MR. MIDGLEY S ARtiCLE. CONTINUED. 429 



of starting a train is the same for a large or small distance, 

 this may be fairly taken into account and justify an inequal 

 ity in the rates of carriage between different places.&quot; 



To load a freight car consumes twenty-four hours, and to 

 unload it and get it into use again a corresponding period. 

 Freight trains usually run about ten miles an hour, includ 

 ing stops, and a car carries about ten tons of freight. Sup 

 pose the rate 2c per ton per mile, and the distance to be 

 hauled ten miles, the time consumed would be forty-nine 

 hours, and the compensation for the service $2.00, or 96c 

 per day. But were the car sent on a continuous run of 

 1,000 miles at the same rate, it would occupy 148 hours, 

 and would yield the company $32.50 per day. The illus 

 tration conveys its own comments. 



If each local station could make up a train of freight, the 

 case might be different ; but such condition is not possible, 

 only at terminal points. For instance, Joliet is much nearer 

 Chicago than is Bock Island, and would, apparently, be en 

 titled to better rates. Yet its business costs a mere trifle 

 less. The train of empty cars leave Chicago, the required 

 number are dropped off at Joliet and other way stations, 

 and, at Rock Island, the return trip is commenced, upon 

 Which the cars left off to be loaded are picked up. Mean 

 time, these cars have been standing idle, during which time 

 they have earned nothing; and, as cars earn money only 

 when in motion, a reasonable rate, to insure a profitable re 

 turn, must be sufficiently large to balance the unemployed 

 time. 



The unauthorized statement that rates have been steadily 

 increased throughout the State of Illinois, during the past 

 few years, is maliciously untrue. The tendency has been 

 continually downward, as the following comparative state 

 ment of the average earnings per ton per mile will show : 



