334 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



whore it is a question of one or more car loads, no additional cost is incurred by the 

 railroad company; whether these shipments are made by one or more shippers it 

 costs the yame. There is no ground for discriminating in favor of the hirj^o sliipper. 

 There is no rule, no principle on whicii it can be established or defended. This policy 

 of discrimination jirevents the employment of small capital, and prevents the build- 

 iujy up by slow de<T;rees the industries of the countr}'. 



The people have either to be satisfied with all the evils of the transportation 

 business, of wiiicli they have made such bitter complaints, and which they have so 

 unsuccessfidly attempted to remedy by State lei^islation, or they have to establish a 

 judicious government over the railroads, compelling their proper management in 

 the interests of the public, without interfering with the legal property rights of the 

 owners of the road. The government has rights, and it is its duty to guard the in- 

 terests of the people, when the owners of the railroad use their property to their 

 injury; the same right that it has to prevent an individual from using his property 

 to the injury of his neighbor's property; no one will deny that. 



The question is merely, how is this right and dutj' to be exercised by the govern- 

 ment? How is it to prevent the improper use of the railioad propertj', while it 

 leaves its owner in the full enjoyment of it as long as they make proper use of it? 

 That is the simple question, tlie proper answer to which constitutes the solution of 

 what is called the railroad problem. And this is a practical question Avhich I propose 

 to solve in the manner described by an organized cooperation of the railroad compa- 

 nies under governmental sanction and control." 



Note B. — Cost of freight traffic on the Flint & Fere Marquette Railroad, 1877. Ele- 

 ments for this calculation were taken from the Report of the Railroad Commissioner 

 of Michigan. 



Total tons of dead and i>aying w^eight carried one mile. 1-19,633,600. 



Total tons of paying freight carried one mile, 27,148,939. 



From these results can be deduced (knowing also the weight of empty cars) the 

 relative proportion of loaded and unloaded cars, which was found to be 3.511 empty 

 cars drawn for each loaded one; consequently if the cars are all full going east, only 

 about one-eighth are full in returning. 



From the (lata furnished in regard to the passenger department, it is also com- 

 puted that for each passenger, there is drawn 3.59S tons of dead or non-paying 

 weight. 



The main difficulty in the solution of the question regarding the cost of freight 

 traffic is found, in the separation of the expenses of the passenger department from 

 those of the freight department. As it was found impossible to do this with any 

 degree of accuracy in regard to some elements, the inetliod was adopted of dividing 

 the total cost in various ways, of those elements in whicli the proportion was doubt- 

 ful ; then taking the sun> of the maximum results thus obtained, also the sum of the 

 average results and the sum of the least results, and by so doing ascertaining the max- 

 imum error. The elements of cost were divided on the basis of tonnage, mileage, 

 receipts and work, oi- i)roduct of tonnage by speed. 



The result was as follows: 



COST OF FREIGHT TRAFFIC. 



'J'otal Mmnl)er of ton* of paying freight carried one niiio, was 27,148,939, and con- 

 sequently the cost |)(!r ton per inih; was in cents, as follows: 



-Average, Ol.ni ; gn!atest, 01.64; least, 01.24; and consequently the j)rol)able error is 

 very sin;ill. The average cost of moving one ton in wfighi, whether dead or pa5'ing, 

 was 00.-. 81 cents; the maximum, 00.296 cents; the miniinum, 00.22 cents; or from 2.8 

 mills to 2.2 mills. 



