 48,000
pounds total, or no per cent, discrimination.
Trusts ', Supplement No. i, January, 1898.
I had thought to close here my indictment of this
Royal Highway Government, but the following
editorial, published in the Republican Chicago
Tribune, October 12, 1897, so complements my
quotation from the Democratic New York World,
of November 20, 1895, that the use of the one
demands that of the other.
The Tribune's editorial discussed the aim of a
certain capitalist, saying :
" As the Tribune stated yesterday morning,
176 A GENERAL EX EIGHT
nearly all the great trunk lines in this country are
now practically controlled by a certain capitalist.
He owns, or has under his thumb, lines which
have a mileage of 44,000 miles. He will add to
them soon the . . . Railroad, the .
Railroad, and some others, which will make him
the MASTER of lines with a total mileage of 50,550
miles. These roads have less than half the total
mileage of the country, but they represent fully
half the total issues of stock and of bonds.
"It is not difficult to see the future dangers
which will grow out of the combinations which this
capitalist is making, combinations which will put
him into a position where he and the men who are
acting with him can dictate the prices of all pro-
ducts and other property in the United States.
He and they will become the possessors of un-
bounded power. That a proper use will be made
of it cannot be believed. When the great trunk
lines are brought under one management and one-
man power reigns supreme, the other roads will cut
no figure in the case. It will not be necessary to
get control of them. Lines not terminating at vital
points of trade on the seaboard, like New York and
San Francisco, will be at the mercy of the com-
bined trunk lines. The latter will be able to
dictate to them whatever terms they please.
" The Pennsylvania system is not in this finan-
cier's clutches, but the roads he has flank it on all
sides. It will be helpless without them. Then,
after having secured the mastery of the Railroad
AND PASSENGER POST. 177
systems of the United States, nothing will be easier
for him than to secure that of the Canadian roads,
and thus cut off all competition in that quarter.
The English capitalists who own them will be per-
fectly willing to join with him. The next step will
be to buy up the big lake vessels, and thus put an
end to lake competition. In getting hold of the
. . . of . . .he also got hold of the steam-
ship lines which ply between Savannah and New
York, Boston, and Philadelphia. He will get hold,
when the time comes, of the vessels which ply be-
tween Duluth, Chicago, and Buffalo. When he
has perfected his plans, he will be in a position to
fix railroad rates to suit himself. There will be no
competition whatever. WHATEVER HE CHARGES,
ALL WILL HAVE TO PAY.
" Then he can raise the rates on food products
so that Eastern consumers will have to pay more
for their food and Western producers will get less
for it. Manufacturers will get less for their goods
and purchasers will have to pay more for them.
Their losses will go to the railroads to pay divi-
dends on watered stock say rather to redeem in
human sweat and human blood railroad issues of
paper money. When the rates on corn, cotton,
wheat, and other products of the soil are advanced
in order to enable dividends to be paid on billions
of watered stock, the value of the farms on which
these products are raised will be forced down.
The owners of millions of fertile acres will not be
able to get for those acres what they now can.
178 A GENERAL FREIGHT
;< The value of all city property will also be at
his mercy. For it will be in his power to build up
one city and to pull down another. If he chooses,
he can blight the trade of a city. He can kill its
manufactures. He can thus reduce its population
and depreciate the value of its realty.
" What will the people do when he puts on the
screws ? Probably nothing at first. For he will
move slowly. The first advances in rates will be
hardly noticeable say only twenty-five per cent.
Then there will be further advances, and the
people will begin to complain. At first they will
appeal to Congress. But what good will that do ?
A combination which represents something like five
billions of stocks and bonds (and which with but
the aid of a printing-machine can make five billions
more) will have unbounded resources for purposes
Of CORRUPTION. IT WILL BUY UP ALL THE CON-
GRESSMEN IT NEEDS. It will seek to get control of
the press which denounces it, and, in most cases,
it will succeed.
"All the agencies on which the people rely for aid
and advice will be in the hands of the enemy. But
this capitalist and his allies will not have money
enough to buy the people themselves. When they
see that they have been betrayed, and that a rail-
road octopus has them in its tentacles THERE WILL
BE WILD WORK. TREACHEROUS REPRESENTATIVES
WILL BE DEALT WITH AS THEY DESERVE; BUT THE
FORMS OF LAW WILL NOT BE OBSERVED. There
will be a short, sharp contest between the few who
AND PASSENGER POST. 179
are fleecing the people and the many who are being
fleeced. In that strife the former will fare ill.
and his associates should bear that in
mind, and should be careful how they provoke a
conflict which can end only in their total over-
throw. They should not give their unbounded
and insufferable lust of power and greed of gain
too free a rein or they will be confronted by an
infuriated people.
"As for the people, however, the wisest thing they
can do is to use an ounce of prevention while it is
yet time, and check up this capitalist and his like
before they can go any farther on the road they are
pursuing."
One other witness remains to be heard on this
great question the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion and its report of 1897 reveals a state of de-
moralization in the public transportation business
of the country which can hardly have been sur-
passed at any stage of our history. As to import and
export rates, since the decision of the Supreme Court
in the Texas and Pacific case, March, 1896 (162,
U.S.), the rate of railway charges on imported traffic
has been made and changed at the will of the car-
rier, without regard to inland rates, discriminations
or preferences, and in disregard of any legal require-
ment to charge the same rate on import traffic to
all persons, and a similar condition exists in export
traffic.
Taking sugar as an illustration, on a train-load
of eleven cars, one of New Orleans sugar, and a
180 A GENERAL FREIGHT
car each of sugar from China, Austria, Germany,
England, and a half-dozen other countries of vary-
ing distances, under the act, as now declared, the
rail rate would be the same on no two cars of the
train. Testimony before the Commission shows
that, while it is not a profitable rate in the opinion
of the Commission, it is clearly a profitable rate in
the opinion of the managers of the railways one
hundred pounds of sugar can be moved between
New Orleans and San Francisco for about fifty
cents. The [published] rate from San Francisco
to New Orleans is sixty-five cents, and it is some-
times carried for less. Probably with no intention
of carrying any, the rate from New Orleans to San
Francisco is $1.65. Note, please, that the trans-
port rate on sugar carried across the continent is
but half a cent per pound, while the railroad tax for
the haul of U. S. mail-bags, for average trips of
less than 450 miles is eight cents a pound.
But the point of special interest to us in this sugar
business is the fact that although the rates on these
eleven cars, from New Orleans to San Francisco,
may each differ from the other, the through rates
land and water added together from the place of
the origin of the sugar to its destination are practi-
cally the same, and this although the distances
may vary from 500 miles, New Orleans to Cuba, to
twenty times that distance, New Orleans to the
ports of China. This custom of uniform through
rates adopted by our international land and water
carriers not only affords a most powerful argument
AND PASSENGER POST. l8l
in favor of my scheme of uniform rates within
national boundaries, it surely foreshadows the
formation of an international transportation union
with uniform rates between any two stations in the
civilized world. /. C. Report, page 8.
As to export rates, " The decision in the Import
Rate Case has been generally accepted by the
roads as exempting from the operation of the law
all of the traffic which is shipped for export. As
a consequence, during a greater part of the year, a
preference of five cents a hundred has been en-
joyed in the transportation of corn for export over
that designed for consumption by our own people.
Provisions have been and are transported by rail
from the Missouri River to New York and thence
by steamer to Liverpool at 45^ cents per hundred
pounds, of which rate the railroads received 38^
cents and the steamship 6f cents per hundred
pounds, while traffic identical in weight, quality,
and value, and carried on the same trains from the
point of origin to New York, but which was for
domestic consumption, was required to pay 53^
cents per hundred. Thus the export traffic was
carried through to Liverpool, including the ocean
haul, for 8 cents per hundred less than was ex-
acted for the carriage to New York of like traffic
for domestic use. The precise amount of dis-
crimination made by the railroads against our own
people in this case was fifteen cents per hundred
pounds, which on a single shipment amounted to
several thousand dollars." On a train-load of
1 82 A GENERAL FREIGHT
1800 tons, such as are said to be hauled at times
over the New York Central, such a discrimination
would amount to $5400.
As an illustration of the lawlessness of our traffic
managers in determining transport taxes, the Com-
mission publishes the following letter from a promi-
nent Chicago shipper, dated June 5, 1897:
" Hon. Wm. M. Morrison, President Interstate
Commerce Commission.
" DEAR SIR:
" Referring to the Interstate Commerce law, a
representative of one of the leading freight lines
from the East to Chicago called this morning to
solicit our business, and, as an inducement offered
us 25 per cent, off the regular rates. We asked
him if this was not violating the United States
Commerce law. He said it certainly was. This
is a sample of what has been done for a long
period, and what is being done to-day. What is a
firm to do who will not violate the law ? Adhering
to it costs us thousands of dollars per annum. We
are confident that there are many, many reputable
houses in Chicago who are suffering on account of
their strong desire to be law-abiding citizens.
Violators of the law are in a position to get control
of more than their share of business.
;< Yours truly."
I. C. Report, 1897, page 58.
And these railroad managers show an equal dis-
regard of the law in their passenger traffic. Ninety-
AND PASSENGER POST. 183
five per cent, of the " scalped " passenger tickets
sold at a discount from the published rates, are
said to be bought direct from the agents of railroad
companies. Testimony, George McKenzie before
Senate I. C. Committee; see N. Y. Sun, January
15, 1898.
The decision of the Supreme Court in the Freight
Bureau Cases, 167 U. S., 479, rendered May 24,
1897, denied to the Commission the authority to
require carriers not to exceed charges found reason-
able and just. As a result " Carriers by all-rail
lines from the West to the Eastern seaboard, doubt-
less thoroughly informed of the immunity from re-
strictive regulation conferred upon them by this
decision, increased the long existing rate of 20
cents a hundred on grain, and grain products from
Chicago to New York to 22-J cents on October 15,
1897. The rate had been 20 cents per hundred
since February 4, 1895, except for about three
weeks between June 15 and July 8, 1895, when it
was as low as 15 cents. Similar changes also took
effect on grain to other eastern ports, and rates from
the many stations taking percentages of the Chi-
cago rate were similarly affected. A like increase
of 2-J- cents was made on October 31 last in the all-
rail grain rate from St. Paul and Minneapolis. A
statement prepared in the office of the Joint Traffic
Association and filed in a pending case, shows that
during the year 1896 the all-rail lines brought from
and through Chicago and various other junctions to
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore
1 84 A GENERAL FREIGHT
1,482,370 tons, or 2,964,740,000 pounds of grain,
flour, and mill stuffs. An advance of 2\ cents per
hundred pounds in transportation charges applied
on such tonnage amounts to an addition to the
railway revenues of $741,185, and to an added
burden of the same amount upon the farm and
mill products carried only by those lines via or
from Chicago and such other junctions to the sea-
ports mentioned." /. C. Report, page 90.
The decision of the Supreme Court in the Troy
Case, 168 U. S., rendered November 8, 1897, de-
clared that railroad competition may create dis-
criminating circumstances and conditions under
the fourth section, and thereby justified greater
charges for the shorter haul. ' ' Within five days
from the reading of its opinion by the Supreme
Court, the Trans-Missouri Bureau which appears
to be doing business as the lineal descendant of the
Trans-Missouri Freight Association declared an
illegal association by the Supreme Court filed
schedules raising the rates to intermediate points
over 100,000 square miles of territory." A similar
resuk has been effected in other cases by enor-
mously reducing the rates between terminals and
leaving the rates for the shorter hauls to interme-
diate stations from two to three times as much as
for the longer hauls between the terminals. ( /. C.
Report, 1897, pages 43, 91.)
But of the various railway methods for picking
the pockets of the public railway shareholders as
well as those who use the railways perhaps the
AND PASSENGER POST. 1 8$
most sinister is that practised by the so-called
"belt lines" in the large cities of the West.
These belt lines were originally designed and used
for the transfer of cars between Eastern and West-
ern roads that had no connection with each other's
rails, and the tax exacted for the service, one dol-
lar and upwards according to the work performed,
was perhaps within reason. The formation of
Union depots, the consolidation of railway systems
and the junction of the various lines terminating in
these cities have, however, made this switching
service practically unnecessary, and according to
this report, the principal function of the belt lines
of Chicago at present seems to be to enable their
managers to hold up all produce that comes from
the West for Chicago consumption until it has paid
them a uniform tax of four dollars a car, and to
allow no produce to pass through Chicago to the
East until it has paid either to one belt line or
another a tax amounting on an average to ten
dollars a car. As to whether these taxes are levied
on Eastern produce bound for Chicago and the
West does not appear, but it is altogether prob-
able.
In some cases the traffic comes to Chicago
from the West by a line whose rails intersect those
of an Eastern line by which the traffic is to go
forward to the seaboard. In such cases it is
entirely practicable for the Western line itself to
deliver the traffic to the Eastern carrier, and that
is the most natural and least expensive way to
1 86 A GENERAL FREIGHT
effect such a delivery. But instead of this the
traffic is turned over to a belt line on the outskirts
of Chicago, and a tax of four dollars a car is levied
ON THE EARNINGS OF THE WESTERN LINE for the
delivery of the car to any junction point on the belt
road. This tax, be it noted, is four times the old
switching tax of one dollar, and where a necessary
service is performed, the Commission says that
it fully pays for that service. An arrangement is
made, however, with some of the lines running east
of Chicago under which the Belt Line receives
eight per cent, of the division of the through rate
for the haul from Chicago to the seaboard on all
the traffic which the Belt Line delivers to the East-
ern carrier. On grain this amounts to about six
dollars on an average car-load. The total is ten
dollars a car. /. C. Report, 1897, pages 52,
53-
In railroad circles this is called a " double
cross." The term is appropriate. The Belt Line
seems to be a very convenient machine for crucify-
ing at once the ordinary railway shareholder and
the public. The number of car-loads of grain re-
ceived at Chicago during the calendar year 1897 was
329,618. If all of these cars were destined for the
East and were subjected to this ten-dollar tax, the
total of the needless burden thus assessed upon
the public by the Chicago Belt Lines amounted to
$3,296,180. Even if the cars went no farther than
Chicago and were mulcted to the tune of but four
dollars a car, the total tax on the earnings of the
AND PASSENGER POST. 187
Western roads amounted to the handsome sum of
$1,318,472.
The next step in the process of transferring the
essential functions of the National Government to
the Joint Traffic Association and to its imperial
Master is to be the legalization of railway pools by
Congress. The decision of the Supreme Court in
the Troy Case gave to our private railway managers
practically absolute control of communities between
terminals. The ratification of the pooling decree
now before the United States Senate would give
them equal power over the terminals.
And this proposed pooling of the freight traffic
of the country would be as detrimental to the
ordinary railway shareholder as to the general
public. Its effects can be easily determined by a
study of the passenger traffic of the country where
pooled rates have prevailed almost from the birth
of the railway. The first report of the New Haven
Road congratulated its stockholders on the con-
summation of pooling arrangements with the com-
peting steamboat lines on Long Island Sound, and
on the prospect that after a little no man in
Southern Connecticut would be able to live in one
town and to earn his living in another except at
their will. And they carried out their scheme of
raising passenger rates and of maintaining those
rates, with the result that in many cases it actually
cost more to take a trip on this road in 1897 than
it did in 1850. The New Haven Road has pros-
pered, it is true, in spite of its restrictions upon
1 88 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the life of the State it was chartered to serve, and
doubtless because the burdens which it placed upon
the traveller, heavy as they were, were lighter than
those levied elsewhere.
As a rule, however, these pooled taxes upon
travel, taxes nearly always equal to the value of an
average day's labor, for an hour's journey to and
from a man's home, and in some cases much
higher, as a rule these pooled passenger rates have
had a most disastrous result on passenger revenues.
" Certainly of the lines west of Chicago and prob-
ably (with one exception) of the lines west of
Buffalo and Pittsburgh, there is not a single road
but what conducts its passenger traffic at a loss."-
" Railroading under Present Conditions," . jR.
Review , December 18, 1897.
And what is true of the Western roads is equally
true of probably the majority of the roads of the
East. Taking a particular instance, the New Eng-
land Road, we find that its passenger revenues were
so low at the beginning of the year 1897 that even
between two such cities as Hartford and New-
Britain, having populations of 75,000 and 25,000
respectively, it seemed doubtful if it would pay to
maintain the tracks. But a little later a great
change took place. The competition of a trolley
line forced the monopoly to increase its service
and to reduce its pooled rates by fifty per cent.,
and forthwith the traffic almost quadrupled, the
revenues doubled, and the passenger traffic became
immediately remunerative. If the railroad system
AND PASSENGER POST. 189
of the United States has not been absolutely ruined
in recent years it has been because freight rates
have been so reduced by the competition of rail-
road with railroad and of railroad routes with water
or with combined water and rail routes as to have
permitted an expansion of business and a corre-
sponding expansion of revenues.
There are probably no freight trains in this
country more profitable than the i8oo-ton through
grain trains of the New York Central, on which
the competition of the Erie Canal has forced down
the rates, Buffalo to New York, to less than eighty
cents a ton. But although the competitive through-
freight traffic, with its comparatively low rates,
may be prosperous, it is very doubtful if as much
can be said of the pooled way traffic. There was a
reduction in the gross earnings of the New Eng-
land Road in the year 1896-97, as compared with
the previous year, of about $707,000, and, says the
report of 1897, sixty per cent, of this loss was due
to the falling off of local traffic on which the
pooled tax levied on the movements of produce
averaged about three times the competitive tax on
through produce.
But whatever may have been the effect of compe-
tition in the past, the time has now come when the
business of our Royal-Railed Highways must be
pooled. Only so can these highways be managed
as a uniform network in the interests of the general
traffic. And this railway pool must be managed
by the National Government. The man or the as-
A GENERAL FREIGHT
sociation that manages this pool will be the Gov-
ernment. I propose the pooling of the railways
under the United States Post-office.
Carroll D. Wright suggested this as a solution of
our railroad problem in his notable address on
" The Chicago Strike," of June, 1894.
The Chicago strike is epochal in its influence, he
said, because it emphasizes the claim that there
must be some legislation which shall place railroad
employees on a par with railroad employers in con-
ducting the business of transportation, so far as the
terms and conditions of employment are concerned ;
because the events of that strike logically demand
that another declaration of law and of the prin-
ciples of the federal government shall be made; a
declaration that all wages paid as well as charges
for any service rendered in the transportation of
property, passengers, etc., shall be reasonable and
just. " It has emphasized the power of the federal
government to protect its great interests in the
transportation of the mails."
Personally, he added, he was opposed to the
government management of the railroads, but if it
came, it would come because of a great necessity,
and good citizens should have no fear. When it
came, moreover, it would be, not at the demand of
the labor involved in carrying on the work of trans-
portation, but " at the demand and in the interest
of the railroads and of the shippers," and the move-
ment would be most seductive.
The demand would be that the government
AND PASSENGER POST. 19 1
should take charge of the roads not purchase
them should take charge of the roads and out of
the proceeds of the transportation business guar-
antee to the existing stockholders a small but
reasonable dividend. And this seductive move-
ment would command the support of the conserva-
tive men of the country, of the stockholders
themselves.
At my request, a declaration of law, formulated
in accordance with these suggestions of Mr. Wright,
was offered in the House of Representatives at
Washington, at the opening of Congress, December
8, 1897, by Congressman N. D. Sperry, of Connec-
ticut, and was referred to the Post-office Commit-
tee. Its title is "An Act for the Establishment
of a National System of Post-Roads and for the
Extension of the Post-office Department to Cover
the Entire Business of Public Transportation."
This Bill will, I trust, prove so seductive that it will
command the support not only of the ordinary rail-
way stockholder and the ordinary shipper but of
all classes.
It will command the support of the ordinary rail-
way investor because it gives him the Government
guaranty of a certain and some persons think a
high return for the public service rendered in build-
ing the railway. The value of the stocks and
bonds held by our various financial institutions,
savings-banks, insurance companies, trust com-
panies, etc., will be no longer subject to the wiles
of the speculator.
1 92 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The railway employee will vote for this bill be-
cause it secures to him steady employment, with
fair wages and frequent payments for a short day's
service. The rest of the community, the shipper
and the consignee, the producer and the consumer,
the workman and the employer, will demand its
enactment because it makes the tax on business
and on travel low, uniform, stable, and places the
determination of all transport taxes in the hands of
the representatives of the whole people.
The following is a brief summary of this new
declaration of law and of the principles of our
federal government.
Recognizing the fact that the management of our
Royal-Railed Highways is a matter of public con-
venience, of public prosperity, of public security,
a matter of the highest National importance, this
bill provides that these Roads long designated
Post-Roads shall be brought under the manage-
ment of the Post-office, and that the rates for
transportation on these Post- Roads shall be deter-
mined on the Postal principle.
The Interstate Commerce Commission is made a
part of the Postal Department, and the Consoli-
dated Department is to consist of the Postmaster-
General and ten associates, including the Interstate
Commerce Commissioners. The Postmaster-Gen-
eral is to be the head of the Department, and each
of his ten associates is to be the head of a postal
division corresponding to one of the ten groups
into which the railway system of the country has
AND PASSENGER POST. 193
been divided by the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion. Each of these ten postal divisions is to be
divided into as many postal districts as there are
states and territories in such division, and each of
these postal districts is to have a postal director
who shall be responsible for the postal business
within his district. Where, in the judgment of the
Postal Department, the successful management of
the business requires more than one Postal Direc-
tor in a state or territory, such state or territory is
to be divided into two or more postal districts,
each of which is to have its duly appointed postal
director.
The Postal Department the Postmaster-General
and his ten associates are authorized, in behalf of
the United States, to take possession of the various
railroads post-roads and other transport agen-
cies needed in the proposed service, and to guar-
antee to their owners an annual return on their
securities equal to the average annual return paid
during the seven years ending June 30, 1897.
