TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION J. 453 



The ton used in United States computations is 2,0001b., 

 and not the English standard. 



It is the practice in many x\merican companies' accounts 

 to state the passenger and goods expenses separately. The 

 apportionment is to a large extent arbitrary. Each railway 

 has until recently followed its own method of computation. 

 The labours of the Inter-State Commerce Commission during 

 the past three years have resulted in more uniform methods of 

 apportionment being adopted, so that among the American 

 managers those persons who are intimate with the conditions 

 under which different lines are w^orked, and the methods of 

 computation of accounts, will be in a position to judge of 

 results. 



Sleeping- and saloon-cars are largely run in the United 

 States, for which independent charges are made by separate 

 companies who own them. The revenues and expenses of 

 such companies are really railwa}^ revenues and expenses, but 

 they do not appear in the railway accounts. 



The terms "ton-mile," " passenger-mile," and " train-mile " 

 indicate merely the distance moved in each case ; they give no 

 indication of the work performed due to overcoming the 

 resistances of gravity or friction. 



The English railway companies give no data such as the 

 American. The utility of such details does not seem to be 

 generally admitted among English managers. 



Those wdio are interested in such matters will find Mr. E. B. 

 Dorsey's book on English and American railways compared an 

 admirable and interesting work. Mr. Dorsey is compelled to 

 resort to laborious estimates of English working results in 

 order to compare with x\merican statistics. The careful student 

 of such subjects will be impressed with the fact that no 

 sufticiently-accurate data about English working are recorded 

 to allow of very reliable inferences being drawn from the 

 comparisons. 



The primary object of railway working statistics is to en- 

 able the professional men in charge of the operations to judge 

 of and control the expenses of working and the operation of 

 the traffic. 



As an instance of the error into which capable writers are 

 liable to fall when unacquainted with the details of their subject, 

 a recent article in the Nineteenth Century by Mr. Jeans may 

 be quoted. This writer quotes from statistics the total tonnage 

 carried on American railways by all the companies, divides it 

 by the population, and deduces the " tons per head." Now, it 

 is well known that there are numerous companies in America, 

 and that the volume of through traffic is counted by millions of 

 tons. Each company counts each ton of its through traffic as 

 its own quite properly. But if we erroneously take all the 



