THE DECLINE IN RAILWAY CHARGES. 187 



west of the Mississippi River and sold at much, lower prices than 

 those named, in order to supply the denser populations located in 

 the Eastern States and in Europe. Grain and flour are now car- 

 ried from Chicago to New York over railway routes ranging from 

 nine hundred and twelve to a thousand and forty-two miles in 

 length, for twenty cents per hundred pounds, or only about four 

 and a third mills per ton per mile for the shorter distance. 



Dry goods, such as calicoes, Canton flannel, canvas, linen crash, 

 ginghams, jeans, and sheetings, are taken from Boston to Vicks- 

 burg, Miss., about fifteen hundred and seventy miles, for fifty 

 cents per hundred pounds, or a little more than six and a third 

 mills per ton per mile. The rate on canned goods, including 

 fish, fruits, meats, and vegetables, from San Francisco to St. 

 Louis over rail lines from twenty-two hundred and eighty to 

 twenty-nine hundred and fifty miles in length, is seventy-five 

 cents per hundred pounds, or about one half of one cent per ton 

 per mile. 



These are merely examples of charges on important articles of 

 commerce selected at random and without any intention of show- 

 ing the lowest charges in existence, as will be clearly apparent 

 when it is added that the average charge upon all freight traffic 

 carried by rail in the United States during the year ending on 

 June 30, 1894, was only 0"S66 cent per ton per mile. The average 

 for the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and the portions of New 

 York and Pennsylvania situated west of Buffalo and Pittsburg 

 was only 0"682 cent during the same year. 



Although the immediate effect of the introduction of railway 

 transportation must have been seen in rates very much lower 

 than any previously available, and the consequent extension of 

 the radii of the areas available for maketing surplus products, the 

 present exceedingly low charges have been reached through a 

 long and steady process during which the tendency toward lower 

 rates has become one of the most generally recognized character- 

 istics of railway development. While the existence of this tend- 

 ency has been generally remarked, little attempt has been made 

 to trace its extent, and even when the effort is made the investi- 

 gation is found to be attended with numerous difficulties, owing 

 to the absence of adequate records of the early period of railway 

 development. This is especially to be regretted in view of the 

 paramount importance of complete information regarding our 

 railway system, at a time when its effective regulation by legisla- 

 tive authority is one of the problems of government attracting 

 widest attention, and perhaps even more than others requiring in 

 its solution the co-operation of enlightened public sentiment with 

 ripe experience and skillful statecraft. 



Fortunately, many railways have preserved data showing the 