Temporary contracts may be made for the use of
any railroad or other transport agency found by
the Department to be a convenience or necessity
in its business; such contracts to secure to the De-
partment the complete control of the various
services and to cover terms not longer than three
years. Within five years from the passage of the
bill all the existing railroads in the United States
required for the use of the Post-office are to be
under its permanent management.
13
IQ4 A GENERAL FREIGHT
In the case of railroads or other transport agencies
that have only met the interest on their bonds
during the seven years ending June 30, 1897, the
government is to guarantee the continued payment
of the stated interest, and these bonds are to be
considered as representing the value of the proper-
ties. Where railroads and other transport agencies
taken possession of by the Postal Department have
not more than paid expenses during the five years
prior to June 30, 1897, the Department is to ascer-
tain what it would cost to reproduce such proper-
ties, and the Secretary of the Treasury is to issue
2\ per cent, bonds payable forty years from their
date to the holders of the bona-fide securities
representing such properties, pro rata.
The securities on which dividends or interest
are guaranteed by the United States Government
are to be duly registered, and, on due notice, the
holder of such securities is to have the privilege of
converting the same into 2-j- per cent, forty-year
Government bonds, the securities thus converted
to be duly accounted for and cancelled.
If at any time after June 30, 1897, and before it
is taken under the control of the Government, the
value of any railroad or other transport agency be
diminished by the sale or assignment of any prop-
erty belonging to such railroad or other transport
agency, the value of the property thus sold or
assigned is to be ascertained by the Postal Depart-
ment, and its aggregate amount is to be substracted
from the aggregate amount of the value of such
AND PASSENGER POST. 195
road or other transport agency as represented by
the par value of its different securities; the divi-
dends or interest guaranteed by the Government
are then to be estimated on the balance and to be
divided pro rata among the holders of the different
securities.
These provisions are not to cover the securities
of car-trusts or similar associations, as it is intended
that the Government shall either purchase or man-
ufacture its equipment.
The railway employee is to be paid at least as
often as once every two weeks for a service of
forty-eight hours a week and at fair wages. Ap-
pointments are to be made according to civil-service
rules.
All transport tolls are to be prepaid, and, except
in the case of infants in arms and certain public
officials, everybody is to pay the same fare for the
same service. With these exceptions and except
in the case of Government supplies and Govern-
ment publications, there are to be no passes or
rebates or reductions in tolls.
The transfer of funds between the Postal Depart-
ment and the United States Treasury is to be
made through agents of the Treasury to be located
in the same towns as the various Postal Directors.
The Passenger Post includes a Local, Express,
and Fast Post.
The Local Post includes railway trains stopping
at all stations, and trains stopping within average
distances of fifteen miles.
196 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The Express Post includes trains scheduled to
stop within average distances of fifteen to forty
miles, and to run at a speed of not less than thirty
miles an hour.
The Fast Post includes trains stopping for pass-
engers within average distances of not less than
forty miles, and scheduled to run at a speed of not
less than forty miles an hour.
Railway passenger cars are classified as Ordinary
and as Palace cars, and the fares are as follows:
By Local Post, Ordinary cars $ .05 per trip.
" Palace " $ .25 " "
By Express Post, Ordinary cars... $ .25 " "
" Palace " ... $1.00 " "
By Fast Post, Ordinary cars $1.00 " "
" " " Palace " $5.00 " "
These fares are only for continuous trips in one
direction.
No stop-overs are allowed.
Travellers beyond the run of the car or train of
departure will be provided with the necessary
transfers.
The additional tax for the use of sleepers will be
as follows:
PER NIGHT OR
FRACTION THEREOF.
Tourist's cars, Upper Berth $ .25
" Lower " $ .35
Palace " Upper " $ .75
" Lower " $1.00
AND PASSENGER POST. 197
There will be no free baggage, except such as the
passenger may be allowed to carry with him in the
passenger car. The rate per piece of baggage, one
hundred weight and under, will be five cents each
per trip of the owner; above one hundred and not
over two hundred, ten cents, etc. The rate on
bicycles will be five cents each per trip of owner.
Parcels are to be cared for in stations for the first
24 hours for one cent each; after the first 24 hours,
ten cents each for each additional 24 hours or frac-
tion thereof. With arrangements for the tax on
special trains and cars, this will cover the entire
passenger schedule of the whole country.
The proposed Zone of Travel by the United
States Post may be fairly styled The Zone of Nec-
essity. In theory, this zone is limited as to dis-
tance, even for a five-cent fare, only by the extent
of the transport system of the United States Post-
office. International conventions will soon, I
trust, extend it to include the transport systems of
Mexico and of Canada.
In practice, the only limit to any continuous trip
in one direction will be the limit of necessity. If
the Boston traveller can make the necessary con-
nections by the comparatively slow service of the
Local Post, his five-cent fare will take him through
to any station in the United States at which his
train stops, even to the Golden Gate.
It will probably be necessary, however, in order
to altogether prevent speculation in transfer checks,
to limit their use to the day of their date, and I
198 A GENERAL FREIGHT
have so provided in my Bill. Railroad conductors
are to give their entire attention to the running of
their trains. Regular tickets are to be deposited
in receiving urns at the station of the traveller's
departure, as is the case to-day with the New Eng-
land electrics. The traveler beyond the run of
the train of departure will receive a transfer when
he purchases his regular ticket, and this transfer
colored red, white, or blue to indicate the service
used and stamped with the date of the purchase of
the regular ticket this transfer will pass the travel-
ler as far as the run of the car or train on which he
may be seated at midnight of the day of his de-
parture. Local transfers will confine the bearer to
the use of local services. Express transfers will be
good on both express and local services, while fast
transfers will entitle the traveller to his choice of
the services of the Post-office.
This necessary limit in the use of transfers will
probably make a Continental trip on a five-cent fare
rather difficult, but a five-cent traveller will never-
theless be able to go some hundreds of miles by the
local postal service of the country on a single fare,
if he can afford the time to make a long journey
by that service. Time, however, is money; it is
more than money. Time is life, and the time saved
by the use of the Fast and the Express Post,
together with their low rates, will ensure the em-
ployment of these services in long-distance travel.
The comparative slowness of a service making fre-
quent stops will so tax the time of the traveller that
AND PASSENGER POST. 199
he will seldom use the Local Post save for very
short journeys. But short journeys will be the
rule, long journeys the exception. The demands
of affection, the necessity of earning a livelihood
will always confine the ordinary movements of
mankind within very narrow limits, probably to the
use of local public services. Measured by distance,
the average five-cent trip will, probably, be less
than ten miles; measured by time, I doubt if the
single trip of the average traveller, including all
the different services, will be over one hour or over
an half hour by local services. The average rail-
way trip of to-day in the United States is less than
twenty-five miles, and it can occupy hardly more
than one hour.
The proposed tolls, ten cents the round trip by
Local Post, fifty cents by Express, and two dollars
by Fast Post these tolls will tie the average family
quite close enough to the disadvantages of its native
heath. A five-cent fare ten cents a round trip
is a ten per cent, tax on the dollar-a-day income,
which is all that the average Massachusetts farmer
has received for his labor of superintendence and
manual toil for the last ten years, and on such
workers as the Anthracite coal-miners, ' ' who work
for ninety cents a day, and except on the ' boom
curves ' of business may get work less than half the
time," on such workers this tax of ten cents a
round trip is nearer a twenty per cent, income tax.
Yale Review, May, 1897, page 64, and Novem-
ber, 1897, page 307. This proposed local toll is
20O A GENERAL FREIGHT
certainly all that the average human being should
be called upon to bear. Experience will soon de-
monstrate, I believe, the practicability of reducing
this toll, by at least fifty per cent., while it will
also be found possible to consolidate the Express
and Fast Post, both in passenger and freight ser-
vice, and to adopt the Express rate for the consoli-
dated service.
Had this proposed scheme been in operation, the
recent troubles in the coal regions (referred to in
The Yale Review of November, 1897) could not
have occurred. At the very time when some poor,
half-starved miners were shot in a riot in Pennsyl-
vania, there were quantities of fruit in California,
decaying for lack of hands to gather it. Had
these poor fellows been able to get to that work
they would be alive to-day, and the whole country
would be the richer for their existence. The
writer of the Review article says that these miners
are kept on hand like so many surplus cattle to
meet any extra demands of the business, and the
managers bluntly say that it is necessary every once
in a while to shoot some of them.
A mine manager of twenty years' experience
said : " The truth is, that the time came when
somewhere hereabouts we had got to do some
shooting. It could not be put off much longer."
The question was put to him, " When will you have
to do some more shooting ? " The reply was, " In
hard times it is likely to come at any moment."
The object of this scheme is to prevent the re-
AND PASSENGER POST. 2OI
currence of such fearful tragedies. It is cruel to
tie men to the soil and then to shoot them when
they are hungry. I would break these bonds,
would widen the opportunities for every human
being to get a living. The wealth of a country is
in its humanity.
Arthur M. Wellington goes so far as to advocate
the extension of the system of uniform rates not
only from station to station, but from door to door.
" For it is evident," he says, " that as respects
freight traffic, rates must, in the long run, be made
equal not simply from station to station, but from
the door of the consignor to the door of the con-
signee," and a little further on he suggests the use
of free omnibuses between the different stations
and the homes of the people, in order to secure a
similar equality of passenger traffic. Wellington,
Economic Theory of Railway Location, pages 54,
197.
The adoption of this scheme will be one long
step toward the embodiment of the thought of this
eminent railway authority in law.
LETTER AND PARCELS POST.
Postal cards and letters up to one ounce in
weight, and parcels not over one pound in weight
the size and shape of cards, envelopes, and of
parcels to be determined by the Department are
to be collected and delivered within the limits of
the ordinary postal delivery for one cent. On
202 A GENERAL WEIGHT
letters over one ounce in weight, the postage shall
be one cent for each additional ounce or fraction
thereof.
On parcels over i pound and not over 5 pounds,
the postage is to be 5 cents.
On parcels over 5 pounds and not over 10 pounds,
the postage is to be 10 cents.
On parcels over 10 pounds and not over 30 pounds,
the postage is to be 15 cents.
On parcels over 30 pounds and not over 60 pounds,
the postage is to be 20 cents.
On parcels over 60 pounds and not over 100
pounds, the postage is to be 25 cents.
With an additional 5 cents for each additional
20 pounds, up to an amount to be determined by
the Department.
These parcel rates are to include baggage, bicy-
cles, books, newspapers, and all kinds of merchan-
dise not of a deleterious character. Everything
sent by letter and parcels post is to be forwarded
by the fastest service within the control of the
Department.
THE FREIGHT POST.
Freight is to be classified as "Box-Car" and
"Open-Car" freight, and as "Car-load" and
" Less than Car-load " freight.
The term "Box-Car" freight is to cover all
freight carried in Box-cars or under shelter.
The term "Open-Car" freight is to cover all
freight carried on Open-cars or without shelter.
AND PASSENGER POST. 203
The term " Car-load " covers all freight loaded
and unloaded by shippers and consignees.
The term "Less than Car-load" covers all
freight handled by Postal employees.
Freight is also to be classified as Local, Express,
and Fast Freight.
The time for loading and for transportation is to
be as follows:
Local Freight.
Time for loading by the Department " Less
than Car-load Freight," 48 hours.
Time for loading by shippers' " Car-load "
freight, 8 hours, of daylight.
Time for transportation, for distances not ex-
ceeding 100 miles, 24 hours.
For each additional 150 miles or fraction thereof,
24 hours.
Express Freight.
Time for loading by the Department " Less than
Car-loads," 24 hours.
Time for loading by shippers ''Car-loads, 8
hours, of daylight. Speed, 200 miles a day.
Fast Freight.
Fast freight may be forwarded by passenger
trains and will, in all cases, be forwarded by the
fastest freight service within the control of the
Department.
The time for loading fast freight both by the
Department and by shippers, will be 8 hours, of
daylight.
2O4 A GENERAL EX EIGHT
The time for transportation, for each 300 miles
or fraction thereof, will be 24 hours.
DEMURRAGE.
Shippers and consignees will be allowed 8 hours
of daylight for loading, and 8 hours for unloading,
after which there will be a demurrage tax of five
cents an hour for the first 48 hours of delay, and
ten cents an hour after 48 hours.
The use of a car will be paid for before it is
turned over to the shipper to be loaded.
The postage on " Car-load " freight, regardless
of the quantity of freight up to the car's capacity
and limited in character only by the general laws
of the United States and by the rules of the Depart-
ment, from the point of departure to the destination
stated in the bill of lading within the railroad
system of the Post-office, will be as follows:
On Local freight, per standard Box-car, $6.00 per
haul.
On Local freight, per standard Open-car, $5.00
per haul.
On Less than Car-load freight, the postage will be:
On Local freight, carried in Box-cars, $0.05 per
100 per haul, $1.00 per ton per haul.
On Local freight, in Open-cars, $o.o2-J- per 100 per
haul, $0.50 per ton per haul.
No consignments of less than car-load freight are
to be received for less than fifteen cents.
AND PASSENGER POST. 2O$
The postage on express freight shall be twice
that on local freight; on fast freight, three times
the local rate.
The rates on private cars will be the same as on
Department cars, and this whether full or empty.
This Bill, says George Rice, the noted opponent
of monopoly, strikes the key-note of the greatest
of all questions in the interest of the people, and it
will go through without doubt by 1900, sure.
George R. Blanchard, of the Joint Traffic Com-
mission, sums up his long argument on " Railway
Pools," in the following quotation from the report
of the Committee of the German Empire made
prior to its purchase of its main railway lines:
' ' The uniting of the property, of the traffic and
of the management of the inland main lines UNDER
THE STRONG ARM OF THE STATE ARE THE ONLY
EFFICIENT AND PROPER MEANS TO SOLVE THE
TASK. ' ' Railway Pools, by George R. Blanchard,
page 34.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I quote this
great railway authority in behalf of my proposition
that the management of our Royal-Railed High-
ways is a governmental function. I am equally
glad to be able to quote him in behalf of the postal
principle for the determination of railway tolls.
Mr. Blanchard was one of the witnesses in the
Milk case tried before the Interstate Commerce
Commission in New York City, in December, 1895.
The rates were uniform for all distances up to 330
miles. I heard Mr. Blanchard testify that there
206 A GENERAL FREIGHT
was no good reason why the uniform rate should
not be extended to 1000 miles, and so contended
the entire array of railway counsel. " The cost of
the service rendered was in no real sense depend-
ent on the length of the haul."
I have before me the latest transcontinental tariff
sheets of a Western Railroad System. Its rates
are uniform on thousands of articles to and from all
points between the Pacific Coast Terminals and all
points east of the Missouri River. These rates,
however, are as unstable as a sick man's whims,
and they are always based on the principle which
Mr. Wm. M. Snow of Boston told the National
League of Commission Merchants last winter gov-
erned a certain railroad corporation, namely, that
of transferring to the hands of the railways, as
nearly as possible, the value of the produce carried.
Concerning this corporation, in which several
States are already pooled, the Boston Herald said
in a recent issue:
" The interests of certain capitalists control the
' steel highways ' from New York to Boston with
a grip that lets nothing escape. They also control
certain steamboat lines. Should a certain boat
line cut rates on freight by steamer direct between
New York and Boston, the club that a certain rail-
road corporation holds up is the threat of a new
line of steamers to compete with the other's boats.
And recently these capitalists came to an agree-
ment, so that this corporation has nothing to fear
from other roundabout routes from Boston."
AND PASSENGER POST. 2O?
" The marketmen claim that they can get Michi-
gan peaches to Boston cheaper than Jersey peaches
by the monopoly. Michigan is 900 miles from
Boston, and New Jersey is 300."
" George M. Mead exhibited a freight bill from
this corporation, and said it was fifty per cent,
higher than twenty-five years ago, when it did not
have control of the boat lines."
Boston shippers will hardly favor the further
pooling of the public steel highways under an as-
sociation of which one of the leading directors of
this corporation is President. They will be much
more likely to join in the seductive movement
to pool these Royal-Railed Highways under the
United States Post-office, and to make these high-
ways a means of serving the public rather than
of robbing the public. The governing spirit of our
age is co-operation. The creed of the mediaeval
Baron, " What the traffic will bear," " Your money
or your life," is out of place in modern civilization.
Returning to the discussion of " The cost of the
service principle," which is to determine the future
tax on the movements of persons and of produce
upon our public highways, I call attention to the
following statement, made by Mr. James Peabody,
of the Railway Review of Chicago, May 16, 1891,
in an editorial upon my article, " The Application
of the Postal Principle to Railway Traffic," pub-
lished in the same issue.
"It is only fair to say that the idea was first
suggested to Mr. Cowles by a well-known gentle-
208 A GENERAL FREIGHT
man who was for many years President of a New
England Railway, and who is especially noted for
his shrewdness and ability. It is not supposed that
the idea, although not without merit, in many re-
spects, will be received with any degree of favor,
at least so long as INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP OBTAINS
IN OUR RAILWAY SYSTEM, BUT, GIVEN GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP, IT IS UNDENIABLE THAT SUCH A RE-
SULT is A NATURAL SEQUENCE." And, in confir-
mation of the ideas advanced by Mr. Cowles, Mr.
Peabody cites an instance in his own experience,
where, being " called upon to defend a tariff he
had made in which the rate on wheat, car-loads,
was fixed at ten cents per 100 for no miles in one
direction, and twelve cents per 100 for 322 miles
in the opposite direction, he was obliged to ac-
knowledge that the tariff in question, like all others,
was simply the result of COMPARISON AND GUESS-
WORK, MODIFIED BY EXPERIENCE," and had no
basis either of justice or of reason. His tariff was
proved to be wholly indefensible. The most care-
ful calculation showed that the cost was practically
the same in the one case as in the other. The
difference in the cost for the haul of the 115 miles
and 332 miles on a hundred of wheat was but " a
small fraction of a cent."
To the same effect is the testimony of S. P.
Bush, Superintendent of Locomotive Power of the
Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh, that there
is no practical difference in the cost of the haulage
of full and of empty cars. In the E?igineering
AND PASSENGER POST. 2OQ
News, of June 3, 1897, Mr. Bush states that on a
run of 115 miles from Chicago, 111., to Logansport,
Ind., an increase in the load of a freight train of
thirty-two cars from 750 to 1050 tons occasioned
the use of but 400 pounds more coal. In other
words, the cost to the road for the haul of the ad-
ditional 300 tons of freight, a distance of 115 miles,
was but the cost of 400 pounds of coal, less than
fifty cents, less than one sixth of a cent per ton for
the haul of 115 miles.
Note also the recent testimony of President A.
B. Stickney of the Chicago and Great Western Rail-
road, that the expenditure of a very small amount
of money in reducing the grades on 368 miles of
his line would render possible an increase in the
average train-load from 460 to 650 tons without
any increased expense in the cost of the haul.
Observe further that forty per cent, of freight-
car mileage is of empty cars, and, since it costs no
more to haul a loaded than an empty car, it there-
fore follows that whatever business may be secured
for these empty cars by the proposed low, uniform,
stable rates, will cost the Post-office nothing. And
as to loaded cars, added to existing trains, up to
the capacity of the locomotives, the only expense
incurred by the addition of an extra car to a train
will be the cost of a little more coal and the main-
tenance of the car. Two hundred dollars would
unquestionably pay the average cost of the use of
such extra cars, carrying twenty tons of freight and
making one hundred paying trips of 125 miles each
210 A GENERAL FREIGHT
in the course of a year. The average earnings of
such a car at $6 per trip would be $600. If it were
a box car, loaded and unloaded by Government
employees, then at 50 cents a ton it would earn
$1000, and at $i a ton it would earn $2000.
According to Poor's Manual, of 1897, the aver-
age railroad transport tax of the Middle States, for
the year ending June 30, 1896, was but 63.75 cents
per ton for an average haul of 93.40 miles. At ten
tons to the car-load and the average car-load is
hardly over ten tons the average freight car of the
Middle States, in the year 1896, earned less than
$6.40 on an average trip of 93.40 miles. Yet at
even this rate, and with average train-loads of but
2io| tons, the railroads of the Middle States made
net earnings of $4096 per mile of road, or nearly
five per cent, on a capitalization of $82,000 a mile.
The roads of this section, levying upon business
the lowest average transport tax in the country
earned more per mile of road than did the roads in
any other section of the country. The New Eng-
land Roads, levying upon business a transport tax
of over $1.84 a train mile on train-loads of less
than 152 tons, and over $i per ton for average
hauls of but 82.09 miles, made net earnings of less
than $2850. Taxing business full one third more
than did the Middle States roads, the New Eng-
land roads earned per mile of road one third less.
By restricting the business of their patrons, the
New England roads injured themselves.
The following table, made up from the Railroad
AND PASSENGER POST.
211
Reports of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and
Illinois, gives the tonnage handled and the average
transport tax per haul, per ton, on several lines,
for the year ending June 30, 1895:
NAME OF ROAD.
Tons.
Length of
haul.
Rate per ton
per haul.
Pittsburg & Lake Erie
Cleveland & Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Youngs-
town & Ashtabula. .
The Pennsylvania. . . .
The Northern Central
The Pine Creek . .
8,413,980
3,719,014
3,934,760
55,625,107
13,072,559
4. 8<6 8*4.
Miles.
67.63
79-5
42-47
139-
64.
AC
Cents.
45.6
55.3
26.1
78.5
17 ^l8
The Beech Creek ....
The Fall Brook
3,162,295
3,200 608
98.
33.
37.5
18
All Michigan Railways
All Illinois Railways .
Ohio Railways for 1896
Wheeling & Lake Erie
32,750,113
61,846,163
95,345,107
2,307,541
75-84
75-85
72.89
114.84
about 58.
74.319
55-
54-4
If such rates are possible under the present
wasteful management of our Royal-Railed High-
ways, then surely the rates I have suggested will
be altogether possible under the wonderful econo-
mies that will attend the pooling of the business by
the Post-office.
