TRANSPORTATION RATES. 397 



TRANSPORTATION RATES IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED 



STATES. 



Compare these figures, now, with what the public is re 

 quired to pay. In Belgium, where we find the cheapest 

 known rates of regular passenger traffic, we find that, on 

 railroads costing one hundred and six thousand dollars per 

 mile, the charge for first-class rates is one dollar and fifty- 

 eight cents per hundred miles, or 1.58 cents per mile. This 

 seems to be a partial result of the fact that the government 

 there owns and operates forty-two per cent of the railroads. 



The charge is 2.52 in Italy, 3.12 in Prussia and Austria, 

 and finally, and greatest of European rates, in the United 

 Kingdom, where competition has been relied on, the Eng 

 lishman, traveling on a road costing one hundred and 

 seventy-five thousand dollars per mile, pays 4.50 cents per 

 mile for first-class rates. 



In Massachusetts the average rates for 1872 were 2.426 

 cents per mile; in New York, 2.3801 cents; in Ohio, 3.18; 

 and in Illinois, as nearly as I can make it out, 3.43 for 

 through rates, and 3.95 for local, or 3.75 for both. These 

 are the averages of large and populous States, in which, 

 and through which the current of travel flows broad and 

 strong; and which, consequently, give the more favorable 

 charges for railroad travel, although even these are far 

 above cost. 



But here is a table of prices &quot; adopted,&quot; we are told, but 

 not by whom, from St. Louis to the different cities of the 

 country. You can reach Boston at 2.3 cents per mile, 

 Quebec at 2.6, and Lynchburg, Va., at 2.7. To New Or 

 leans, Atchison, Cairo, Chicago, and Memphis you must pay 

 4 cents ; to Fort Scott, 4.6, and to San Francisco, 4.8 cents 

 per mile, over a road built by government gratuities, 



