398 THE GBOUNDSWELL. 



granted, it was supposed, in the interest of the people. 

 Over the same road you can reach Sacramento, one hundred 

 and thirty-eight miles nearer than San Francisco, by paying 

 a like sum, or more than 5 cents a mile ; while it will cost 

 you 5.8 cents per mile to reach Denver, and the extortionate 

 charge of 6 cents per mile to go to Salt Lake, on a railroad 

 given by the government. 



Thus much for passenger rates. Let us now look at freight 

 rates, which is a more important question. The men who 

 need cheap food, cheap clothing, and cheap fuel, are less in 

 terested in travel than in keeping the wolf from the door. 

 They ought to travel, but they can not. Bread, clothing, 

 and fuel they must have. 



WHAT FREIGHTS COST, AND WHAT IS CHARGED. 



Going back to the Pennsylvania Company, we find it 

 admits being able to carry freight, in 1872, at .886 of a 

 cent per ton per mile, but charged 1.4163 cents, an advance 

 of nearly sixty per cent, over the actual cost. The Syra 

 cuse, Binghampton, and New York admits carrying at a 

 cost of .75 of a cent; the Lake Shore and Michigan South 

 ern at .95, and the Erie Railway at .98, according to the 

 New York report. 



The actual cost of carrying coal on the Providence and 

 Worcester Railroad, according to the report of the Massa 

 chusetts Railroad Commissioners, was six mills per ton per 

 mile. The Syracuse, Binghampton, and New York Railway 

 carried freight, through 1862, at a cost of .41 of a cent per 

 ton per mile, and in England coal has been carried at an 

 actual cost of .32 of a cent per ton per mile. 



This is what has been done and can be done again, with 

 due economy in management, but the charge that must 