A word as to some of these economies. The
Boston Herald, of March 25, 1897, estimated that
the abolition of a certain traffic association would
free the country from an unnecessary tax of $750,-
ooo a year, and the abolition of the whole system
of traffic associations would bring up the savings on
this one line to $2,000,000 a year. Isaac B. Brown,
212 A GENERAL FREIGHT
Superintendent of the Railway Bureau of Pennsyl-
vania, points to a possible saving of $30,000,000 a
year in the abolition of the system of hiring private
cars by railway companies.
The pooling of the business can hardly fail to
double the utility of the freight equipment. The
proposed shortening of the demurrage limit will
still further increase the possibilities of the freight
service. It is said that the substitution of steel
for wood in the construction of freight cars will
make a possible saving in the haul of dead weight
of $31,250,000 a year, while the economies in
maintenance and in increased use of the better
equipment will amount to full as much more. R.
R. Gazette, February 26, 1897; R. R. Review,
January 13, 1897.
As to passenger business, recent experience in
this country proves conclusively that low rates,
uniform rates, combined with convenient service
and the one is almost as essential as the other will
both increase railway traffic and increase railway
profits.
In September, 1896, the Blue Island Line of the
Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad adopted a
uniform five-cent fare for all stations from the
Grand Central Depot, Chicago, to Blue Island,
twenty miles. In two days, said the Chicago
Record, of April 17, 1897, the business doubled,
and it has grown steadily ever since. " The man-
agement of the road is satisfied that the ' nickel '
rate is no longer an experiment. This is indicated
AND PASSENGER POST. 21$
by the fact that before June ist the service of ten
trains will be increased to twenty a day, and the
suburbanites, living along this line, will have a
street-car service on a steam road of standard
guage. The five-cent fare is building up the
country through which the Blue Island Line passes,
and the real estate men are preparing to lay out
new subdivisions and make many improvements,
believing that the investment will pay because of
the drawing power of the nickel rate."
A Chicago friend, writing to me in September,
1897, says that this line runs though a very thinly
settled, swampy country, for population scarcely
equal to the average farming country, yet they are
now running heavy trains, well filled, and the busi-
ness continues to grow. The road never paid ex-
penses until they adopted the present plan; it is
now making money. There are no commutation
tickets. Everybody pays five cents a ride. There
is more money, says Manager S. R. Ainslie, in a
uniform five-cent fare than in a three-cent-a-mile
fare.
The reduction of fares in connection with the
substitution of the electric motor for the steam
locomotive on certain roads, has been followed by
almost more startling results than those just noted.
When the Street Railway Law of 1893 was passed
by the Connecticut Legislature, the counsel of a
great railroad added a proviso that, unless author-
ized by special charter granted before January i,
1893, no electric tramway should be built on a
214 A GENERAL FREIGHT
public highway which it paralleled, until a Superior
Court Judge had first declared the improvement a
public convenience and necessity.
Hartford, the capital of the state, has a popula-
tion rapidly approaching 75,000 ; New Britain,
perhaps, 25,000. Though connected by two roads,
the railroad service was both poor and inconvenient
and the fares sixty cents the round trip of about
twenty-six miles by a branch line of one road, and
forty-six cents the round trip of eighteen miles by
the main line of the other effectually barred the
use of the railroads by the masses of both com-
munities.
This transport tax, an income tax of nearly
twenty-five per cent, on a wage of two dollars a
day this enormous tax on travel proved so dead-
ening to the traffic between these growing towns
that the business hardly paid for the maintenance
of the tracks. The traffic proving insufficient for
the support of twelve trains, two were first laid off,
then two more, and on the first day of January,
1897, one of the roads had a daily service of but
eight trains each way between Hartford and New
Britain. The six P.M. train from New Britain had
been a great convenience to Hartford citizens earn-
ing their bread in New Britain shops, but it was
laid off among the rest, and after its removal, these
men, hungry at once for their suppers and for a
sight of their little ones, were compelled to hang
about the New Britain streets a full hour waiting,
waiting for this public service to carry them to their
AND PASSENGER POST. 21$
homes. It seemed to be the determined policy of
the railroad management to make the cost of rail-
road travel so high, the service so inconvenient,
that no man could live in one town upon its lines
and earn his living in another.
And this spirit was manifested, not only in its
wretched local service and its prohibitive taxes on
railroad travel, but in its obstinate opposition to the
extension of the electric tramway service of the
state, and especially in the case of the proposed
line from Hartford to New Britain. The necessity
for a quicker, cheaper, more convenient service
between the two cities was apparent enough to
those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, but the
great monopoly had neither eyes nor ears for the
consideration of the public interests, and it blinded
the eyes and deafened the ears of those whose
duty it was to protect the public interests. Appli-
cation for a permit to build this Hartford-New
Britain tramway was twice made to the Superior
Court, and twice refused on the ground that it was
neither a public convenience or necessity. The
decision of the Judge, in each case, however, in-
cluded the significant statement that the building
of the tramway would injure the railway.
In 1895, the railroad came before the Connecti-
cut Legislature with the pitiful plea that the tram-
ways already built on the public highways which it
paralleled were taking away its local business, de-
priving it of its chartered (?) power to regulate the
movements of the people at its will, and protested
2l6 A GENERAL FREIGHT
against the building of any more such roads. It
was the business of the legislature (so I heard a
distinguished railroad counsellor declare) to pro-
tect the railroad in its dividends. The eloquent
address of another counsellor, one of the vice-
presidents of the road, in behalf of the orphans
and widows whom he represented such puny
orphans and such delicate widows as those upon
his directors' list, including the leading capitalists
of the country, almost brought tears to the eyes
of his sentimental listeners. Again in 1897, the
Railroad appeared before the People's Court to
contest the right of the people to use their high-
ways as they would, and in the course of a hearing
before the Railroad Committee as to whether this
Hartford-New Britain tramway should be built,
the leading counsel of the road actually had the
audacity to put to a tramway witness a question to
this effect: " Do you think it good policy to allow
a man to earn his living in one town and to spend
his earnings in another ? "
The managers of the railroad, however, had
already awakened to the fact that revolution was
in the air. They had to revolutionize their service
and their system of taxation or their business
would be revolutionized. Electric tramways were
to be built wherever the people wanted them.
The only hope for the Railroad, as to its local busi-
ness, was to chain the lightning to its own wheels
and to give the people a tramway service on the
railroad at something like tramway fares. To this
AND PASSENGER POST. 2 I/
end it had made a series of experiments on its line
to a seashore resort near Boston, and with such
success that, at the very time when its Counsel was
propounding the question at Hartford as to
whether a Hartford man should be allowed to
work in a New Britain shop, the railroad was
building a great power station four miles from
New Britain, for the purpose of carrying people
between the two cities at less than half the old
rates, and with a thirty-six-train service running
every day of the week in the place of an eight-train
service running but six days in the week.
On the 1 6th of February, 1897, the President of
the road appeared before the Railroad Committee
at Hartford, and, among other things, said that
the experiments on his beach line had already
proved the practicability of using electricity on the
standard railroad. " The cost of its application
by a third rail was about one fifth of the cost of a
trolley line. Our locomotives may go to the scrap
heap as the old stage coaches had to go. As to
the cost of the power station: The charges that
have been paid by the steam-railroad for lighting
its different stations, when the lighting is done as
an incident from the same power, will pay the in-
terest upon it."
He even proposed a fifteen-minute service be-
tween Hartford and New Britain, or a service of
sixty-four trains a day each way as substitute for
the existing eight-train locomotive service. But
he could not forbear a fling at the proposed trolley
218 A GENERAL FREIGHT
line, and he went so far as to threaten that if it
were built he might remove the power station, tear
up the third rail, and so deprive the people of the
advantages which he proposed to give to them.
"We do not like this parallel scheme; we do not
want it, but if it is carried forward, it will remain
for the public to determine by their use whether it
is worth while for steam-roads to make further de-
velopments. All the machinery of the power station
can be transferred to a location where the road now
does a business of four and a half millions instead
of three hundred and fifty thousand passengers a
year." This was in February, 1897.
The third rail was opened to public use, May
24th, fare ten cents each way. On the 7th of
June, the following paragraph appeared in the
Hartford Courant.
" Statistics of the First Week's Business.
DATE. PASSENGERS.
May 24 3,332
25 3,157
26 2,703
" 27 2,771
28 3,025
" 29 4,451
30 8,068
3i 9,59
Total for eight days 37,016
Average, daily 4,627
AND PASSENGER POST. 2IQ
" The Memorial Day travel, of course, swelled
the average very much, and the question is asked
whether the Sunday travel will be as great after the
novelty has worn off. The receipts are averaging
about $2750 a week. If this rate is maintained,
then the mere local traffic between Hartford and
New Britain will yield gross about $15,000 a mile
on those ten miles of road, independent of their
share of all the rest of local and through business
done on the road. The average earnings of the
whole road per mile in 1896 were about $10,000."
The parallel trolley line commenced operations
a few days later. The annual report of the road,
issued October 28, 1897, says : " The passenger
business between Hartford and New Britain over
this road had for some time averaged seven hun-
dred and fifty passengers per day. It was likely
to be entirely lost by the construction of a parallel
electric trolley line between the two points. Ar-
rangements were therefore made for a supply of
electricity from a station erected by the road. A
third rail was installed by this company on its East-
bound track between New Britain and Hartford,
and, since May 24, 1897, an half-hourly service has
been offered the public at a uniform rate of ten cents.
During the sixteen weeks following May 24th, and
ending September i2th, the travel on the electric
road amounted to over three hundred thousand
instead of about seventy-five thousand as would
normally have been carried by steam. If the
operation of the third rail proves as satisfactory
220 A GENERAL FREIGHT
during the winter as since its installation, an exten-
sion of the service to Forestville or Bristol would
seem to be clearly desirable."
This same report contains the interesting in-
formation that this road levies about three times
as heavy a transport tax on its local as on its
through freight traffic, and it dwells with pathetic
sadness on the general depression in its local
freight and passenger business which has accom-
panied this state of things. The result of its new
system of lower rates and frequent service between
Hartford and New Britain would seem to suggest
that a similar system applied to the rest of its local
business would speedily remove this depression.
It should be added that during the summer the
ordinary week-day business of the Hartford New
Britain third rail was done with but two trains, each
consisting of a single motor-car weighing thirty-
two tons, and capable of seating ninety- six passen-
gers. A trailer of the same type weighs twenty-five
tons. On rainy days a standard closed passenger
car was hauled as a trailer. On holidays and
Sundays the trains consisted of a rnotor-car and
two trailers, with a seating capacity for about two
hundred and fifty passengers.
In his address before the American Street Rail-
way Association at Niagara Falls, October 21,
1897, Col. H. N. Heft, Manager of the Electrical
Department of the New Haven Road, said: " We
have learned very thoroughly in our street railway
experience the lesson of the importance to any
AND PASSENGER POST. 221
transportation agency working in a thickly popu-
lated territory of UNIFORM FARES and frequent
service," and he goes on to show that the experi-
ence of his company on its New England Line had
been duplicated at Nantasket Beach. " The fares
charged on the Nantasket Beach Line before the
advent of electricity were ten cents from Pember-
ton to Nantasket and eighteen cents from Nantas-
ket to East Weymouth. With electric traction
they have been placed at a uniform rate of five
cents from Pemberton to Nantasket seven stations
and five cents from Nantasket to East Weymouth
ten stations a total of ten cents from Pember-
ton to East Weymouth. Under these conditions
the traffic has increased enormously on this line;
the summer of 1895, the first of the electrical opera-
tion, showed an increase of 92.6 per cent, over the
previous summer in the number of passengers car-
ried; the summer of 1896 showed 45.1 per cent,
increase over 1895, while in the summer just
passed we have carried nearly three times as many
passengers as in the last year of steam operation."
The cost of the third-rail construction, including
bonding of rail, cable at grade crossings and bond-
ing of surface rails, says Colonel Heft, is about
three thousand dollars a mile. " We do not say that
the third rail has no dangers, but we do not con-
sider the danger as being at all serious, or one that
should interfere with the extension of the system."
The fuel used at the power stations of the New
Haven Company consists of " sparks," half-con-
222 A GENERAL FREIGHT
sumed coal dumped from the extension fronts of
locomotives at the Company's round-houses. They
actually cost nothing; it used to be an expense to
get rid of them, but, estimated at a value of seventy
cents a ton, the cost of power where the engines
are used up to their capacity is but 1.8 mills; less
than ^ of a cent per horse-power hour. At the
Berlin station, where the power is but partially
used, the cost, with coal at $3 per ton, was nine
mills per horse-power hour; with the use of sparks
it has been reduced to three mills, T 3 ^ of a cent,
and Prof. S. H. Short says that " By leaving the
motor open to the free circulation of the air, it
would do twenty per cent, more work for the same
rise of temperature." Electrical Engineer, Octo-
ber 30, 1897.
An article on " Third-Rail Prospects," in the
New Haven Register of June 2, 1897, summed up
the results of the electric experiments made by the
New Haven Road as follows : " It has been found
possible to place on the trunk of a single car, with-
out using an inch of passenger space, a motor-power
sufficient to propel at high speed 250 tons weight
over a i per cent, grade and round 10 per cent,
curves. This quality of compactness is a most im-
portant feature of the electric system. The ability
to handle train-loads of any gross weight with one
or more motor-cars is not now questioned by the
company. Electric trains can be accelerated more
rapidly by far than steam trains, this being a
natural result of the constant torque of the electric
AND PASSENGER POST.
motors, as well as of the immense reserve power at
the station which can be instantly and automatically
placed at the motor terminals when called for by
the motor-man. As a result of this rapid accelera-
tion of power, it is found possible to make a higher
schedule speed over a road of many stations than
could possibly be done by such locomotives as are
ordinarily employed in this class of traffic. The
problem of tracking these high speed trains has
been solved as effectively as is done on trains pro-
pelled by steam-power this by means of an elec-
tric motor compressor, governed automatically so
as to constantly keep sufficient pressure in the
tanks ready for service."
The electric train weighs full sixty tons less,
costs about $5000 less, and requires two less men
to run it than does the locomotive train. The
New England third-rail electric covers 324 miles
every day. The average American passenger loco-
motive does not run over 300 miles in three days.
According to the Interstate Commerce Report of
1895, there were in use on the railroads of the
United States on the 3oth of June, 1895, in round
numbers, 10,000 passenger trains averaging 2-J-
passenger cars 10,000 locomotives, 25,000 cars.
The substitution of the electric motor for the loco-
motive in this business would effect a saving in
capital of $50,000,000, a saving in dead weight
hauled of 600,000 tons and a saving in labor two
shifts of probably $5 per train, or $50,000 a day.
The saving in the lighting of the railway stations
224 A GENERAL FREIGHT
would pay the interest on the cost of the power-
houses. The saving in coal, and in the wear and
tear of the track would probably more than meet
the interest on the cost of the third rail and other
electrical equipment. On the 3oth of June, 1895,
the railroads of the United States had in use, in
round numbers, 20,000 freight trains averaging
sixty cars 20,000 locomotives and 1,200,000
freight cars. The substitution of the electric
motor for the locomotive in the freight business
of the country would save in the value of the labor
of firemen alone, probably $100,000 a day, $5 per
day per train.
Writing in the Electrical Engineer, of June 2,
1897, John C. Henry estimates that the substitu-
tion of electricity for steam on the forty miles of
railroad, Florence to Cripple Creek, Col., would
effect a saving of $228 a day, in addition to other
savings of considerable importance, but impossible
to figure. One third of the power now absorbed
by the locomotive would be saved, and there would
be a great reduction in the wear and tear of the
track. The electric plant could be used in operat-
ing the proposed Florence Southern Road without
much additional expense, as the current can be
distributed from a central point with much less
loss than from the ends of the line, and there need
be no additional expense for station attendance.
The distribution system could be amplified to great
advantage in furnishing the mining camps with
light and power. It would require, comparatively
AND PASSENGER POST. 22$
speaking, little more outlay to deliver 1000 electri-
cal horse-power at the mines, which would doubt-
less sell at a very high price when it could be used
to operate pumps, hoisters, etc.
But most wonderful economies are possible even
with the continued use of the steam locomotive.
Formerly the round trip, 495 miles, Rock Island
to St. Louis, over the C. B. & Q. R.R., required
the use of four locomotives. The entire run is now
made every day with one locomotive, which turns
into the company every month 14,850 miles of
service, or about five times that of the average
passenger locomotive. And this five-fold use of
locomotive equipment is accompanied with a cor-
responding economy in the abandonment of numer-
ous round-houses, with all their attendant expenses.
The estimate of C. Wood Davis that the ownership
of the railroads of the United States by the Nation
would render possible an annual reduction in our
transport taxes of $160,000,000 is, I believe, alto-
gether within reason.
The Connecticut Railroad Report of 1897, states
that from its opening, May 24, 1897, to November
i, 1897, the total of the third-rail traffic was 414,-
ooo, or an average of 2587 per day. The average
fare under the old regime, INCLUDING COMMUTERS,
was eighteen cents for the trip, Hartford to New
Britain; and the average daily earnings were
$135 for six days in a week as against $258.70 for
seven days in a week by the ten-cent electrics.
This makes the weekly earnings of the old steam
15
226 A GENERAL FREIGHT
service $810, while that of the electrics is $1810.90.
The third rail is to be immediately extended nine
miles to the west of New Britain, to the town of
Bristol, and by the first of April, 1898, will proba-
bly be in use from Bristol to Hartford.
The New Haven Road is also experimenting
with a combined car and engine capable of carry-
ing about sixty passengers, and at about one third
the expense of the ordinay steam train, burdened
with a large amount of dead weight. On a train
composed of drawing-room and sleeping-cars this
dead weight makes up ninety-two per cent, of the
total weight handled.
The R. J?. Gazette, of December 24, 1897, makes
the average train-loads of the New England roads
to be as follows:
The New York, New Haven, & Hartford. 73
The Boston & Albany 70
The Boston & Maine 59
New England 47
Fitchburg 47
and it goes on to say: " It therefore appears that
the average number of passengers carried in one
train upon the best passenger roads in the country
could be seated in one of their largest coaches. If
the average gross weight of the trains on the New
England Road is distributed among the average
load of forty-seven passengers, the present method
of locomotion shows about 7500 pounds of dead
weight for the accommodation of each passenger.
AND PASSENGER POST. 22J
Recent investigations show that trains making 325,-
ooo miles a year have averaged less than twenty-
five passengers, and on some trains the average has
been as low as six."
This being true in the thickly settled East, we
may readily believe the statement of the editor of
the R. ft. Review of Chicago, when he says: " that
certainly of the lines west of Chicago and probably
(with one exception) of the lines west of Buffalo
and Pittsburgh, there is not a single road but what
conducts its passenger traffic at a loss. ''Rail-
roading Under Existing Conditions," R. R. Re-
view, December 18, 1897.
It should be understood, however, that although
wondrous economies are possible in our railway
passenger traffic, the real cause of the present un-
profitableness of the business is not the dead weight
of the passenger trains but the lack of live weight
in the trains, and, as is conclusively proved by the
experience of the New England Road, this absence
of live weight is simply due to the enormous trans-
port taxes which make it impossible for the masses
of the people to use the railroad either for business
or for pleasure. I would add that this passenger
business is almost perfectly pooled, and has been
pooled for well-nigh half a century.
The Engineerng Magazine, of April, 1897, bears
witness that the partial application of the postal
principle to railway traffic in Hungary has been a
great success. " Instead of being a source of loss,
as they were before the introduction of the zone
228 A GENERAL FREIGHT
system, the Hungarian State Railways showed a
profit in 1894 of 4.92 per cent, on their capital."
The history of the Brooklyn Bridge affords a
most powerful argument in favor of the lowest
possible tax on travel. Opened to public use in
September, 1883, the bridge was crossed the first
year by 6,179,300 persons on foot, paying a toll of
one cent each; and by 5,324,140 car-travellers at
five cents. The tolls remaining the same, the foot
traffic declined the next year to 3,679,733, while
the car-traffic increased to 11,951,630. In Febru-
ary, 1885, the tolls were reduced foot-tickets, in
packages of twenty-five to one fifth of a cent, and
car-tickets, in packages of ten, to two and a half
cents. The result was an increase in the total
traffic of the year of seventy-one per cent. The
lowering of the car-tolls, however, made it possible
for the weary earners of low wages to ride, and the
foot-traffic declined to 3,239,337; while the car-
traffic increased to 21,843,250. The car-traffic
for 1887 was 27,940,313; for 1888, 30,331,000; for
1889, 37,000,000; for 1890, 40,000,000; and in
1893, the number of car-travellers was 42,600,000.
And with the increase of the traffic came a con-
current increase in receipts from $565,544.45 in
1884-85, the -last year of high tolls, to $917,961 in
1888, with a profit on the operations of the year
sufficient to pay two thirds the interest on the
original investment. The receipts for the year
1893 were $1,250,000. Then came the panic, and
the traffic fell off; the poor either had no occasion
AND PASSENGER POST. 229
to cross the bridge for work or were unable to pay
the car-toll of two and a half cents, which for the
round trip meant an income tax of five per cent,
on a wage of $i a day. Foot-travel on the bridge
is now free, and two car-tickets are sold for five
cents. The World Almanac puts the number of
car-travellers over the bridge in 1895 at over
44,000,000, 1897, 45, 542, 627. '
During the summer a Western road runs excur-
sions for $i the round trip of 174 miles, and for
$1.50 for another round trip of 346 miles. The
weekly excursion, says a Chicago friend, has grown
to be an immense business, and it would be much
larger were it not for the niggardly policy which
confines it to one day in the week.
