396 THE GROTJNDSWELL. 



the producer and consumer. To show this, let us see how 

 cheaply passengers and freight have been carried, and, 

 again, how much they are charged under existing manage 

 ment. 



Take, first, passenger rates. We have the statement of the 

 Pennsylvania Company, for 1872, that it costs that Company 

 1.837 cents to carry a passenger one mile. The same state 

 ment admits a charge of 2.45 cents per mile, or thirty-three 

 and one- third per cent, above cost. I have no means of 

 testing the accuracy of this report, or ascertaining whether 

 the items of cost are legitimate, but I presume that, considering 

 the fact that the Pennsylvania Company includes a large 

 number of short lines, in somewhat remote and comparatively 

 sparsely settled districts, that it is probable there are many 

 &quot; oads whose transportation costs less to the railway com 

 pany and more to the shipper. Examining the report of 

 the State Engineer of New York, I find that, assuming cost 

 of maintenance of roadway (including taxes), cost of re 

 pairs and machinery, and cost of operating the roads, to be 

 the items of cost, that, in 1872, it cost, according to the re 

 turns given, an average of 1.645 cents per passenger per 

 mile in New York, while the charge was 2.3801 cents, or 

 nearly forty-five per cent, in advance of cost. 



These are about all the attainable figures of cost to rail 

 way companies, excepting that we know that, in England, 

 passengers have been carried at .42 of a cent per mile in, 

 first-class carriages, not only without loss, but with a loss 

 of only one-half of one per cent, in the dividends, and in 

 another case at .54 of a cent absolutely without loss, even in 

 the dividends. 



