WESTERN EXPERIENCE. 399 



be paid by the shipper or consignee is a very different 

 affair. 



The lowest average of freight charges for 1872 that I 

 find credited to any extensive system of roads, is that of 

 the Pennsylvania Company, given already at 1.4163 cents 

 per ton per mile. The average amount received on the 

 New York roads was 1.6645 cents ; on the Massachusetts 

 roads (for local freights), 2.81 ; on the Ohio roads, 2.55 ; 

 and on the Illinois roads, 2.16 for through freights, and 

 4.72 for local freights, so far as I am able to figure averages 

 from the Illinois Railway Commissioners reports. The 

 lowest of these rates leaves a wide possible margin of profits, 

 and in some cases we can say how much. 



When the Syracuse, Binghampton, and New York Rail 

 way carried, at a cost of .75 of a cent per ton per mile, it 

 received 1.42 cents, or an advance of nearly ninety per 

 cent.; when it carried at a cost of .41, it received 1.26 

 cents, or an advance of more than two hundred per cent. 

 The Providence and Worcester, carrying at an actual cost 

 of six mills per ton per mile, received from coal consumers 

 an advance of over two hundred and thirty-six per cent, on 

 cost, or about two cents per ton per mile. These wide mar 

 gins are shown, it will be noticed, from what we, with our 

 western experience, would call very reasonable local rates; 

 and some would be glad to get as favorable rates, even on 

 long hauls. 



WESTERN EXPERIENCE. 



If we examine into our western experience, we find that 

 still more extortionate charges are made. Taking the 

 cheapest freights known to our western commerce grain in 

 bulk, shipped from Chicago to New York by rail we find, 

 from figures given by the Railroad Gazette, of Chicago, 