According to the Interstate Commerce Report of
1895, the value of the railroads of the United
States on the 3oth of June of that year was $10,-
963,584,385, and the number of railway employees
was 785,034. Each of the 30,000 railway trains of
the country 10,000 passenger, 20,000 freight
trains represents, therefore, an average investment
of about $365,000. C. S. Walker, of the Massa-
chusetts Agricultural College, writing in the Yale
Review, of May, 1897, says that " the pay of the
average farmer for his labor of superintendence
and manual toil is a dollar a day." The invest-
ment represented by the average passenger train of
the country is, therefore, equal to the year's labor
of 1000 Massachusetts farmers, and it requires the
1 David A. Wells, Recent Economic Changes, page 386.
230 A GENERAL FREIGHT
constant care of twenty-six men to keep it in opera-
tion and to maintain its share of tracks, stations,
round-houses, repair shops, etc., in order. This
average passenger train weighs hardly less than 160
tons, and, on such roads as the New York Central,
it weighs fully 200 tons; it has a seating capacity
for 160 persons; each seat therefore represents a
full ton in weight; the train is hauled by a tireless
iron horse, easily capable of hauling a train-load of
500 persons 300 miles a day; it ought to make 500
miles a day.
Now, is there not something most absurd in a
policy that permits such trains to crawl over the
country at a rate of less than one hundred miles a
day and with less than forty persons in a train, and,
on many roads, with not over ten persons in a
sixty-four-seated car ? If I am not very much
mistaken a railroad magnate had a whole car to
himself the other day when he came to this town
of Farmington. I wonder how much he paid for
the use of that car. Persons of importance to the
railroads, we have been told by the Boston &
Maine officers, usually travel free.
The Massachusetts farmer works twenty-one
days in a year to pay his share of the customs
tariffs levied by the National Government. Com-
missioner Blanchard says that the United Railway
Government, which he represents, takes three times
as much out of the farmer. In other words, the
average farmer, the average worker, gives sixty-
three days of his labor every year for the support
AND PASSENGER POST. 2$ I
of this Railway Government. Does he receive a
fair return for his service ? There is a good deal
of grumbling nowadays about the pension tax.
Are we not paying rather heavy pensions to these
railway men ? Is there not something a wee bit
stupid in allowing these private individuals to
regulate the movements of the public on the public
highways and at so much a mile ?
The system is not even profitable. The revenue
from the passenger traffic of this country, under
this policy of not allowing the laborer to earn his
living in one town and to have his home in another,
hardly meets the cost of running the passenger
trains. A year's experience has taught Manager
Ainslie, of the Blue Island Line, of the Chicago &
Northern Pacific Road, that there is more money
in a uniform five-cent fare than in a three-cent-a-
mile fare. A similar experience will surely follow
the management of the National Highways by the
National Government on the cost of the service
principle of taxation. Not every line will pay, but
the aggregate of the receipts of the entire railway
system, under the proposed scheme, will, we are
assured, far more than furnish the needed revenues.
The number of passenger locomotives in the
service of the United States decreased from 9999
in 1895 to 9943 in 1896. There was also a slight
decrease in car equipment. The number of pas-
senger trips in 1896 was 511,772,737, about 4,000,-
ooo more than in 1895 and about 33,000,000 less
than in 1894. The revenue from passengers in
232 A GENERAL FREIGHT
1896 was $266,562,533. Continuing the estimate
of the passenger equipment at 10,000 trains of 2J
cars, the average service of each train would be
51,177 passengers, and the average passenger reve-
nue $26,656.25. The actual number of persons
carried by the average train was 51,471, and its
actual earnings were about $26,800 (/. C. Report^
page 79, 1897).
During the first five months of their service, each
of the two Hartford-New Britain electric usually
one-car trains averaged 1293^ passengers and
$129.35 passenger revenue per day. At this rate
each of these trains will serve, in the course of the
year, 472,127 passengers, and will earn from this
service $47,212.70. Performing a similar service,
our 10,000 passenger trains would serve 4,721,270,-
ooo passengers, and would earn from this service
$472,127,000 a year.
These figures represent, however, only the num-
ber of travellers whom the experience of the New
England Road proves to be able to pay ten cents
for single trips or five cents each way for round
trips to and from their jobs and their homes. We
may fairly estimate that the 511,772,737 persons
who took fifty-cent single trips in 1896, would take
at least as many fifty-cent round trips by the Ex-
press Post of my scheme. It seems also reasonable
to believe that the stimulus offered to long-distance
travel by our uniform fares of one dollar for any
length of trip by ordinary cars on the fastest trains
in the world, would call out half as many such
AND PASSENGER POST. 233
travellers as there were fifty-cent travellers in 1896.
If these estimates proved correct, the results of the
application of my scheme to the ordinary passenger
traffic of the country would be as follows (one
ten-cent trip equals two of five cents ; one fifty-
cent trip two of twenty-five cents) :
SINGLE PASSENGER TRIPS. RECEIPTS.
9,442,540,000 at scents $472,127,000
1,023,545,474 at 25 " $255,886,368.50
255,886,368^ at $1.00 $255,886,368.50
10,721,971,842^ $983,899,737
Average tax less than ten cents per passenger.
Add to these figures the income from parlor- and
sleeping-car travel, from the transport of baggage,
of the mails, and of express matter, and the total
earnings from our passenger equipment under the
management of the Post-office could not be less
than $1,100,000,000 annually. And to handle this
enormous passenger traffic with our present car
equipment, it would not be necessary to get as
much service out of the average car as the New
England Road got out of its electric-motor cars
during the period May 24 to Nov. i, 1897. If each
of our 25,000 passenger cars averaged but 430,000
passengers a year, the total would be 10,750,000,000.
H. G. Prout, comparing English and American
Railways, in Scribner 's Magazine for October, 1894,
says that the Englishman's advantage over his
American brother as to safety of railway travel is
234 A GENERAL FREIGHT
as sixteen to one. The Englishman, moreover,
pays a much lower transport tax than does the
American. In the United States, the minimum
regular fare is two cents a mile, and the short-
distance passengers, who make up the bulk of the
travel, pay more. In England the uniform third-
class tax is two cents, and excursion rates bring
down this tax in many cases to .67 of a cent a mile.
From New York to Boston the fare is $5-
The English rate would be $4.26
New York to Albany $3. 10
English rate, the same distance . . $2.46
New York to Philadelphia $2.50
English rate $1.84
Chicago to Milwaukee $ 2 55
English rate $ I -7
And Mr. Prout quotes Carroll D. Wright to the
effect that the English workman, with no tariff to
hinder his trade with the outside world and with
these lower railway tariffs, is able to allow his
family $23.55 a year to spend in amusements and
vacations, while the family of the American work-
man, closely confined to his Home Market by
custom's tariffs and high railway tariffs, can afford
to expend but $14.48 a year upon similar pleasures.
Fortunate, however, as the Englishman may be
in these respects, the London County Council re-
ported, in 1893, that the railway tariffs levied upon
the London workingman were, on an average, 78 per
cent, higher than the tariffs imposed by the state rail-
AND PASSENGER POST.
ways upon the workingmen of the Continent, and the
report went on to say: "It is difficult to conceive
on what possible plea the legitimate demand for a
more equitable adjustment of these charges can be
resisted. However the question may be viewed,
the reasons which plead for this much needed con-
cession, whether moral, social, or economical, are
irresistible; and even the narrow, selfish interests
of the shareholders may be forcibly appealed to in
favor of it. If a workman's train has to be run, it
makes no difference to the company whether a
workman enters it at starting or near the end of
the journey; where he enters it, in no way affects
the expense of running the train. Therefore any
reduction in fares which induces large numbers of
workmen to reside eight, ten, or more miles from
their work instead of close to it, would, notwith-
standing a general reduction in rates and inde-
pendently of the increased numbers that might be
induced to use the line, return more revenue for
the longer distance, at the reduced rate, than for
the shorter ones, at the present high rates, and the
difference would be all profit, accompanied by the
advantage of greater convenience in conducting
the traffic through the distribution of the passengers
over many places instead of being concentrated in
almost unmanageable numbers in a few."
In behalf of the proposition that the way traffic,
the short-distance traffic of a railway, will always
make up the bulk of its business, the report of the
New York Central Road for 1897 affords valuable
236 A GENERAL FREIGHT
testimony. The short-distance travel on that great
through road, for the year ending June 30, 1897,
was seven times its through traffic. The number
of travellers between New York and Buffalo only
averaged 278 daily; they could be comfortably
seated in one train. The proportion of through
journeys to way journeys was but as i to 114; the
average passenger trip was a little less than thirty
miles.
As to the wasteful use of passenger equipment
under a policy, that would prevent a man who lives
in one town from finding employment in another,
most interesting evidence can be obtained from
many of the railroad reports of 1897. Thus the
Erie trains ran with an average of less than ten
passengers in a car and less than forty-six passen-
gers in a train ; less than one sixth of the seats in
the average car were occupied, and the average
train-load was less than one tenth the capacity of
its locomotive. The Louisville & Nashville hauled
average trains of 5.11 cars, with less than ten pas-
sengers in a car. The locomotives of the Wabash
Road hauled behind them average trains of 4.55
cars with less than nine persons in a car. The
six-car trains of the Oregon Railroad and Naviga-
tion Co. carried less than sixty persons; out of over
300 seats, 240 had no occupants. The Minne-
apolis & St. Louis Road averaged but 32.72 pas-
sengers on a train of 4.22 cars, with seats for at
least 200, etc.
The following brief table taken from the sum-
AND PASSENGER POST.
237
mary of operating expenses and fixed charges of
the Interstate Report of 1893, affords a graphic illus-
tration of the relation of the passenger train-load
to the cost of the service rendered the individual
passenger.
NAME OF ROAD.
Cost per
Train-
mile.
Cost per
Passenger-
mile.
Average
Number of
Passengers
per train.
Genesee & Wyoming Valley
New York, New Haven, &
Hartford
Cents.
95-24
08
Cents.
7i
I ^O5
about i
7r
Florida Southern . ...
08 *
6 2<;
16
Chicago, Burlington, &
06.
2.1^0
47
Canadian Pacific
QC
1.88
to
Union Pacific
Q4.
2.08
45
Charleston, Cincinnati, &
Chicago . .
08.
6. 07
1C
Savannah, Florida, & West-
08.3
3-5
28
The cost of the operation of the average pas-
senger train, including its share of fixed charges, is
practically the same on each of these eight lines,
but the cost to the road of the transportation of
the individual traveller on the little way road, the
Genesee & Wyoming Valley, is fifty times, on the
C., C., & C. and the Florida Southern, five times,
on the Savannah, Florida, & Western, nearly three
times, and on the C., B., & Q. and the Union Pa-
cific about sixty per cent, more than that on the New
Haven Road. It actually costs more to transport
238 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the Genesee traveller over the five and a half miles
of his road than to transport the New Haven's
traveller over the 232 miles of its main line New
York to Boston. Why this difference ? Simply
that the one train is run for the benefit of one man
and an occasional friend while the other serves
seventy-five persons. The cost to the New Haven
would remain practically the same if its train-loads
consisted of 200 passengers making average trips
of ten miles instead of seventy-five passengers
averaging trips of between eighteen and nineteen
miles. In the former case, however, the cost of
the service rendered the single traveller would be
less than five cents, and the cost would be the
same wherever the passenger took the train and
wherever he left it. Make the fares five cents per
trip on ordinary trains, and the train-loads of the
country will average two hundred passengers.
LETTER AND PARCEL RATES.
The practicability of a one-cent letter rate has
long been acknowledged. In his report of 1896,
Postmaster-General Wilson says: "It is CERTAIN
that a one-cent letter rate, the cheapest postage in
the world, would yield a large profit," and he adds
that the only thing which prevents the adoption of
this profit-bringing-one-cent-an-ounce letter rate is
the deficit-causing-one-cent-a-poundrateon second-
class matter. Mr. Wilson was altogether wrong,
however, as to the cause of the annual eight to ten
AND PASSENGER POST. 239
million dollars deficiency in the business of the
Post-office. It is not due to the one-cent tax
levied by the Government upon publishers and
newsdealers for the transport of newspapers and
paper-covered books, but to the eight-cents-a-
pound tax levied upon the Government by the
railroad for the transport of United States Mail-
bags.
The situation was well stated by Senator Gorman
of Maryland, in his speech on " Railway Mail
Compensation," in February, 1897, when he said:
" The fact is, Mr. President, that the great power
of these corporations who control everything, who
are powerful enough to make and unmake public
men, is so omnipotent that no executive officer has
been found in the last twelve years, except in the
single case of Postmaster-General Vilas, who has
attempted to reduce the compensation for mail
transportation, and within six months after he had
left the Department, every economy which he in-
troduced had been wiped away, and the companies
received not only what they had received before,
but their compensation was increased, and never
during his long service in this body," the United
States Senate said the honorable Senator, " ex-
cept in this one instance, did he know of a Post-
master-General who had made bona fide effort to
control this railroad extortion which everyone
knows to exist."
The attitude of the railroads toward the Govern-
ment was also very clearly set forth when Manager
240 A GENERAL FREIGHT
McBee of the Seaboard Air Line, being caught in
the act of stuffing the mails or his agents being
caught during the quadriennial weighings, ex-
cused himself and his agents with the plea that
there was no law against it, and, in any case, his
Line was only following methods common to all
the railroads. Congressional Record, February 24,
1897, page 2308.
But we have still further testimony against the
position that the annual postal deficit is due to the
low rate on Second-Class matter. In his report of
1889, Postmaster-General Wanamaker makes the
average carriage of a piece of postal matter 442
miles. 10.4 per cent, of the mails is carried but 25
miles; 24.7 per cent, travels 125 miles; 24.4 per
cent, goes, on an average, 350 miles; 23.3 per cent,
is carried 750 miles; and but 17.1 per cent, of the
weight of the mails is carried, on an average, 1500
miles. Nearly 60 per cent, of our mail-bags travel
within zones of 350 miles, and the proportion of
short-distance postal exchanges would undoubtedly
be much greater were not the Government under-
bid by the express companies.
" Within a radius (within zones) of 500 miles,"
said Mr. Loud, House Chairman of the Post-office
Committee of the Fiftyfourth Congress, " the ex-
press companies to-day are carrying the matter
second-class matter (domicil to domicil) for a
fraction under one cent a pound. Beyond a radius
of 500 miles they dump it on the United States
Government for transportation."
AND PASSENGER POST. 24!
If there be further need of illustration of railway
discriminations in favor of private express com-
panies and against the Post-office, the following
case may be of interest. The Mississippi Valley
Medical Association met at Louisville, Kentucky,
October 4-8, 1897. On that occasion a special
label was issued marked " Magazines Prepaid,
Special Second-Class Matter, One Cent a Pound,"
and on magazines paper-covered books bearing
this label, the rate by express was but one cent a
pound from all points west of Pennsylvania and
Ohio and East of the Rocky Mountains, including
Denver to Louisville. Reckoning this business
done on the basis of the contract made between
the Adams Express Company and the New Eng-
land Road, of July, 1897 forty per cent, of the
gross earnings of the express company to go to the
railroad this second-class matter was carried by
the railroads for the express companies for ^ of a
cent a pound. See Report of New England Road,
October 28, 1897, page 12.
Taking, then, 442 miles, about the distance from
New York to Buffalo, as the average haul of a mail-
bag (the average haul of a postal-car in 1894 was but
170 miles), we find that the railroads tax the Gov-
ernment $160 a ton for a haul that, in the days
before the building of the Erie Canal, cost private
individuals, by ox-team and sailing vessel, but
$100, while they carry second-class matter, dis-
tances up to 1000 miles or more, on occasion for
express companies, for $8 a ton. We may safely
16
242 A GENERAL FREIGHT
say, I think, that railroads do not make contracts
to carry express matter for less than the cost of the
service rendered. And since they charge the ex-
press companies but $8 for carrying second-class
matter while they charge the Government $160 for
carrying all classes of mail matter, it therefore
follows that the railroads tax the Government
twenty times the cost of the service rendered the
Government in the transportation of its mail-bags.
Government management of the railroads, we may
safely conclude, would save to the people full
twenty million dollars a year in mail transporta-
tion.
Is further evidence needed to confirm this
statement ? Then please note the following: The
records of the Interstate Commerce Commission
show that the Texas Pacific and the Southern
Pacific Railroads carry foreign hats and caps, boots
and shoes, cashmeres and laces, cutlery and ordin-
ary hardware, from New Orleans to San Francisco,
for -fa of a cent a pound, and the business has
proved so profitable that, after years of litigation,
these roads have at last secured from the Supreme
Court of the United States a decree allowing them
to continue these rates on these foreign goods, while
they are at the same time permitted by the Court
to charge three or four times as much for a similar
service rendered to native goods of a similar de-
scription.
If it is a profitable business for these railroads to
carry these foreign goods across the Continent for
AND PASSENGER POST. 243
T 8 7 of a cent a pound, is it not certain that, under
the Government management of the railroads, the
cost of the service of transporting Government
mail-bags, average hauls of 442 miles, would be as
low as T \ of a cent a pound ?
Again, the regular rate of the Adams Express
Company, New York to New Haven, on forty-
pound packages, is but one cent a pound, on
seventy-five pound parcels, f of a cent a pound,
and on one-hundred pound parcels, but \ a cent
a pound. The rate per hundred, New York to
Boston, is but one cent a pound T 4 <j of a cent a
pound to the railroad ? to Philadelphia, f of a cent;
to Cleveland, if cents ; to Cincinnati, two cents.
From New York to Elizabeth, Newark, Rahway,
and several other places in New Jersey, the rate
per hundred is but ^ of a cent a pound, while
from New York to Jersey City it is but twenty-
five cents. If the railroads get but forty per
cent, of the tax on this T 4 o of a cent a pound
express matter sent from New York to these
New Jersey towns, then their share of the re-
ceipts is but but \ of a cent a pound. The
census of 1880 had a very interesting note on
the express companies of the United States. It
is found in Vol. IV., page 855, and it is to
this effect : ' The express companies of the
United States are but joint partnerships, and pay
taxes neither on their capital stock nor on their
business ; their officers are perpetual, and not
affected by any election through stockholders, it
244 A GENERAL FREIGHT
not even being the custom to call stockholders'
meetings." It would seem that, already seventeen
years ago, these associations had attained to the
position of the despotic governments of the Orient.
They were responsible to no one. Their business
was that of collecting transport taxes, and those
taxes were levied at their free wills. Their Gov-
ernment was perpetual, and we have reason to be-
lieve that their ancient status continues, for the
Interstate Commerce Commission decided as long
ago as December 28, 1887, that these companies
were forgotten by the legislators who drew up the
Interstate Commerce Act.
But to continue our argument. Up to the spring
of 1897, the milk rates on the railroads supplying
New York City from the West of the Hudson had,
for many years, been uniform within zones con-
stantly widening, and finally extending up to 396
miles. These rates 32 cents for 40 quarts of
milk, fifty cents for 40 quarts of cream were the
same whether the product was carried in cans or in
bottles. A 4<D-quart can filled weighs, however,
only about TOO pounds, while the same amount of
milk or cream carried in bottles, crated, weighs
about 220 pounds. Figured in pounds, the rail-
road rates were, therefore, a cent a pound on
cans of cream and less than -J of a cent a pound on
cans of milk; on bottled cream, the transport tax
was less than \ of a cent a pound, and on bottled
milk less than % of a cent a pound. This milk and
cream, moreover, was carried on trains making
AND PASSENGER POST.
245
passenger time, and these rates included the return
of the empty cans and bottles. In his brief in the
Milk Case, tried before the Interstate Commerce
Commission, in the winter of 1895-96, Joseph H.
Choate proved that the profits of this business were
from 200 to 300 per cent. The average milk car,
on the Erie Road, made net earnings of over $10,-
ooo a year. On the D , L., & W., the profits were
so great that the managers of the road paid their
Milk Contractor, Westcott, a clear salary of over
$50,000 a year for his valuable services.
Note also the following advertisement of Express
Service, Door to Door, New York to London,
lately issued by Messrs Davies, Turner & Co., of
27 State Street, New York.
NEW YORK TO LONDON.
Via Southampton, American Line of Steamers, Sailing
Wednesdays.
2lbs.
5lbs.
lolbs.
25 Ibs.
50 Ibs.
100 Ibs.
$i for each ad-
ditional 100 Ibs.
25 cts.
35 cts.
50 cts.
$1.00
$1.50
$2.25
(i cent per Ib.)
and the following, by C. B. Richard & Co., 61
Broadway, New York:
GREAT REDUCTION IN EXPRESS RATES TO LONDON
Via American Line, every Wednesday.
LONDON DELIVERED.
2 Ibs.
5 Ibs.
10 Ibs.
25 Ibs.
50 Ibs
100 Ibs.
$i for each ad-
ditional 100 Ibs.
25 cts.
35 cts.
45 cts.
go cts.
$1.40
$2.35
(i cent per Ib.)
246
A GENERAL FREIGHT
and this concern carries packages to any place in
Great Britain and Ireland at the following rates:
i Ib.
2lbs.
5lbs.
10 Ibs.
40 Ibs.
zoo Ibs.
$1.90 for each
additional
45 cts.
55 cts.
65 cts.
80 cts.
$2.00
$3.60
100 Ibs.
I also recall the fact that, within the limits of the
German Empire, the postal rates on parcels up to
eleven pounds in weight, domicil to domicil, are
but 6^ cents for distances up to 10 miles, and but
12^ cents for greater distances.
I have told elsewhere (page 97) of the parcels
post experiment, commenced by the Great Eastern
Railroad of England less than two years ago. At
the half-yearly meeting of the company, in July,
1896, the manager, Lord Claude Hamilton, an-
nounced that the scheme was already a success.
" The [London] householder sends his order to
such farmer as he may choose for butter, eggs,
poultry, vegetables, and farm produce generally.
The farmer fills the order, packing the box fur-
nished by the company at cost himself, and hand-
ing it over to the company for delivery. [A box
10 inches by 7^, and three inches deep, costs 3
cents; the largest box used, a very capacious
article, costs but ten cents.] There is a uniform
charge of EIGHT CENTS FOR TWENTY POUNDS, IRRE-
SPECTIVE OF DISTANCE. The limit of weight allowed
is 60 pounds, and the company will take a parcel
of this weight from any point on its lines to Lon-
AND PASSENGER POST. 247
don for 24 cents, and deliver the parcel in its own
wagons without further charge anywhere within
three miles of its central station.
