500 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



eenger rates exist where there is the greatest traffic, and that " between 

 all the thickly settled portions of the State " the rates are considerably 

 lower than prescribed by the orders of the commissioners. An ap- 

 pended table in the same report shows that during the year 1881 the 

 principal railroad company in the State had forty-six stations from 

 which no passengers were carried, sixty-two from which the daily 

 average was from one passenger each two days to one in thirty days, 

 and there were forty stations to which no tickets were sold. It is in 

 these cases, the report explains, that the highest rates prevail. 



It thus appears that the discriminations which may be fairly exer- 

 cised as to persons are not affected by the personality, but by the 

 traffic. Like rates under like circumstances to all is certainly the 

 common rule in experience, and in nearly every State any violation 

 of this is properly prohibited by law. The railroad takes no cogni- 

 zance of the person, but exerts all its efforts toward developing the 

 traffic. The passenger who pays a cent and a half per mile for a 

 single-trip ticket may, if he chooses, buy a sixty-ride ticket at one 

 third that rate. The possibility of development depends upon popu- 

 lation ; it is greatest between great cities and their suburbs, and least 

 in the sparsely settled plains and mountains of the West. 



The discriminations which are popularly supposed to favor persons 

 in the transportation of freight, it will appear, are in a similar way 

 caused by the traffic, and not by the person. Some of these depend 

 on the difference between things, the remainder upon the differences 

 in the situation of places. 



2. Things. — There are some discriminations between things, the 

 justice of which will at once be recognized, as there is an obvious differ- 

 ence between them. Light and bulky articles occupying an unusual 

 amount of space should, if charged by weight, be charged at a higher 

 rate than more compact things ; fragile articles involve a greater loss 

 to the railroad from breakage, which entails a greater average cost in 

 their transportation ; and valuable commodities being more frequently 

 stolen, and as frequently lost, entail an extra rate to cover the insur- 

 ance while in transit which is assumed by the carrier. But, aside 

 from these obvious differences of bulk and value, which justify a 

 difference in rates, there are other discriminations between things 

 which will be found to be chiefly based on the volume of the traflic 

 and the possibility of its development. 



On examination we will find that the discrimination in these cases 

 also is justified by a difference in the cost of the service. Large quan- 

 tities are moved at a lower rate of cost per ton per mile than are 

 smaller quantities. A car fully loaded to one consignee is carried at a 

 great advantage over the same car })artially loaded with small ship- 

 ments to various persons ; and train-loads running through with grain 

 or coal, it will readily be seen, may be carried and handled at a lower 

 rate per ton per mile than shipments aggregating an equal tonnage 