The consignments are carried by express trains,
and are usually delivered on the day of transmis-
sion. Not only does the consumer get fresh
garden products at a minimum price, he also saves
the middleman's London charges. The wholesale
and retail men are eliminated. One of the leading
officials of the company says of the scheme: " We
have a tremendous residential population along the
London end of our line, and this scheme was
largely devised in its interest, and in the interest
of the farmer as well, I may say. The farmer gets
better terms for his product, while the reduction in
cost to the public is very considerable. When our
scheme is more widely known, it will, I believe,
contribute largely to revive farming in the eastern
counties. Our list of farmers, who have engaged
to supply the London consumer, ranges over Cam-
bridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdon-
shire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and we bring parcels
of fish from Lowestoft and Yarmouth to London at
much the same rates. The Londoner is already
taking very kindly to the scheme. I have evidence
that it has saved money to many an anxious, over-
burdened London householder, who by its means
gets his larder stocked with necessaries at far
cheaper rates than if he dealt with the London
markets and shops. The one thing necessary is
that the scheme should be more widely known.
248 A GENERAL FREIGHT
The farmers sell their produce at prices which
would open the eyes of the average housekeeper,
and cheaply as the farmers do it, they reap, never-
theless, a substantial profit, and there is absolutely
no trouble attending the matter; it is easier for a
housewife to send her order down to Essex or Nor-
folk than to go and buy at the stores at the nearest
market. The farmers despatch promptly, and what
with our express trains and swift vans, the produce
is at the housewife's door in a few hours. I may
say that the traffic is not particularly remunerative
at present, nor do I think that -per se it will ever
be a highly paying traffic, but it will pay indirectly
by giving vast encouragement to dairy farming, and
by spreading great prosperity throughout the dis-
trict which the Great Eastern serves." Report U.
S. Department of Agriculture, 1896; page 97, "A
General Freight and Passenger Post."
The R. R. Gazette of New York, of October 12,
1897, quotes W. M. Acworth as saying that in 1896
no less than 60,000 packages of agricultural pro-
duce were handled by the Great Eastern Post, and
that whereas in the first two months of 1896 the
Great Eastern handled but 3000 of these packages,
in the two corresponding months of 1897 the num-
ber was 12,000. It is reported that the Scotch
roads are about to reduce their agricultural rates
one half.
Contrast the broad, liberal policy of this Old
England Railway with the narrow, petty policy of
the . . ., that " Grasping Corporation " which
AND PASSENGER POST. 249
holds in its Pool practically all New England. The
Royal Ruler of the New England Highway charges
10 cents for the care of the smallest parcel at his
tax-collector's stations, and this even if the parcel
remains in his care but ten minutes. Note, too,
his tax on suburban parcels: to stations within dis-
tances of 17 miles, on parcels up to 25 pounds in
weight, 15 cents; on the same parcels to stations
17 to 26 miles distant, 20 cents; and to stations
above 26 and under 34 miles, 25 cents; double and
triple the transport taxes levied by the Great
Eastern Railroad for a much greater service. It
even charges a tax of i cent on all newspapers sold
in its stations or on its trains.
This proposed Bill will take from our Railway
Kings their present power of holding up the travel-
ler and confiscating his produce, and will secure to
our people a prosperity as much greater than that
promised by the Great Eastern Railway of England
to its patrons, as is the territory which the Bill
covers and the population it proposes to serve.
Harper's Weekly, of August 21, 1897, reports
that the recent experiments in the free delivery of
rural mail matter have resulted very much to the
satisfaction of the Post-office Department. The
farmers are especially pleased with the new service.
" It is found that they take many more newspapers
when they can have them delivered, and also that
the number of letters shows a vigorous increase.
The rural carrier makes one trip a day over a dis-
tance of sixteen to twenty-four miles. He supplies
25O A GENERAL FREIGHT
his own conveyance horse and cart or bicycle
and at rates of from $175 upwards, the average
being about $300. It is estimated that, at that
rate, $60,000,000 (about half the annual pension
bill) would provide free rural delivery all over the
United States. That would mean, among other
things, employment for 200,000 persons." The
same horse and cart or motor vehicle that collects
and delivers letters and newspapers, can collect
and deliver parcels up to sixty or even to one hun-
dred pounds in weight, with no extra cost for
the driver and but very little extra cost for the
team. I believe it altogether possible within the
next few years to secure a house-to-house parcels
post within the entire territory served by the
United States Post-office as cheap as the present
express between New York and Jersey City
twenty-five cents a hundred pounds. It requires
no great stretch of the imagination to see this horse
and wagon or motor-car used for the transfer of
persons as well as of other mail matter between the
different railway stations and the homes of the
people, and thus to see the principle of equal door-
to-door rates, suggested by Wellington on page 54
of his Economic Theory of Railway Location, carried
out to its extremest limit.
I even expect to see a similar " Door-to-Door
Parcels and Traveller's Post " adopted by the
United Nations of the World.
The section of this bill guaranteeing to the hold-
ers of railway securities a return on their invest-
AND PASSENGER POST. 2$ I
ments equal to the average annual return of the
seven years ending June 30, 1897, has been sharply
criticised by some of my friends as too liberal to
railway investors, too burdensome to the public.
I should be glad to accept any amendment to this
section that would be more just to the public, pro-
vided that the bill thus amended could be carried
through Congress, and pass the scrutiny of the
Supreme Court.
It has been suggested that the Government
should take possession of the railroads, and should
pay for them in Government checks redeemable on
demand in railway services. It has been further
suggested that these Government railway checks
would form a money of the highest intrinsic value.
(See pamphlet by Henry Allen Bell, Springfield,
Illinois, The New Idea.) There is something very
attractive in these suggestions. As to paying the
private owners of these public highways in checks
entitling the holder to such use of these public
highways as is provided for under this bill, the plan
has the merit of the highest railroad precedent. It
would, indeed, be nothing more than paying for
the railroads in railroad coin, pure money from the
railroad mint. It is the regular practice, the long-
established custom for railway managers to pay for
services rendered in paper checks (not transfer-
able, however) entitling the holder to free rides or
to very similar privileges as to freight. Passes are
the standard coin in which, according to the testi-
mony of the officers of a leading road, all the rail-
A GENERAL FREIGHT
roads of New England are accustomed to pay for
the services of those whose influence is of im-
portance to the railroads. The same currency is
in common use in payment for advertisements,
etc.
It is only necessary that these checks should be
issued by the National Government and be made
transferable, to give them the character of money,
and money of the highest intrinsic value. A paper
dollar that would entitle the holder to the trans-
portation of himself or of a ton of merchandise
across the American Continent would have a value
at least sixteen times as great as that of 25.8 grains
of the purest Klondyke gold. This dollar, more-
over, would constantly appreciate in value as the
transportation system of the country developed and
as it extended its services by union with its neigh-
bors. And as country after country joined the
International Transportation Union, the inter-
national transport checks, issued by the different
countries, entitling the holder to transportation for
persons and for merchandise from any one station
in the country of its issue to any station in any
other country within the Union, these international
checks would form an international currency vastly
better than a currency based on any metal. Such
a currency would always be at par.
This plan of paying for the railroads in railroad
services has the further merit that it would cost the
public very little. Extended, as it should be, over
a considerable period, say fifty years, the additional
AND PASSENGER POST. 2$$
loads to the Government trains occasioned by the
transportation of the passengers and the merchan-
dise carried on the checks paper dollars and parts
of dollars issued by the Government to represent
the guaranteed interest, and the two per cent, of
the principal taken up year by year, these addi-
tional loads to the Government trains would hardly
be noticed in the immense volume of business that
would spring up under the new conditions.
There is to my mind something worse than pue-
rile in the mad rush into the regions of Arctic cold
for gold. It is not worth the lives that it costs.
What is there, indeed, in either the white or the
yellow metal that makes them of more real value to
the modern man than were the black and white
shells the wampum which, in the olden time,
the American Indian used for money ? Can either
gold or silver be used for food or shelter or raiment?
Forty years ago, when California and Australia were
sending out their floods of the yellow metal, several
of the rulers of Europe became so frightened at the
thought of its possible depreciation that they de-
monetized it. It is altogether possible that, in the
not distant future, both gold and silver will become
so plentiful that neither will have any value as
money other than that given to it by Government
fiat. The true basis for money is some common
want, and there is no want more universal than that
embodied in our public agencies of transportation
and communication. The railways are the circu-
lating system of a country; the tracks are the
254 A GENERAL FREIGHT
arteries and veins; the trains are the life-bearing
current; the passengers and merchandise in the
trains are the life itself. A money currency based
on the movements of persons and of merchandise
by transport agencies owned and controlled by the
government of a nation, would be based on the life
of that nation.
That this Royal Highway Business is a govern-
mental function, the especial function, moreover,
of National Governments, is no longer a matter of
doubt. George R. Blanchard has clearly indicated
the railroad legislation needed in this country, in
his quotation from the Report of the Committee of
the German Empire, prior to the purchase of its
main railway lines. Although noted but a few
pages back, it will bear repetition. " The uniting
of the property, of the traffic and of the manage-
ment of the inland main lines under the strong
arm of the state, are the only efficient and proper
means to solve the task."
The Germans acted on the advice of this com-
mittee, and experience has proved their wisdom.
As long ago as September, 1894, Gustave Cohn,
writing in the Economic Journal, on " The Rail-
ways and Waterways of Germany," said: " The
Government of Prussia not only succeeded in buy-
ing up the railways from the chartered companies
in the open market and at very liberal prices, but
the financial results of the annual net return of the
railways was so remarkable that the Railway Ad-
ministration, after paying the interest on its loan
AND PASSENGER POST.
capital, handed over during the period 1887-1892
^42,000,000 towards abolishing the National debt,
and for the general needs of the state. And this
went on hand in hand with considerable reductions
in passenger rates, and especially in rates for goods'
transport."
And in his report for October, 1897, Consul
Monaghan gives similar testimony: " State Owner-
ship of Railways," he says, " plays a very import-
ant part in Prussia's finances. Earning enormous
sums, serving commerce and manufactures in
times of peace and all strategic purposes in times
of war, they have more than justified the arguments
that urged the Government to own them, and the
liberal policies that constructed and developed
them in all parts of the empire. More than one
half of Prussia's income is derived from railroads.
In the year ending June 30, 1897, after putting
aside $4,760,000 for the disposition fund, the rail-
roads paid full one half of all other Government
expenses. Of the $23,800,000 surplus noted in the
1896-97 returns, more than half had its origin in
the surplus of the railroads. No other branch of
public property pays so surely and so well. The
certainty of the receipts, the amount, the ease with
which they are obtained, and their cash character
render them the most useful of all the moneys
turned into the public treasury. The tendency all
over the Empire is toward State and City ownership
of all kinds of transportation facilities, roads, rail-
roads for steam, horses, electricity, etc., as well as
256 A GENERAL FREIGHT
of telephones, telegraphs, and other means of com-
munication."
The latest reports from New South Wales tell a
similar story as to the results of the public owner-
ship of the Royal-Railed Highways of that demo-
cratic state.
It is said that the last of the important private
railroads of Belgium, The Belgian Grand Central
Road, will soon become the property of the Belgian
people.
" The National Council of Switzerland has fol-
lowed the referendum vote in favor of the public
ownership of railways by the adoption of a bill
providing for State purchase at a figure approxi-
mating twenty-five times the average annual net
earnings of the roads during the past decade. In
other words, the Government assumes that the
value of the roads is the sum upon which they have
been yielding four per cent, to their owners.
There will be no such scandals as occurred when
the English Government bought out the telegraph
companies, paying for some of them double their
market value a few months before their purchase.
In Switzerland such plundering of the public is, of
course, impossible, as the terms of the purchase
will have to be submitted to popular approval, and
the general public in Switzerland has no disposition
to enrich the security owners at its own expense.
Representatives may thus sacrifice the public, but
the public will not sacrifice itself. The aggregate
sum named for the purchase is $186,000,000. This
AND PASSENGER POST.
will increase the public debt (now $15,000,000)
from $5 to $67 per capita, but inasmuch as the
public is now paying four per cent, interest on the
railway securities, and hereafter will have to pay
but three and one half percent, on its own bonds
covering them, there is a prospective decrease in
the public burdens. Doubtless the present finan-
cial success of the Prussian State Railway System
had much to do with the movement for public
ownership, but a still stronger impulse was the de-
sire for uniformity of tariffs throughout the country,
without discriminations between places and persons,
and the cheapening of transportation for working-
men and persons of moderate means. These were
the first ' beneficial effects ' of state ownership in
Prussia, and they will doubtless be the first benefi-
cial effects of the same system in Switzerland."
The Outlook, October 16, 1897.
That clear-sighted statesmen very early saw the
fearful mistake that had been made in giving the
railroads of England into private hands is proved
by the following quotation from Lord Macaulay's
speech on " The Ten-Hour Bill, delivered in Par-
liament, May 22, 1846.
" Fifteen years ago," said the distinguished his-
torian, " it became evident that railroads would
soon, in every part of the kingdom, supersede to a
great extent the old highways. The tracing of the
new routes which were to join all the chief cities,
ports, and naval arsenals of the island was a matter
of the highest National importance. But, unfortu-
17
2$8 A GENERAL FREIGHT
nately, those who should have acted for the nation
refused to interefere. Consequently numerous
questions which were really Public Questions,
Questions concerning THE PUBLIC CONVENIENCE,
THE PUBLIC PROSPERITY, THE PUBLIC SECURITY,
were treated as private questions. That the whole
society was interested in having a good system of
internal communication seemed to be forgotten.
The speculator who wanted a large dividend on
his shares, the landowner who wanted a large price
for his acres obtained a full hearing, but NOBODY
APPEARED IN BEHALF OF THE COMMUNITY. The
effect of that great error we feel, and shall not
soon cease to feel."
That this great error has not been rectified in the
half century since Lord Macaulay's notable speech
has been due to several causes. In the first place
England is an island, and her chief industrial
centres, connected by water roads (by sea and
canal), open the year round, are to a great degree
independent of the railroads. The splendid mac-
adam roads, already in existence when Stephenson
built his first Royal-Railed Highway, have also
served to save the English people from the absolute
dominion of Stephenson' s successors. Then, again,
her freedom from the custom's tariffs usually levied
by the nations of the earth upon their foreign trade,
has largely counterbalanced the evil influence of
the heavy railroad tariffs levied upon the inland
trade of England. Almost from the very birth of
the railway, moreover, the English railway man-
AND PASSENGER POST.
agers have been a paramount power in the English
Parliament, and they have skilfully parried attacks
upon them. Some of them, too, have had the wit,
as in the case of the Great Eastern Road, to make
timely concessions that have quieted public clamor.
The trend of things, however, is unmistakable, and
England must, sooner or later, bring her railroads
under the direct control of the State.
The time cannot be far distant when the Royal-
Railed Highways of every nation will be under the
direct control of the national government. When
the United States assumes the control of its rail-
ways, the application of the postal principle to the
determination of railway tolls will be a natural
sequence.
In his great speech in favor of a uniform two-
cent letter rate, delivered in Congress, February
21, 1849, Congressman Palfrey of Massachusetts
spoke as follows: " The idea of charging higher
postage on a letter on account of the greater dis-
tance it travels is an absurdity. Why should I
pay more for a letter from here to New Orleans
than to Baltimore ? Because of the greater utility
and value of the former or because of the cost of
its conveyance ? The former may undoubtedly be
far the less important of the two, and as to the cost
of conveying it a longer distance, it is nothing, or
if anything so little as to be inappreciable."
The long routes are all made up of a series of
short ones. Whether the letter or the 10,000 letters
mailed at Boston shall stop at Worcester or go on
260 A GENERAL FREIGHT
to Galena, will not make one dollar difference in
the contract. Says Rowland Hill, it is not a matter
of inference, but a matter of fact that the expense
of the Post-Office is practically the same whether a
letter is going from London to a village 1 1 miles
distant or to Edinburgh, 397 miles. The differ-
ence is not expressible in the smallest coin we
have. The average cost of the transportation of
each letter, taking all the mails in the kingdom, is
estimated at one ninth of a farthing. At this rate,
the average cost of the transportation of an half-
ounce American letter is about one half a mill, a
rate which it is idle to think of graduating by dis-
tance.
At ten cents a mile for the transportation of a
mail-bag, it may cost the Department a dollar to
carry a single letter ten miles, while 10,000 letters
in another bag are carried at the same rate one
hundred miles, each costing for ten times the dis-
tance only one thousandth part as much.
The Assistant Postmaster-General, in his recent
letter (page 31) presents the argument by which
the principle of a uniform rate of postage in Eng-
land is sustained, viz. : " An average rate that will,
in the aggregate, defray the whole cost of trans-
portation on the short routes, will in the aggregate
defray the whole cost of transportation; for the
whole service consists, in their respective locali-
ties, of short routes. That circumstance causes no
additional expense, consequently there is no reason,
looking to the cost of transportation as the only
AND PASSENGER POST. 26 1
cost of postage, for making any further charge
upon letters hauled over long distances. Mr.
Speaker, if I had the time, I should not know
where to begin to enumerate the blessings of which
this single agency of a Reformed Postage System
would be a certain source, in such grandeur and
beauty does the prospect open before one's view.
As to influence on our industrial prosperity, how
mightily would it operate on the activity of busi-
ness and accordingly on the wealth of the nation!
But this would not be the whole of the benefit nor
the best part. How would science, letters, inven-
tion, benevolent enterprises rejoice in this privilege
of freer communication ! What an intellectual
action it would quicken in every class! I think
very much of colleges. I dearly love common
schools, but I shall not, at present, undertake to
say that CHEAP POSTAGE will not turn out to be an
institution for education more efficient than any
other. It would set everybody to learn to read
and write. Those who had not already learned
and those who had; it would teach to describe
and narrate and think, and would excite them to
study and observe. I cannot tell how soon it might
be a question whether the mariner's compass or
the art of printing had changed the condition of
man more than a good system of postage. Then
as to its bearing on the cultivation of the affec-
tions; no consideration could be more fit to be
presented here, for a man must be far too stupid
to have a place in this Hall who does not see its
262 A GENERAL FREIGHT
profound and intimate connection with all the
sources of a nation's welfare. Friends, brothers,
and sisters, even parents and children, separate to
pass the rest of their lives apart. Why is it that,
in time, they become almost strangers to one
another ? Young men and women leave their
homes for business, for service, for school. Why
does not a letter sent and received two or three
times a week, every day, keep up their interest in
their homes, renew constantly a pure enjoyment
and afford the best security against every moral
danger ? Simply because it would cost too much
time and money. Never was a simpler mechanism
devised for working out great and good effects. A
more beneficent agency can scarcely be imagined,
and before long this nation and Christendom will
say so."
Every word of this grand utterance of the noted
historian of New England applies to our proposed
postage scheme, but with ten thousand times greater
force. The choice is before us. On the one hand
we have this bright picture portrayed by Palfrey,
on the other the fearful contrast painted by the
graphic pen of Lloyd. I will not doubt the issue.
AND PASSENGER POST. 263
CHAPTER VI.
PRUSSIAN RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.
THE Annals of the American Academy of Politi-
cal and Social Science, for November, 1897, con-
tains a most interesting paper on Prussian Railroad
Administration, written by Dr. B. H. Meyer, of
the University of Wisconsin. This paper is of such
inestimable value in view of our proposed scheme
of government management of railways that, with
the permission of Dr. Meyer, I shall give a part of
it to my readers :
" On the first of April, 1895, there were in Prussia
2200 kilometres of private and 27,060 kilometres
of state roads, all, however, subject to the double
control of the government and of the people.
" On -the one hand we have a group of organs
which represent railroad interests in particular, and
which take the railroad point of view. The Min-
ister of Public Works, the railroad directories, the
general conference and tariff commission, and the
Society of German Railroads fall into this group,
although the two latter stand in a measure on the
border line, and of them are none confined exclu-
sively to railroad interests. Legal responsibility is
264 A GENERAL FREIGHT
fixed in the first two. On the other hand we have
the national and circuit councils with their stand-
ing committee of shippers. These primarily take
the social and economic point of view. They are
not legally responsible for the conduct of the rail-
roads, but act as advisory bodies. They represent
all the different interests of the nation, and through
them every citizen has not only an opportunity but
a right to make his wants known. A fair and
prompt hearing can be denied to no man, rich or
poor. The railroads are made real servants. All
the administrative, legal, and advisory bodies are
organically connected with one another and with
the parliament. The lines may be drawn taut from
above as well as from below. The elaborate system
of local offices makes the system democratic, and
the cabinet office and the directories give it the
necessary centralization. The system presents that
unity which a great business requires on the one
hand, and on the other that ramification and elas-
ticity which the diverse and manifold interests of a
great nation need for their growth and expansion.
It reveals the railroads to the public, and the pub-
lic to the railroads. It would be difficult to find
in Prussia to-day, among the representatives of any
class or interest, objections to the entire railroad
system which are not relatively insignificant. Both
the public and the railroads have gained more and
more as the system has developed.
" Were we to trace the development of the Prus-
sian system we should find that most of the rail-
AND PASSENGER POST. 26$
roads have been built from social and economic
considerations, although political and military con-
sideration have at times been dominant factors. It
is absolutely untenable, however, to maintain, as is
sometimes done, that Prussia makes her railroads
a military and a political machine. Certainly these
elements may be discovered in the history of Prus-
sian railroads, but one may unhesitatingly say that
if there is any system of railroads in the world
which truly and effectively serves all the interests
of a nation, that system is the Prussian.
" The constitution of the German Empire makes
it the duty of the government to cause the German
railroads to be managed as a uniform network in
the interests of the general traffic, and that end is
well attained under the German system of railroad
management.
" Coming now to a particular description of the
various organs which make up the Prussian Rail-
road Administration we find that the chief execu-
tive officer of the system is the Minister of Public
Works. Under him are twenty Royal State Direc-
tories, composed of a president appointed by the
king and the requisite number of associates, two of
whom, an Ober-Regierungsrath and an Ober-
Baurath, may act as substitutes of the president
under the direction of the minister. Each directory
has complete control of all the railways within its
limits, although the subordinate civil administra-
tive organs of the state have certain powers in the
granting of concessions, police regulations, etc.,
266 A GENERAL FREIGHT
powers that would probably be exercised in this
country by our state and municipal officers." Dr.
Meyer characterizes these directories as general
administrative organs, one of whose chief functions
is the proper co-ordination of all the parts of the
railroad system.
"Below and subordinated to them are special
administrative organs, upon whom falls the duty of
local adaptation and supervision. There are six
classes of these local offices, whose functions are
quite clearly indicated by their names operating,
machine, traffic, shop, telegraph, and building.
Special instructions are sent to each class of these
offices from the Ministry of Public works, setting
forth (i) the position of the office in the railroad
service, (2) its jurisdiction in matters of business,
and (3) general provisions.
" One of the foremost duties of the local traffic
office is to maintain a ' living union ' between the
railroad administration and the public. For this
purpose the chief of the office is in duty bound, by
means of personal interviews and observations, to
inform himself concerning the needs of the service
in his district, to investigate and to remedy com-
plaints and evils without delay, and to take such
measures as will secure the most efficient service.
It is also one of his duties to inform the public con-
cerning the organization and administration of the
railroads, so as to avoid idle complaints. This
single provision in the rules governing one of the
local offices illustrates the spirit of them all."
AND PASSENGER POST. 267
So much for the direct, legal administration of
the Prussian railroads. It is the object of our
scheme to provide a similar system of administra-
tion for the railroads of the United States, modified
as may appear to be necessary by our vast extent
of territory and by our different system of govern-
ment. And the business will be vastly simplified
by the provision in our scheme which requires that
the taxes levied for the support of our great
National Highways shall be regulated by the repre-
sentatives of the people assembled in their great
National Council, and shall be determined on the
postal the cost of the service principle.
That this great public business can be safely in-
augurated and can be successfully managed by our
National Government is beyond the question of a
doubt.
We shall be greatly aided in our task, however,
by continuing the study of the different organs
which have been developed in the course of the
growth of this admirable German railroad system.
The associations representing the different rail-
roads, " The General Conference," which is com-
posed of members representing all the German
roads, whose votes are determined by the number
of miles of road which each member who is present
represents, and its subordinate bodies, " The
Tariff-Comission and The Committee of Those
Interested in Transportation," these bodies seem
to have their prototypes in this country, and there-
fore demand little of our attention.
268 A GENERAL FREIGHT
" The associations which especially interest the
American are the democratic Advisory Councils,
which although established in Prussia on a legal
basis, and although composed in part of nominees
of the government are yet essentially representative
of the popular interests.
" Of these associations the most important is the
national council, which is the advisory board of
the central administration. The circuit councils,
nine in number, are the advisory boards of the
different railroad directories within their respective
limits. The national council is composed of forty
members, holding office for three years. Of these
ten are appointed and thirty are elected by the
circuit councils from residents of the respective
districts, and represent agriculture, forestry, man-
ufacture and trade according to a scheme of repre-
sentation published in a royal decree. Of the
appointed members, three are named by the minis-
ter of agriculture, domains, and forests; three by
the minister of trade and industry; two by the
minister of finance; and two by the minister of
public works. An equal number of alternates is
appointed at the same time. Direct bureaucratic
influence is guarded against by exclusion from ap-
pointment of all immediate state officials. The
elective members are distributed among provinces,
departments, and cities, by the royal decree just
referred to, and both members and alternates are
elected by the circuit councils. The presiding
officer and his alternate or substitute are appointed
AND PASSENGER POST. 269
by the king. In addition, the minister of public
works is empowered to call in expert testimony
whenever he may think it necessary. Such spe-
cialists, as well as regular members, receive for
their services fifteen marks (about $3.60) a day and
mileage.
" The national council meets at least twice annu-
ally, and deliberates on such matters as the proposed
budget, normal freight and passenger rates, classi-
fication of freight, special and differential rates,
proposed changes in regulations governing the
operation of the roads, etc. It is required by law
to submit its opinions on any question brought be-
fore it by the minister of public works; or, on the
other hand, it may recommend to the minister any-
thing which it considers conducive to the utility
and effectiveness of the railroad service. Its
proceedings are regularly submitted to the Land-
tag, where they are considered in connection with
the budget, thus establishing ' an organic connec-
tion ' between the national council and the parlia-
ment. In this way the proceedings are made
accessible to every one, and an opportunity is
given to approve or disapprove what the council
does through parliamentary representatives. The
system is one of mutual questioning and answering
on the part of the minister of public works, the
national council, and the parliament. "
How the circuit councils are chosen, Dr. Meyer
does not tell us, but their underlying principle is
" the representation of all the economic interests
270 A GENERAL FREIGHT
in the conduct of the railroads. If a circuit com-
prises railroads covering territory of other German
states, the chambers of commerce, industrial and
agricultural societies of such territory may also be
represented in the council. The minister of public
works has power to admit other members, and
frequently does so when the nature of the questions
upon which the council deliberates makes it desir-
able.
' The circuit council stands in a relation to the
railroad directory similar to that of the national
council to the minister. The law makes it manda-
tory upon the directory to consult the circuit council
on all important matters concerning the railroads in
that circuit. This applies especially to time-tables
and rate-schedules. On the other hand, the coun-
cil has the right, which it frequently exercises, of
making recommendations to the directory. The
standing committee of the council is an important
body. It meets regularly some time before the
full council hold its sessions, and its proceedings
form the basis of the deliberations in the council.
The committee receives petitions, memorials, and
other communications. The bearers of these are
invited to appear before the committee and to
advocate their cause. Questions are asked and
answered on both sides, and after all the arguments
have been presented the committee votes upon the
petition or request, usually in the form of a resolu-
tion adopted by majority vote recommending the
council to accept or reject the demands made in
AND PASSENGER POST. 2/1
the petitions. The action of the committee is re-
ported, on each question, by a member designated
for that purpose, to the full council at its next
session. While the decision of the committee is
usually accepted by the council, it in no way binds
that body. Before the council meets each member
has an opportunity to examine the arguments pre-
sented before the committee and the facts upon
which its decisions are based. If the advocates of
the petitions before the council present new evi-
dence, or if the recommendations of the committee
are shown to be unsound, the council simply re-
verses the decision of the committee.
1 ' These advisory councils have spread into all
the German states, also into Austria, Italy, Russia,
Denmark, Roumania, and in a modified form into
France. In composition and organization they are
much alike. They owe their existence, however,
not, as in Prussia, to law but simply to administra-
tive orders. In Switzerland there are no real ad-
visory councils, but the public is represented by
the regular civil, commercial, and industrial organ-
izations. These submit memorials to the Depart-
ment of Railroads and Post. The wishes of the
public as to the time and frequency of trains are
presented regularly twice each year by the cantonal
governments. The railroad department then calls
a joint session of the representatives of the cantons
and of the railroad companies, where these ques-
tions are considered."
That the state roads of Prussia are run rather in
2/2 A GENERAL FREIGHT
the service of the public than for the purpose of
taxing the public, as is generally the case with the
private railroads of this country, is clearly brought
out by Dr. Meyer in his account of the petition of
the Chamber of Commerce of the Rhenish City of
Lennep in favor of reducing the classification of
horseshoes. ' The petitioners said that many
of the factories were unfavorably located, and it
was one of the highest duties of the state to promote
industrial activity in regions which lie away from
the great channels of trade, if it could be done
without too great a sacrifice on the part of the
public. The desired concession on the part of the
railroads would do this. It was unjust for the rep-
resentatives of the Saxon State railroads to assert,
as they had done in the tariff commission, that the
change in the classification of horseshoes would
benefit the Rhenish industry only. Particularistic
designs should not be suspected in a movement
which was deeply rooted in economic necessities.
The representatives of the Bavarian railroads had
considered fiscal reasons only, but these alone
could not be decisive. It would not be business-
like for the state, in order to gain a temporary
advantage, to sacrifice the very source of this gain.
The railroads would fare worse with high rates and
a stagnant industry than with lower rates and a
prosperous industry, and it was safe to assert that
the desired change would, through an increased
output, ultimately yield a greater income to the
railroads. The established system of rates would
AND PASSENGER POST. 2?$
not be prejudiced; besides, when the question of
system is balanced against the welfare of an indus-
try the latter should prevail. The nationalization
of railroads was undertaken not for fiscal but for
economic reasons."
The mere recital of the powers and duties of
these popular railway councils is enough to prove
their utility in the management of a national trans-
portation system. The recital further suggests
that, in our state legislatures, our municipal coun-
cils, and our various industrial organizations we
have bodies already formed in this country that
will be capable of acting as advisory bodies for our
proposed postal directories. The governors of our
different states, with the lieutenant-governors as
alternates, might well act together as an advisory
board for the Postmaster-General and his ten asso-
ciates.
I am in hopes that, in a very few years, each of
the different states will assume absolute control of
their electric trolley lines, and, supporting them
by taxes levied on the lands through which they
pass and to which they give value, will make these
state roads these bridges between the worker and
his work altogether free of tolls. Then by con-
necting these free state roads with the system of
interstate roads, managed by the National Govern-
ment on the principles of our proposed bill, and
with our ordinary highways well graded and mac-
adamized, the United States will be provided with
a reasonably fair system of public transportation.
274 A GENERAL FREIGHT
One word more as to the Prussian system of
railway administration. The R. R. Gazette, of
December 24, 1897, states that the Prussian Minis-
ter of Public Works has recently given orders to
the railroad directors under him to require those
holding restaurant and buffet privileges at stations
to furnish in the third- and fourth-class waiting-
rooms, besides the higher-priced coffee, a cheaper
coffee, of which a large cup with milk and sugar
shall be sold for not more than fifteen pfennige
(3.6 cents), and without milk for ten pfennige (2.4
cents), and the inspectors are to see that this
cheaper coffee is of good quality and in sufficient
quantity, especially when early morning trains are
due.
He has also issued a circular on care for employes
while resting at such times as they cannot be at
home. " Efforts should be made," he says, " to
provide proper shelter and an opportunity for warm-
ing their meals, making coffee, etc. Such provision
should be and presumably is made in the baggage-
car for train-men, but it is still more important to
have it at stations and places where men work, where
track-men and station-men may be compelled to
wait long without occupation and to take their
meals. Experience shows that at such times the
men are especially liable to indulge in intoxicating
drinks. This temptation should be lessened by
giving the men clean and comfortable places to
stay, stoves, etc., for warming the meals they bring
with them and for making coffee. When this is
AND PASSENGER POST. 2/5
done, the railroad authorities can take severe steps
against those who drink to excess. Further, a
sharp watch should be kept on the station buffets,
and the keepers of them who furnish drink as well
as the offending employes should be complained
of."
The regard for the poor and for employes ex-
pressed in these regulations is in striking contrast
with the attitude of some of our private railway
managers to the general public and to their em-
ployes.
But this business of public transportation reaches
beyond the boundaries of nations. It is emphati-
cally an international matter, a world business, and
it was so recognized when the diplomatic repre-
sentatives of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy,
Luxembourg, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Russia,
and Switzerland signed the " Convention inter-
nationale sur le transport de marchandises par
chemins de fer," at Berne, October 14, 1890.
This treaty, it is true, deals, for the time, only
with international freight, but that it must extend
to cover the entire business of public transporta-
tion is certain. Every three years or sooner, if one
fourth of the treaty-making states demand it, a
general Congress must be called together, to con-
sider improvements in the agreement. Any state
may withdraw from the convention at the end of
three years, on giving one year's notice, but no
such notice has yet been given. Any violation of
the treaty can be punished in the courts, and a
276 A GENERAL FREIGHT
judgment having been rendered in one country, the
courts of the others are bound to assist in its execu-
tion, unless the decision conflicts with their laws.
But so far as a question of fact is concerned there
is no appeal, and a German court is bound to ac-
cept the findings of a court in France. Germany,
Austria, Hungary, Russia, Switzerland and, to a
less extent, France have embodied provisions of the
international code in their internal codes, thus lead-
ing to unification beyond the limits of international
traffic.
" This international code governs all shipments
of goods from or through one of the states to
another. It provides for uniform through-bills of
lading, prescribes routes for international traffic,
fixes liability in cases of delay and loss, prohibits
special contracts, rebates, and reductions except
when publicly announced and available to all, and
prescribes certain custom-house regulations.
" Not the least important feature of the treaty is
the creation of a central bureau, organized and
supervised by the Swiss Bundesrath, with its seat
at Berne. The duties of this bureau are:
" (i) To receive communications from any of
the contracting states, and to transmit them to the
rest of them.
" (2) To compile and publish information of im-
portance for international traffic, for which purpose
it may issue a journal.
" (3) To act as a board of arbitration on the ap-
plication of the countries concerned.
AND PASSENGER POST.
" (4) To perform the business preliminaries con-
nected with proposed changes in the agreement,
and, under certain circumstances, to suggest the
meeting of a new conference.
" (5) To facilitate transactions between the rail-
roads, especially to look after those which have
been derelict in financial matters. After notice
has been given by the bureau, the state to which
the railroad belongs or by whose citizens it is
owned, can either become responsible for the debts
of the road or permit the expulsion of the road
from international traffic."
This International Transportation Union covers
a domain embracing nearly three millions of square
miles of territory and two hundred and sixty mil-
lions of people. Well may Dr. Meyer say that it
ranks in importance with the international postal,
telegraph, and copyright unions; it far outranks
them all.
But though all nations were united in a world-
wide system of transportation and communication,
and though each nation contributed its full share
to the support of these united public services both
on land and sea, even such an International Trans-
portation and Communication Union would fall far
short of its possibilities of human service so long as
the tolls levied for the support of these public works
were determined by the value of the service ren-
dered to the individual rather than by the cost of
the service to the different governments.
The utter lack of scientific method in the present
278 A GENERAL FREIGHT
system of determining transport tolls is almost in-
comprehensible.
Although the analogy between the ordinary busi-
ness of the postal departments of the nations and
the general business of public transportation is
absolutely perfect, no great traffic manager either
of any private or of any state system of transporta-
tion seems to realize it. No officer either of any
railway or of any state government seems to under-
stand that in transportation both by railway and by
steamer, the cost of the business is in the machin-
ery and in the movement of the machine, not in
the distance traversed either by persons or by pro-
duce on the machine.
The axiom, so clearly stated by the railway
authority Wellington, in his Economic Theory of
Railway Location, that a railway is a public-service
machine built for the express purpose of equalizing
opportunities for all mankind to labor and to enjoy
the fruits of their labor, a machine, the cost of run-
ning which is practically the same whatever the
distance a man or his produce may be carried upon
it this axiomatic truth still remains to be embodied
in law and to be carried out in practice.
The absurdity of the present system of tolls
levied by the common carrier was perhaps never
more clearly set forth than in a letter written by a
cotton manufacturer of Manchester, England, on
the 2oth of November, 1897, to the Manchester
Guardian. It appears that English ships were at
that time charging nearly sixty per cent, more for
AND PASSENGER POST.
279
the carriage of English cottons from Liverpool to
Shanghai, China, than for the transport of American
cottons, from New York via Liverpool to Shanghai.
The rates were 25^. 6d. per ton from New York.
" " " 4os. " " " Liverpool.
Including the toll on the raw material from New
York to Liverpool, the discrimination against the
English product was as follows :
AMERICAN.
Per piece.
ENGLISH.
Per piece.
Difference.
12
14
T1
lb. sheetings.. ..
" drills.....'.'.'.'
<t.
1.64
1.91
I QI
d.
3-23
3-75
37 t
d.
1-59
1.84
i 84
8
f jeans
A.y A
I.OQ
/ J
2 14.
i O1
y
***y
The letter closed with the statement that this dis-
criminating tax levied on English goods by these
English common carriers amounted to 7.12 per
cent, of the wages of the operatives engaged in
making the goods. The cotton manufacturers of
England were then contemplating a five per cent,
reduction in the wages of their hands. This man-
ufacturer showed that if the English common car-
rier would serve his own countrymen on the same
terms that he served their rivals, it would be pos-
sible to increase the wages of the English cotton
operatives by 2.12 per cent., and at the same time
28O A GENERAL FREIGHT
to sell English cottons at Shanghai at five per cent,
below the then ruling prices at that port.
Early in January, 1898, there was a very general
reduction in the wages of the cotton operatives of
New England of from ten to eleven per cent., and
it was said that if the cotton business of New Eng-
land was to continue, the share of the operatives in
the value of the goods they helped to produce
would have to be reduced sooner or later by at
least twenty-five per cent. This first cut in wages
was made in the face of an increased cost of living
estimated at thirty per cent. It will hardly require
a twenty-five per cent, reduction in their wages to
bring down the New England cotton operative to
a condition quite as pitiable as that of the miners
in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania.
Would you seek out the causes of these evils ?
You will find the chief of them in the transport
taxes across custom's boundaries and on either
side of custom's boundaries, taxes always levied
on the principle of exacting the very last drop of
the life-blood of the victim.
Professor Hadley says: " The railroad and the
steamship determine the location of industries quite
as often as the government." When the govern-
ment, the railway, and the steamship are combined
for the destruction of any particular section, as
would seem to be the case in the present instance,
its doom must be surely sealed. The railroad is,
however, practically the one deciding factor in the
location of modern industries. Within very large
AND PASSENGER POST. 28 1
limits, the railroads of this country determine where
steamers shall collect and deliver their loads. Com-
bined with the steamships, as they generally are,
they control the movements of the people and of
their produce both by sea and by land. I am told
that except for the combination of the railroads
controlling the movements of cotton to Southern
ports, it would be possible to get the raw material
to the cotton-mills at Fall River, Mass., at very
much lower rates than are paid at present. Ves-
sels not in the combine cannot get cargoes. Abra-
ham Hewitt attributes the decay of the heavy iron
industries of the east to the costliness of getting
materials together. The chief factors in that cost
are transport taxes and customs taxes.
In February, 1889, some five hundred of the iron-
masters of New England joined in a memorial to
Congress in which they directly charged the Penn-
sylvania Railroad and its New England allies
" with having apparently formed a deliberate plan
to destroy the iron and steel industries of New
England with a view to securing to Pennsylvania
the manufacture, and to itself the Pennsylvania
road forever, the transportation of her iron and
steel goods. While it the Pennsylvania- New
England combination brings into New England
manufactured iron and steel goods at comparatively
low rates, and while it carries back to Pittsburgh,
at the same or lower rates, the scanty supply of
scrap iron and old rails produced in New England,
and constituting almost the only available supply
282 A GENERAL FREIGHT
of raw iron of the New England mills, it imposes a
high freight charge upon the coke which forms the
staple and only fuel for the steel making and foun-
dry work of New England.
" The intention to keep raw material scarce and
high, and to introduce manufactured iron and
steel at low rates, until under the combined pres-
sure of customs duties and discriminating freight
rates, the New England iron and steel industries
are killed off, is too clear to be mistaken."
And then the memorial goes on to say that the
surviving mills engaged in heavy iron work in New
England owed their existence chiefly to the fact
that the manufacturers of New England " have
through the compulsion of circumstances, been
systematically engaged in the degradation of Amer-
ican labor in New England. A skilled operative in
a New England rolling-mill does not, on an aver-
age, receive one half the pay that a man similarly
employed in a Pittsburgh mill receives for the
same work," and yet, says this memorial, the only
cause for the decadence of the iron industries of
New England is the prevailing system of transport
taxation.
As long ago as 1871, the Railroad Commission of
Massachusetts, headed by Charles Francis Adams,
Jr., issued the following statement to the people:
" All sums exacted from the community for trans-
portation, whether of persons or property constitutes
an exaction in the nature of a tax, just as much a
tax as water rates or the assessments on property
AND PASSENGER POST. 283
or the tariff duties on imports. That it is wholly
or in part a necessary tax, one which can, at most,
only be reduced to a certain point, but never abol-
ished, this in no degree affects the principle. IT
is STILL A TAX. The reduction of this tax to the
lowest possible amount paid for the greatest possi-
ble service rendered, always observing, of course,
the precepts of good faith and the conditions
of a sound railroad system, this must be the great
object which the Commissioners retain always in
view."
And again they say that it is doubtful if this
transportation tax weighs as heavily upon a farming
and agricultural region (like the West) as it does
upon a manufacturing district as peculiarly situated
as Massachusetts.
"It here appears in every possible shape; it is
encountered at every step. ' It may be safely
asserted that there is no branch of Massachusetts
industry which is not carried on against competitors
more advantageously located. This state has few
natural advantages; everything with her depends
on the intelligence of her people and the COST OF
TRANSPORTATION. Every reduction of the trans-
portation tax acts then as a direct encouragement
to the industry of Massachusetts, just as much so
as if it were a bounty or a bonus ; it is just so much
weight taken off in the race of competition. Such
is the nature of THE TRANSPORTATION TAX; it
next remains to inquire as to its amount, ' and the
Commissioners estimated that in the year 1871, the
284 A GENERAL FREIGHT
amount of this tax was $13.81 per head of all
the citizens of Massachusetts, men, women, and
children, nearly seventy dollars per family, or
about as much as all the other taxes levied in the
state together. Taking a particular case, that of
the Washburn Company of Worcester, the Com-
mission said that a reduction in the transportation
tax on coal alone, brought by the Providence &
Worcester and the Boston & Albany roads for the
use of this company, from $1.65 to 85 cents, would
amount to a reduction in their annual power tax
from $29,700 to $15,300 a year, or three per cent,
on its capital. This may make all the difference
between success and failure."
And yet these taxes still continue to be levied by
private individuals who keep up their toll-gates at
every cross-road and (save to their favorites) allow
communication between one town and another only
on condition that the value of each man's purse is
accurately measured and the greater part of the
contents are turned over to the gate-keeper. This
statement, though not quite true as to each particu-
lar piece of merchandise or to the individual travel-
ler, is altogether true as to the principle on which
the general business is transacted. The tolls levied
on travel are actually higher in many cases than
they were in 1850, and we have seen the statement
of Mr. George M. Mead of Boston to the effect
that in some cases the tolls on freight are fifty per
cent, higher than they were in 1871.
Is it any wonder that, under these conditions,
AND PASSENGER POST. 285
the whole world of business and of labor is in
chaos ? Is it any wonder that under these condi-
tions the sky is dark, the atmosphere thick with
omens of coming storm ? And yet the remedy for
these evils is so simple that even a little child might
understand it.
Let the National Government assume its legiti-
mate function as the manager of the National high-
ways, the collector of the taxes levied for the
support of these highways, and let these taxes be
determined on the cost of the service principle,
and the nation will quickly emerge from its present
darkness into a marvellous light.
Whether the substitution of the Government
of the United States for the Government of the
United Railways is to be quiet and peaceful or
whether it is to be attended with lightning and
tempest will depend on the wisdom and the cour-
age of the men who compose the National Council
at Washington. Upon them lies the responsibility
of the hour.
If Congress passes the bill which we have sug-
gested, or if similar legislation be enacted before
the masses of the people are rendered desperate
by unnecessary suffering, there will be no tumult.
If the needed legislation be delayed too long, we
will not answer for the consequences.
Whatever happens, we have done our best to
point the way to a prolonged era of happiness and
prosperity for our country, and not for our country
only, but for the world.
286 A GENERAL FREIGHT
" Men, my brothers, Men, the workers, ever reaping some-
thing new ;
That they have done but the earnest of the things that they
shall do ;
" For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonders that would
be;
" Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic
sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly
bales ;
" Heard the heavens filled with shouting, and there rained a
ghastly dew,
From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue ;
" Far along the world- wide whisper of the south-wind rush-
ing warm,
" With the standards of the peoples plunging through the
thunder storm ;
" Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags
were furl'd
In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World."
(ALFRED TENNYSON.)
CLOSING NOTE.
The New York Tribune, of Sunday, December 12,
1897, gave a glowing account of the success of the
municipal tramway lines of Great Britain for the
preceding year. The Glasgow lines were managed
so efficiently and economically that the net profit on
the business of the past year was $416,335 after all
interest charges on the investment in tracks and
plant had been met. And this followed a reduc-
tion in fares, a shortening in the hours of the
AND PASSENGER POST. 28?
operatives and an increase in 'their wages. The
facilities of transit were increased and cheapened;
public comfort and convenience promoted, and
the grievances of operatives removed. And what
occurred in Glasgow occurred in the other towns
of England where the tramways were owned by
the people. In Leeds the annual profit was $59,-
170. Municipal management was undertaken in
that city mainly for the sake of redressing the
grievances of conductors, engineers, and drivers,
who were underpaid by the tramway companies and
compelled to work fourteen hours a day. Hudders-
field has kept down profits by unprofitable exten-
sions of the service and by a reduction of fares,
but it had a balance of $31,495 to its credit.
Sheffield's profits out of her tramways for 1897
were $36,650. Blackpool, serving its 25,000 people
with an electric railway, made a profit of $14,920.
Plymouth also did a good year's business on her
tramways.
I wish here to express my acknowledgments to
my friend, Mr. Jay D. Miller of Chicago for his
inestimable service in assisting me to formulate my
bill, and also to the host of others the managers
of the New Haven Road among them to whom I
am indebted for the information which I have
gathered together in this volume. If ever I have
struck a blow at an individual, it has been not out
of malice but because in him has seemed, at times,
to be incarnated the evils of the system which he
represented.
288 A GENERAL FREIGHT
THE LAST STRAW UPON THE CAMEL'S BACK.
The latest fiat of our Imperial Railway Court
pools one American railroad with another and in
the process increases the National Debt by the sub-
stitution of $100,000,000 of 3^ per cent., hundred
year, paper made, gold promising, bonds for $50,-
000,000 of railroad stock. In other words, under
this railroad decree, we, our children and our
children's children to the third and four genera-
tion are to be saddled with the annual payment of
$1,750,000 in gold, on $50,000,000 in bonds that
represent to their issuers only the cost of so many
pieces of printed paper and at the end of one hun-
dred years, our descendants are to be compelled,
at the point of the bayonet if necessary, to give up
so much of their flesh and blood as may be requi-
site to transform these paper issues into solid gold.
The capital stock of the controlling railroad in
this instance is $100,000,000. The balance of the
railroad stocks of the United States is something
over $5,000,000,000. With a few more strokes of
the Imperial Railway pen, these $5,000,000,000 of
railway stock will be transformed into $10,000,-
000,000 of bonds ; the entire National Railway
System will be pooled under one management and
the National Debt of the United States will be
brought up to a figure vastly higher than it was at
the close of the Civil War.
The total tax levied by our private railway man-
agers on the people of the United States for the
payment of the dividends on the outstanding rail-
AND PASSENGER POST. 289
road stocks of the United States, in 1896, was $87,-
603,371. Under the impending imperial regime
this tax will be increased to $350,000,000 annu-
ally ; this is in solid gold and it will be collected as
rigidly and as mercilessly as were ever the taxes
levied by the Emperor of Rome upon his subject
provinces.
It is towards this goal that things seem to be
rapidly tending.
APPENDIX.
ONE MORE STRAW.
54TH CONGRESS ) CWVATP $ DOCUMENT
20 SESSION \ \ 177
WEIGHING THE MAIL UPON THE SEABOARD
AIR LINE IN 1896.
THIS document which I have just received is
such a commentary on " Railroading under Present
Conditions," and so complements my work that I
feel compelled to give a summary of it here, with
the omission only of proper names.
Every four years, the mail transported over one
fourth of the railway system of the United States
is weighed during a period of thirty days, and upon
the average weight thus determined depends the
compensation of the various railways for the follow-
ing four years. During the quadrennial weighing
in March, 1896, upon the Seaboard Air Line,
whose Main Line extends from Portsmouth, Va.,
to Atlanta, Ga., there occurred the following
curious incidents: About three hundred sacks of
documents franked by Senator and Repre-
sentative were sent to the various station
290
APPENDIX. 291
agents of this company in Virginia, North Caro-
lina, South Carolina, and Georgia ; the sacks
weighed one hundred to one hundred and twenty-
five pounds each; two, three, four, or five sacks
were sent to an agent; in RAILROAD MAIL the agents
received envelopes containing slips of paper, or
labels, franked by Senator and addressed to
various persons at various offices in Georgia and
South Carolina, a large portion of the addresses
being RAILROAD EMPLOYEES or postmasters.
Some agents were furnished by railroad officials
with lists of addresses in North Carolina and Vir-
ginia. The division superintendents and road-
masters gave oral instructions to the agents under
them as to pasting on labels or writing addresses
on the books which were not previously addressed,
but tags of sacks were addressed, " All for "
(who is railroad agent at that point). The books
were then remailed and again transported over the
routes of this company, to be again weighed.
Fifteen sacks were delivered at , Va., ad-
dressed in bulk to General Superintendent .
That night the books were addressed in the rail-
road building by his secretary (Williams) and a di-
vision superintendent (Wishnant) and remailed the
following morning to various addresses along their
route. A newspaper ( , N. C. , ), learning
of the transaction, published a short article headed
" A Mistake," stating in substance, that a United
States Senator, in mailing documents to his con-
stituents, had, by mistake, addressed them to station
2Q2 APPENDIX.
agents along the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, to
be remailed to his constituents, etc. A division
superintendent ( ), learning of the article, pro-
ceeded to the town ( - ) and induced the editor
to cut the item out of every copy of his paper, on
the ground that it would hurt the road.
To protect the Government from this attempted
padding, the Department ordered the weighing to
be continued for thirty days during April. The
railroad company then resorted to a new scheme by
contracting with publishers of newspapers for a
large number of papers to be sent over their
line daily to addresses furnished by the com-
pany. At , Va., General Superintendent
arranged with The to send 6800 copies
daily for ten days and after that 2400 daily, in
bundles of twenty-five to each address, to par-
ties in South Carolina and Georgia, on the
Line. At , N. C., , private secretary
of , arranged to have 6000 copies first week,
8000 copies a week afterwards, of a weekly paper
( ) to be sent weekly in bundles of forty-five
to each address, to be sent over the Line
to stations in South Carolina, Georgia, and a few
in North Carolina. At , Ga., , private
secretary of Division Superintendent , arranged
with the Journal for 2000 copies daily, to be
sent over the Line to Norfolk and Portsmouth,
Va., 1000 addressed as regular subscribers, the
other 1000 as sample copies. Arrangements were
also made with the to send 5600 of each Sun-
APPENDIX. 293
day issue of The Constitution to addresses in Nor-
folk and Portsmouth, Va., this amount to be divided
up and 800 copies sent each day, 400 by morning
train and 400 by night train. A copy of each
Sunday's paper is thirty-four pages, and weighs a
little over half a pound a copy. Norfolk and
Portsmouth city directories were furnished the
and to print labels for mailing papers to
parties in those cities. Several of these parties had
moved from those cities, had died, or the addresses
were not known. Had this weighing been accepted
by the Department, the Line Railroad would
have received for the next four years a much larger
compensation than they were entitled to.
Mr. , editor of the , told me he was
entirely in ignorance of the railroad company's
object in sending out the papers or he would not
have permitted them to have purchased the papers
from his assistant; he stopped the fourth shipment
of his paper, and was very much annoyed; would
prefer for the matter not to be made public.
Signed, H. T. GREGORY, Post-Office Inspector,
page 27 of Senate Document 177.
The total weight of the papers purchased by the
agents of the Line and sent over its line
during this second attempt to make an honest ad-
justment of its mail compensation was 20,100
pounds, and in addition to this there were also sent
443 pounds of franked documents, making the total
" padding " 20,553 pounds. (Page 33, Document
77.)
2Q4 APPENDIX.
Page 93 of this interesting paper contains a letter
to the Postmaster-General, from "One who knows,"
dated N. Y. City, June 19, 1896. This letter goes
over practically the same ground as the statement
made by Mr. Gregory, but adds that the business
was conducted " by the general superintendent on
an order from the vice-president and general man-
ager. The division road-masters did nothing else
for several weeks but look after this line of busi-
ness." Postmaster-General Wilson, however, had
already at hand all the evidence he needed of the
double attempt to defraud the Post-Office and as
early as May 25, 1896, had directed the Attorney-
General to institute such proceedings as would
lead to the indictment of the guilty parties and, if
possible, to their conviction.
June 23, 1896, the Postmaster-General wrote to
the Rev. , editor of , Raleigh, N. C., as
follows :
" DEAR SIR:
" The statement published by the United Press
as to the effort of certain officials of the Seaboard
Air Line to pad the mails during the weighings on
that railroad and its connections is amply sustained
by an investigation made by this Department, and
I have placed the papers in the hands of the Attor-
ney-General with the request that he shall proceed
criminally against all those engaged in this effort.
" The statement purporting to come from the
general superintendent of that road, recently put
APPENDIX. 295
out in the papers, does not meet the charges, and
you need have no fear of a libel suit for giving
currency to any of the facts contained in the state-
ment given out by the Department or any proper
comments upon it. I have been myself surprised
at the failure of the newspapers to hold up the
action of the railroad people to the merited con-
demnation of the public.
" I write you this, not for publication, because
I do not think, as head of the Department, I ought
to go into the press, but for your own satisfaction,
and in reply to yours of the 1 5th instant.
" Very respectfully,
"WM. L. WILSON,
" Postmaster-General."
Page no, Senate Document 177.
The final outcome of the matter, however, was
the virtual success of the railroad and the defeat
of the Government.
Dec. 22, 1896, Attorney-General Harmon wrote
to the Postmaster-General that he had several
months before put the case into the hands of the
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
Virginia, but he had neither prosecuted the case
nor reported upon it. He had finally resigned,
and the matter was then in the hands of his suc-
cessor. Careful investigation showed that there
could be little doubt that a gross fraud had been
perpetrated upon the Government, but the laws
were insufficient to reach the criminal.
296 APPENDIX.
Jan. 16, 1897, the railroad company received the
comforting assurance from the Second Assistant
Postmaster-General that though they had sinned to
the extent of sending on an average 909 pounds of
illegitimate matter through the mails, between
Weldon and Atlanta, during the weighing period,
their increased compensation for the next four years
would nevertheless be 42 per cent.
Verily, " The ownership of the highways ends in
the ownership of everything and everybody that
must use the highways. ' '
The issue of the hour is,
The Government of The United Railways
vs.
The Government of The United States.
INDEX.
Act, Interstate Commerce, 106, 107 ; proposed amendment,
no
Acworth, W. H., on variability of American railway rates,
36 ; makes cost of occupying otherwise empty seat in
passenger train, one-half a cent for a ride of 410 miles,
80; on parcels post of Great Eastern R. R., of England,
248
Adams, Charles Francis, a railway rate is a tax ; high rates
ruinous to industry, 282-284
Adams Express Co. pay T % of a cent a pound to railroads for
a service that costs Post-office eight cents, 241
Advantages of proposed scheme, 149
Ainslie, S. R., Manager Blue Island Line, says that a uniform
five-cent fare is more profitable than a three-cent-a-mile
fare, 213
Alexander, E. Porter, railway manager, favors uniform rates,
105
Anarchists, railways make, 115, 116
Anderson, J. C., Freight Agent, N. Y., O., & W. R. R., de-
stroys business Howell Bros., 53, 54
Angeles, Los, distance from San Francisco, 400 miles ; time
from San Francisco, 24 hours, 102
Anthracite coal roads combine to take $40,000,000 from con-
sumers, 115
Association, Joint Traffic, pooling reduces expenses of some
companies, $150,000 in switching alone, 93 ; rules with an
iron hand, 101, 114 ; controls fifty railroad companies and
a thousand million dollars of capital, 167, 176 ; makes
excursion rates one hundred percent, higher in 1896 than
in 1895, 101 ; organized Nov. 19, 1895, 167 ; opinion New
York World, 166-170; opinion Chicago Tribune, 175-
179 ; discriminates in passenger rates, 171 ; raises freight
rates, 170, 183 ; president controls steel trust, 158; presi-
dent places Association above the National Government,
156
2Q7
298 INDEX.
Average, freight tax for the average haul of 126 miles, $1.09,
94 ; cost of stop of train, forty cents, 74 ; earnings actual
capital invested in American railway stocks, 18 per cent.,
and on actual capital invested in bonds, 4.36 per cent.,
114 ; load American passenger trains, 44 persons, in 1894,
144 ; load Indian railways, 250 passengers, 136 ; capacity
passenger train probably over 500, 144 ; number round
railway trips taken by Englishmen, ten, by Americans less
than five, per year, 135 ; haul of freight in Middle States,
93.40 miles, and average tax per ton per haul, less than
64 cents, 210 ; average train represents $365,000 capital,
229 ; average haul and rate per haul, various railways,
2ii ; average passenger train-loads on various roads and
effect on cost of service per passenger, 226, 237
Belgium, enriched by low railway rates, Ireland impoverished
by high rates, 86
Belgium, rates in, 85
Bell, Congressman, on sheep pelts and railways, 165
Bell, Horace, on railway rates in India, 81
Berlin, steamer, unloads and loads in 17 hours, 147
Berne made capital of railway Europe by international con-
vention, 275
Bill, resume of, for extending Post-Office over all Public
Transportation, 192-205
Blanchard, George R., Rate Maker for Joint Traffic Associa-
tion favors uniform rates, viii, 122, 205 ; shows Govern-
ment of United Railways to be far more powerful than
Government United States, 160 ; acknowledges Govern-
ment ownership to be the only practical solution of the
railroad problem, xxi, 205, 254
Blue Island Line, Chicago & N. P. Road adopts uniform five-
cent fare, 212
Boston & Maine R. R. passes, 49, 50, 55 ; milk contract, in
Boston Herald, on abolishing traffic associations, 211 ; on evils
private ownership, 206
Bridgeport pays corvee, $400,000, 64
Brooklyn Bridge, low fares increase both traffic and earnings,
228
Bryce on railway kings, 37
Buchanan, Daniel, experience on Northern Pacific R. R., 45
Bush, S. P., Supt., Motive Power Penn., R. R., west Pitts-
burgh, says there is practically no difference in cost of
hauling loaded and empty cars, 209
INDEX. 299
Canadian Pacific R. R., uniform rates, 125
Car, electric motor weighs 32 tons, carries 96 passengers,
makes 324 miles a day, 220
Car, freight car mileage, forty per cent, empty, 209
Car, loaded freight, cost of haul on Soo Road, one cent a mile,
on Union Pacific, two cents a mile, 83
Cars, 25,000 passenger cars on American roads, 223 ; 1,200,000
freight cars, 224
Cars, Government postal, would pay for themselves in one
year, in
Central, N. Y., absorbs Lake Shore and by railroad decree in-
creases national debt $50,000,000, 288 ; privileged dealers
on, 28 ; enriches A. T. Stewart by freight discrimination,
30 ; its local business pays cost through business, 71 ;
short distance passenger traffic, in 1897, seven times its
through traffic, 236 ; average passenger trip, about 30
miles, 236 ; side tracks as long as main line, 74 ; fifty
cents a ton a profitable rate for 440 miles, Buffalo to N.
Y., 92 ; hauls 1800 tons on some trains, 92 ; adoption of
air-brakes and block-signals reduces hands on through
freight trains one-third, while doubling capacity of trains,
92 ; half its stock water representing only the speculative
possibility of its power to extort so much taxes, 114; to
cut out curves and shorten line would reduce power to tax
local traffic, 71 ; when its power becomes supreme it will
give character of postage-stamp to its transport tax, 105
Charge per haul per ton, various railways, on Michigan roads
58 cents for an average haul, 75.84 miles, 211
Chicago Belt Lines tax eastern traffic ten dollars a car, 185,
186
Chicago Great Western R. R., by reducing grades slightly,
can increase train-load from 460 to 650 tons with no in-
crease of cost per haul, 209
Chicago, B. & Q. locomotive makes 495 miles a day, 225
Chicago Strike, 191
Chicago Record on uniform five-cent fares, Blue Island Line,
212
Chicago Tribune, on dangers private ownership railroads, 175
-179
Choate, Joseph H., on milk contract, D., L. & W. R. R.,
with Westcott, profits suspicious, $52,000 a year, 52 ; cost
service to railway, eight cents per can per haul, 118
Classification of freight, 143, 144
Clergymen and passes, 56
30O INDEX.
Cleveland, Canton & Southern R. R., excursion, 286 miles for
75 cents, profits enormous, 91
Cleveland Pittsburgh Road charges 55.3 cents per ton per
haul of 79.5 miles, 211
Cohn, Gustave, on government ownership R. Rs., Prussia, 254
Coleman, John A., " Fight of a Man with a Railroad," policy
the N. H. Road to make public afraid to fight for its
rights, 60
Colony, Old, R. R. refuses to carry the mails, 65
Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. pays freight on iron bars down
grade, 1559 miles, Pueblo to San Francisco, 3^ times the
rate over the mountains 3331 miles N. Y. to S. F., 165
Cooley, Judge, favors uniform rates, xiii
Cooper, R. A., on Free Railway Travel, 134
Cost of carrying passenger in seat otherwise empty, one cent
for ride 410 miles, 80
Cost of service, xviii-xxi, 5, 21-25, 76-79. 118, 128
Cost of stop of average train, forty cents, 74
Cost per passenger mile various roads, on Genesse Road, 67^
cents per mile, on N. H. Road, 1.305 cents, 237
Cost to railroad often greater for a short than for a long haul,
22, 23, 98, 99
Courant, Hartford, on result low fares third-rail electrics, 218
Crockery, English, shipped from Liverpool to Denver, Col.,
for 31 cents per hundred less than American crockery
from Trenton, N. J., 165
D
Davies, Turner & Co., express rates, New York to London,
245
Debt of Railroad Government seven times that of National
Government, 160
Deficit, postal due to high railway charges, 5-7, 66, 67
Delaware, Lackawana & Western R. R., milk contract with
Westcott, 52 ; favor uniform rate on milk, ix
Demurrage, wasteful of car equipment, 94, 145-148 ; under
bill but eight hours, 204
Denver, crockery carried from Liverpool for less than from
Trenton, N. J., 165, 166
Depew, Chauncey M., trusts built up by railroads, 27-31 ;
laments decay of small towns, 72 ; policy, as absolute
ruler of U. S., 139 ; railway rates should have character
of postage-stamp, 105, 106
Docwra, Wm., establishes Penny Post in London in 1683, 9
Dunster, Henry P., on a parcels post, 95
INDEX. 3OI
Earnings, present passenger equipment of U. S., under pro-
posed scheme, probably over $1,000,000,000 a year, 233 ;
of freight equipment as much more, 148
East India Railway fares, 81-88
Economic Journal on success Prussian railroads, 254
Electricity on standard railroads, 216-225
Employees on American railroads, cheapest on earth, 137
Engineering Magazine on success, zone system of Hungary,
227
England, private ownership of railroads a great evil, Lord
Macaulay, 257 ; reasons for continuance, 258 ; iron indus-
try, much hampered by high rates, 98
English ships illustrate absurd system of transport rates,
rates on cotton goods from New York, via Liverpool to
Shanghai one-third less than from Liverpool to Shanghai,
279
" Equality of Opportunity," Article in Arena, Dec., 1895,
Equipment railroads, 229
Evening Post, New York, on steel trust, 157
Export and import rates, 32-34, 165, 179-184
Express, Adams, rates of, 243 ; pays railroads forty per cent,
receipts, 241
Express companies, rates exorbitant and uncertain, 18, 19,
1 20 ; character of, 243, 244 ; carry second-class matter for
one cent a pound, 241 ; rates, New York to London, in
loo-pound parcels, 2^ cents per pound, 245
Fall River cotton industry imperilled by high freight rates,
280, 281
Fares, Railway, 1850-1896, N. Y., N. H., & H. R. R., 41 ;
Indian railways, 81, 133 ; Belgian railways, 85 ; Trunk
Line war, 87 ; English railway war, 1865, 1855, 89, 90;
excursion in Ohio, 1895, 91, 144 ; low fares refused, 101 ;
on Southern Pacific road, six cents a mile, 102 ; on London
& Northwestern of England, 133-136; Hungarian rail-
ways, 126, 227 ; Canadian Pacific, 125 ; Russian railways,
84; third-class, support railways, 131-133; first-class do
not pay cost, 133, 134 ; influence low fares on Manhattan
elevated road, 127 ; commuters of consolidated road,
136 ; Savannah electric, one cent per trip profitable, 140;
Blue Island uniform five-cent fares, very profitable, 213 ;
Brooklyn Bridge, low fares increase both traffic and earn-
3O2 INDEX.
Fares, Railway (Continued],
ings, 228 ; Chicago & Northwestern, $1.00 for round trip,
174 miles ; S. R. Ainslie R. R. Manager, says a uniform
five-cent fare is more profitable than a three-cent-a-mile
fare, 213 ; Col. H. N. Heft, of New Haven road, favors
uniform fares, 220 ; high American fares deprive masses
of use of railroads, result in empty cars, unprofitable
business, 226, 227, 236, 237 ; H. G. Prout finds American
fares much higher than English, 234 ; London County
Council finds workingmen's fares on English private roads
78 percent, higher than on state roads of Continent, 235 ;
third-rail electrics, New England road's ten-cent fare
for nine-mile trip quadruples the traffic, doubles the earn-
ings of old 23-cent fare, 226 ; Nantasket Beach electrics
reduce fares from 28 cents to ten cents triple traffic and
largely increase earnings, 221 ; low fares on Great East-
ern Railway of England very profitable, 135
Fares, proposed bill, 196-201 ; argument for, 212-238
Fawcett, Postmaster-General of England, author of parcels
post, 12 ;" Fight of a Man with a Railroad," 59, 60
Findlay, Sir George, manager London and Northwestern R.
R., on the parcels post of England, 13
Fink, Albert J., cost of long haul less than of short haul, 98,
100
Fitchburgh R. R. milk contract, in
Freight Bureau cases, 183
Freight cars, number in the U. S., about 1,200,000,223,224;
cost of haul loaded car on Soo Road one cent a mile, on
Union Pacific, two cents, 83 ; cost of haul the same
whether full or empty, 209 ; forty per cent, of mileage
of freight cars, empty, 209 ; of Middle States, earning
less than $6.40 per haul of loaded cars in 1896, earn
nearly 5 per cent, on capitalization of $82,000 per mile of
road, 210; loss to railroads from use private cars, $30,000,-
ooo a year, 146
Freight cars, substitution of steel for wood, will make a
possible saving in haul of dead weight alone of $31,250,000
a year, 212 ; loss by demurrage enormous, 146 ; waste of
capital in misused equipment, $124,000,000, 146 ; in 1894,
earned less than $1.90 a day, 145
Freight cars, through cars carry three times the load, way cars,
98 ; average car does but 12 days' full work in a year, 95
Freight convention of European countries makes Berne
capital of railway Europe, 275
Freight discriminations, effect of, Chauncey M. Depew, 27-
30 ; Bryce, the historian, 37 ; A. B. Stickney, railroad
INDEX. 303
manager, 36 ; W. H. Acworth. 36 ; Interstate Commerce
Commisson, 184 ; James T. Wait, 161 ; New York World,
167-169; Chicago Tribune, 175-178 ; Readville case, 107
Freight discriminations in favor of one section against another,
George J. Kindel, on Colorado cases, 165, 166 ; George
Rice on Oil Trust, 173, 174 ; New England iron masters,
281-283 ; Minneapolis against New York State by N. Y.
roads, N. Y. Evening Post, 35 ; case, Colorado Iron
and Fuel Co., 165 ; California fruits, Van Oss, 101
Freight discriminations in favor privileged individuals, Swift
and Co., 29; A. T. Stewart, 30; Statement Hepburn
Committee, 30, 31 ; Statement Springfield Republican^
116, 117
Freight discriminations in favor of foreigner against citizen,
legalized in England by charter Stockton and Darling-
ton Road, 32 ; in United States by Supreme Court
decision in Texas and Pacific case, 34 ; common in Europe,
34, 35 I widely adopted in United States, statement Ikert,
Ohio, 33 ; Interstate Commerce Commission, 179, 183
Freight rates proposed bill, 203, 204 ; argument for, 205-212
Freight traffic, through traffic but an incident of railroad
business, way traffic the Penn. Road ten times the through
traffic, 100
Freight trains, through trains on the Penn. haul 1,350 tons,
on the new N. Y. Central 1800 tons ; ave. trains New
Haven Road, about 143 tons, 98, 99 ; at 50 cents. a ton.
Central's iSoo-ton trains on trip Buffalo to N. Y. would
earn profit of $300,92 ; paying load may be increased 20
per cent., with no increase of gross weight, 93
Frewen-Moreton, on effect low uniform fares, 87
Gait, Wm., on low English fares, 90 ; favors uniform rates,
119
Gazette, Railroad, on ownership New England by railroad, 38 ;
on cost haul in heavy freight trains, 92 ; on refusal ex-
cursion rates, 101
Genesee and Wyoming Valley road, cost per passenger mile,
67^ cents, 237
German Empire, Committee of, on government ownership,
254 ; effects of government ownership, 254, 255 ; parcels
post, 14
German railroads managed as a uniform network in interest
general traffic, 264, 265
304 INDEX.
Gorman, Senator, on railway extortion the cause postal
deficiences, 239
Gowen, Franklin B., on gifts to railway favorites, on one trunk
line, $100,000,000 in course of twenty years, 49
Grades often cost more than distance, 73 ; slight reduction on
Chicago Great Western will allow increase train-load
from 460 to 650 tons with no increase in cost of haul, 209
Great Eastern Railway, parcels post, 96, 97, 246-248 ; low fares
for workmen, 135
Grierson, A. J., General Manager, Great Western Railway,
' ' The ideal system of railway rates will be based on
postal principle," 119
Grouping of station with uniform rates growing rapidly, 120-
128, 206
H
Hadley, Prof., cost of haul train-load 600 tons, where good
canal can run from 30 to 40 cents a mile, 78 ; railroads
locate industries, 280
Haines, President, American Railway Association, mileage
basis of rates fallacious, misleading, untrue, 69
Harper's Weekly, advocates free rural delivery the mails, 249
Hartford, capital. Conn., workmen hindered by railroad from
earning a living in New Britain shops, 214
Heft, Col. H. N., of New Haven Road learns importance of
uniform rates from street-railway experience, 220 ;
advocates use of electricity on standard railroad, 221
Henry, John C., enormous economies possible from use
electricity on railroad, Florence to Cripple Creek, Col.,
224
Hepburn Committee investigation, 30
Herald, N. Y., on coal trust, 63
High fares ruinous to passenger business, 214
High freight rates, cause stagnant industry, German opinion,
272 ; English opinion, 98 ; American opinion, 167, 177 ;
Charles Francis Adams as to effect in Mass., 282, 283,
opinion, New England iron masters, 281 ; cause
Pittsburgh strike, 60 ; depress New Jersey agriculture
$10,000,000 a year, 58 ; effect on South Carolina, 43 ;
effect on California, 101, 102 ; rob Connecticut farmer,
40; ruined farmers in state of Washington, 45, 46
High speed more profitable than low speed, 82
Hill, Sir Rowland, 1-4, 12, 22, 23
Holland, demurrage limit, eight hours, 142
Horse-power, Californians give up railway for, 102
INDEX. 305
Howell, Bros., ruined by railway, 53
Hungary, railway rates, 126
Ikert, of Ohio on freight discriminations in favor foreigners,
33
India, railway fares, 81-83, 133
Ingalls, M.E., R. R. Manager, on railway lawlessness, 163
International Freight Convention, Europe, 1880, 275-277
International Parcels Post Convention, 1880, 12-14
Interstate Commerce Commission, in 1887 decides milk case
in favor of uniform rates as best possible system for all,
viii, 121, 122 ; in 1897, opposes uniform rates as not " pro-
tecting " nearby producer in control home market, xii,
xviii ; comparison through and way traffic, 100 ; Report
on condition railway affairs in 1897, 179-186 ; Report of,
1895 and 1897, as to value of railroads, etc., 229, 231
Interstate Commerce Committee of Congress, speech of C. M.
Depew before, in 1893, 27, 105, 139
Ireland ruined by high transport charges, 47, 86
J
Jerome Cotton case, as cotton goes down rates go up, 164
Johnson, Cave, Postmaster-General on railway extortion, 1845,
6
Joint Traffic Association, see Association
Journal of Commerce, says Traffic Association rules business
with iron hand, 101
K
Kasson, John, projector International Post, 12
Kindel, George J., on freight discriminations, freight Liver-
pool to Denver, $1.12 per 100, Trenton, N. J., to Denver,
$1.53 per 100, 166
Le Fevre, Shaw, Postmaster-General, England, on a parcels
post, 1 8
Legal administration Prussian roads, 263-266
Legislature, Connecticut, business of, says R.R. official, to
guarantee railroad dividends, 216
Lennep, Rhenish City, argument in favor low rates, 272
306 INDEX.
Letter and parcel rates, of my bill, 201, 202; argument for,
238-250
Lewins, William, author, Her Majesty's Mails, 5
Lloyd, Henry D., author Wealth vs. Commonwealth, "Owner-
ship of the highways ends in the ownership of every-
thing and everybody that must use the highways," 157
Local rates much higher than through rates, 70 ; business
much greater than through business, 100 ; service much
poorer than through service, 70
Local-traffic office, duty in Prussia, 266
London County Council, English workmen's fares 78 per cent,
higher than continental fares, 234, 235
London Spectator on parcels post, 17
Loud, Congressman, favors express companies at expense Post-
office, 240
Louisville & Nashville R.R., 5.11 cars in a passenger train,
less than ten passengers in a car, 236
Louth, a town twenty-five miles from London, 22
M
Macaulay, Lord, on error of England in allowing private
ownership of railroads, 257
McConnell, Supt., motive power Union Pacific Road, on cost-
moving freight, two cents per mile per loaded car, 83
Mail and Express of N. Y. on power of Joint Traffic Associ-
ation, 159
Mail railroad transport, possible saving under Government
ownership, over $20,000,000 a year, 242
Manchester Guardian, absurdity of present system transport
rates, 278
Manhattan Elevated Road, effect of stops, 74 ; effect of low,
uniform rates, 127
Massachusetts, manufactures oppressed by railroads, 280, 281
Mead, George M., freight rates on consolidated road 20 per
cent, higher than twenty-five years ago, 207
Mellen, General Freight Agent, on policy consolidated road,
40
Merchants' Excursion, N. Y., 171
Meyer, B. H., on Prussian R.R. Administration, 263-277
Mileage basis, rates fallacious, misleading, untrue, 69 ; causes
waste in building new lines, and prevents straightening
old lines, 70, 71
Mileage, freight cars 40 per cent., empty, 209
Milk cans, R.R. rates on, -% R.R. rates on mail bags, 244, 245
Milk case, rates uniform up to 330 miles, viii, xii, 121 ; Con-
tractor Westcott's profits $52,000 a year, 52-54, 245
INDEX. 307
Milk contracts, Fitchburg, B. & M. roads, in
Minister Public Works, the chief R.R. official of Prussia, 263
Mississippi Valley Medical Association, express companies
carry second-class matter to, for i cent a pound, 241
Monaghan, Consul, on marvellous success government owner-
ship railroads in Prussia, 255
Money, railroads may be paid for in orders on Government for
railroad services, these orders, the best money, 251-253
Morrison, Wm. E., as member I. C. C., in 1887, opposed de-
cision in milk case in favor of uniform rates ; decision
reversed under his chairmanship in 1897, because it de-
prived nearby producer of monopoly of home market, xiii
N
Nantasket Beach Line, uniform fares profitable, 221
Newcomb, H. B., average freight car does but twelve full
days' work in a year, 95
New England R.R., high fares ruinous, low fares, high profits,
189, 213-220, 225 ; contract with Adams Express Co.,
241
New Haven Register on " Third-Rail Prospects," 222, 223
New Jersey agriculture, loses $10,000,000 a year through high
local rates, 58, 207
New York Central, see Central
N. Y., N. H., & H. R.R., owns southern New England, 39,
187 ; power terrible to public, 58-60, 64, 218 ; local ser-
vice very poor, 70 ; parcel rates absurd, 248, 249 ; freight
rates exorbitant, 40, 206, 281, 284, grouped rates, 124;
proposed uniform rates, 129-131 ; its policy to prevent
men living in one town and working in another, 214;
compelled by trolley competition to apply electricity and
reduce local fares over fifty per cent. , finds traffic quad-
rupled and earnings more than doubled, 213-223
N. Y. Times on " Board of Control," 170
N. Y. Tribune on success public ownership tramway lines,
286
N. V. World on Joint Traffic Association, 166-169 ; on Oil
Trust, 175
North American Review, on railway discriminations, 161
O
Oss, Van, author American Railroads as Investments, on
fraudulent issues of stock, passes, 57-62 ; actual invest-
ments in stocks pay 18 per cent., actual investments in
308 INDEX.
bonds, 4.36 per cent., 62 ; on destructive rates, S. P. R.
R., 101
Outlook, The, on Swiss purchase of railways, 256, 257
Packet service of England, curious things sent, 9
Palfrey, Congressman, 1849, on benefits cheap postage, 8, 259
Parcels on English railways, rate 2O-pound parcels, T 4 ^ a cent
a pound, 95-97, 246-248 ; on N. H. Road, 249
Paris, steamer, loads and unloads in less than three days, 147,
N. E. freight car allowed eight days, 94
Passenger rates, U. S., high, 40 ; local service poor, 70 ; traffic
pooled, result business ruined, masses cannot travel, 188,
214, 226, 236 ; an average rate 10 cents a round trip all
the ordinary man can bear, 199, 200
Passenger trains, average loads, 144, 226, 237
Passes, B. & M. R.R., 49, 50, 55 ; Penn. R.R., 56, 57, West-
ern roads, 57
Patronage R.R. kings dangerous, 153
Peabody, James, editor R.R. Review, uniform rates a natural
sequence, government ownership railroads, 208 ; railroad-
ing under existing conditions (high fares) passenger busi-
ness ruined, 188, 227 ; on railways cheating Post-office,
61
Pennsylvania R.R. and clergymen, 57
Penny Post, 1837, I ; 1683, 9 ; proposed, 201, 202
Pooling, effects of, under private management, country en-
slaved, 26-40, 158-187, 281, 283 ; on way freight traffic,
40-46, 70, 189, 206 ; on passenger service, see passenger
rates ; under public management, natural and profitable,
148-154, 205, 208-212, 232, 233, 242, 250, 254, 261, 262
Postal matter, proper classification, 17, 196, 201-204
Postal scheme for Consolidated road, 129 ; general application,
141, 143, 190-205 ; adoption of, will kill trusts, restore
prosperity, 149, 151, 259-262, 285
Postal system, principles of, 21
Post-office, railway service compared with service rendered
milk contractors and express companies, 68, 243-245 ;
cheated by railways, 61, 240
Public ownership a success, 85, 126, 127, 254, 255, 265, 287
Pullman travellers transported at expense of the poor, 133
R
" Railroading under Present Conditions," 188, 226, 227, 236,
237
INDEX. 309
Railway Age reports capitalist as practically absolute in de-
termining transport taxes, 161
Railway Government compared with National Government,
160
Railway lawlessness, 162, 182, 183
Railway locomotives haul twice loads of five years ago and
with fewer hands, 137, 164
Railways, London to Reading, Eng., for one and one-half
years carried passengers the round trip, 134 miles, for
75 cents first-class, 50 cents second-class, with no loss to
stockholders, 89
Railways supported by ordinary travel, high-class travel un-
profitable, 133-135
Rates, export and import, 33-35, 179-184 ; Stockton & Dar-
lington charter allows through rates to be lower than
local rates, 32; variable, 31; lower than local, every-
where, 34; high, 40-46, 163-166, 206, 281-284; group-
ing of, universal, 121-127, 206 ; discriminating, 27-32,
101, 107, 116, 162, 165, 174, 184, 281
Readville case, 107
Republican, Springfield, on anarchists, 115
Review, Railway, on railways cheating postal department, 61 ;
uniform rates a natural sequence, Government ownership,
208 ; railroading under existing conditions, high fares,
poor business, 189, 227
Revolution impending, 63, 64, 285
Rice, George, of Marietta, Ohio, on Oil Trust and discrim-
inations, 172-175
Richards & Co., C. B. express rates N. Y. to London, 245
Riots at Pittsburgh due to railway restrictions on business, 60
Russia, fares in, 84
Scalping tickets sold brokers by R. R. agents, 183
Seats occupied on American trains, one in six, 236
Snow, W. M., of Boston, condemns transport policy N. E.
roads, 206
South Carolina farmers ruined by high rates, 43
Sparks used for fuel by N. H. road, 222
Spectator, London, on parcels post, 17
Sperry, N. D., of Conn., introduces postal bill in Congress,
191
Stickney, A. B., Railway Pres., on trusts, 27 ; on discriminat-
ing taxes, 36 ; on anarchists, 115
Stock, railway, fraudulent issues, 62 ; Lake Shore Road, 288
310 INDEX.
Stops of trains cost forty cents each, 74
Straw, last on camel's back, 288
Swift & Co. , indicted for receiving rebates, 29
Switzerland votes to purchase railroads, 256
Supreme Court decisions against common interest, 33, 34, 179-
184, 187
Taxes, railway rates are, 283, 284
Terminal expenses, 75
Terminals have lower rates than intermediate stations, 32,
107, 165, 184
Texas & Pacific case, 33, 179
Third-rail electrics, 218-223, 225, 232
Times, Hartford, on railway government of New England,
37
Times, JV. Y., on Board of Control, 170
Transcontinental and way traffic, proportions of, 100
Treaty, international freight, Europe, 275-277
Tribune, IV. Y. , on success public ownership English tram-
ways, 287
Trip, average, 99, 136, 140
Trips, per capita, per year, Eng., U. S., 135
Troy case, decision Supreme Court gave railroads absolute
power over business between terminals, 184, 187
Trumbull, " The Highway a Symbol of Government," 156
Trust, oil, 172-175
Trust, railway, 167
U
Uniform rates, adopted within wide limits at the first organiza-
tion of the Post-office by James II., of England, rejected
when Post-office became an instrument of taxation, in-
stead of a public service, 1-3 ; re-adopted under Rowland
Hill in 1889, 3-4 ; argument for, 5, 8, 22-24, 257-262 ;
application of principle to parcels by post-offices, 9-15 ;
to parcels by Great Eastern Railway in 1896, 97, 246-
248 ; to milk cans and bottles on certain Am. roads,
to \ a cent a pound, 121-123, 2 44- 2 45 I to second-class
matter by express companies, 241 ; application to general
railroad traffic suggested by C. N. Yeomans, formerly
President New Haven & Northampton R. R., 119;
favored by English writers, R. Brandon, Wm. Gait, A.
J. Williams, Geo. Waring, and by the English Ry.
Manager A. J. Grierson, 119, 143 ; favored by Am.
INDEX. 311
Uniform rates (Continued).
R. R. writers, A. M. Wellington, vii, 72, 201 ; E.
Porter Alexander, 105 ; James Peabody, editor R. R.
Review, 207, 208 ; principle agreed to by officers Joint
Traffic Association, Chauncey M. Depew, 106 ; Geo. R.
Blanchard, viii, 122 ; also by R. R. Manager H. N.
Heft, of N. H. road, 221 ; by lawyers, Judge Cooley,
viii, xiii, 121 ; Rogers, Locke & Milburn, of D.,
L. &W. R. R., ix, 123; and in 1887 by Interstate
Commerce Commission, viii, 121-123 ; principle of,
almost universally adopted on tramway lines, 120, 221 ;
success magical on Manhattan Elevated Road, 127 ; long
applied in freight traffic, 121-126, 180, 181, 206 ; applied
to passenger traffic widely in Hungary, 1889, I2 7 > a P-
plied to local passenger traffic, on Blue Island Line,
Chicago & N. P. R. R., in 1896, uniform five-cent fare
20 miles, 212 ; on Nantasket Beach Line, N. H. R. R.
in 1895, 221 ; argument for general application under
post-office, 20-25, 141-153, and Chapter V
Value of service, differs from cost of service, 23, 259, 260
Vilas, Postmaster-General, on imoortance government owner-
ship of postal cars, 65-67
W
Wait, James T.. on railway discriminations, 161
Walker, Aidace F., says railway managers waste over $30,-
000,000 in hiring private cars and do not use their own,
146
Wanamaker, Postmaster-General, on one-cent letter postage,
16 ; average haul mail bags, 442 miles, 240
Waring, Geo., author State Ownership of Railways, sup-
ports uniform rates, 119 ; on Belgium and Ireland, 86
Wellington, Arthur M., author Economic Theory of Railway
Location, supports uniform rates, vii, 72, 201 ; on
curves, grades, stops, etc., 71, 73, 78
Westminster Review, on political influence railroad monopo-
lies, 58
Wheatly, car-accountant, waste in misused car equipment
costs over $15,000,000 ; annually, 146
Williams, A. J., author State Appropriation of Railways, on
uniform rates and classification of freight, 119, 143
312 INDEX.
Wilson, Consul, on workingmen's trains of Belgium, 85
Wilson, Postmaster-General, weight of mails in 1895, 234,000
tons, 20 ; a one-cent letter rate very profitable, 238
Workingmen's trains, 85, 135, 234, 235
Wycliffe, Postmaster-General, on railway extortion and the
Post-office, 1843, 6
Yale Review, on earnings Mass, farmers, 199 ; on Pennsyl-
vania riots, 1897, 200
Z
Zone of Necessity, 197-201
Zone Tariff of Hungary, 126, 127
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