RAILROADS AND THE FARMER 191 



farmers felt aggrieved to learn that the British railroads were 

 carrying large quantities of foreign eggs at lower rates than the 

 British farmer was paying for sending his own eggs to market. 

 This seemed like a bad case of discrimination. The individual 

 English farmer, with his comparatively small supply, forwarded 

 his eggs to market from day to day in small consignments. The 

 foreign eggs came in in large lots. One of the English railway com- 

 panies replied to the National Poultry Organization Society's 

 request for lower rates in this fashion: 



"If you will only send us eggs in 4-ton lots, as against the 

 very much larger quantities we received from abroad, we will 

 give you a rate which will be 25 per cent lower than we get as our 

 share of the through rate charged to the foreigner." The offer 

 was declined, because the farmers were not yet ready to deliver 

 this volume of business. When these farmers are able to deliver 

 this amount of business with some certainty both as to the volume 

 and the regularity of delivery, they will be able to secure service 

 and rates on the most favorable terms possible. We have already 

 seen, in the case of the Warren County (Kentucky) Strawberry 

 Growers, that as soon as they could guarantee quantity and time 

 of shipment, adequate transportation service was forthcoming. 



Railway Finance. American railroads are capitalized at much 

 lower figures than railroads in foreign lands. Here is the situation : 



American railroads are capitalized at $ 60,000 a mile 



British railroads are capitalized at 275,000 a mile 



French railroads are capitalized at 141,000 a mile 



German railroads are capitalized at 112,000 a mile 



On the other hand wages are higher in America than in foreign 

 lands. 



Average pay of American railway employe (before the war) $668 per year 

 Average pay of British railway employe (before the war) . . 251 per year 

 Average pay of French railway employe (before the war) . . 260 per year 

 Average pay of German railway employe (before the war) . . 382 per year 

 Average pay of Austrian railway employe (before the war) . 260 per year 



And the freight rates are much lower in America. Here are 

 the figures: 



Average charge for hauling ton of freight (before the war) 100 miles: 



United States $0 75 



England 2.80 



France 2.20 



Germany 1.64 



Austria 2.30 



Railroads and the Farmer. The railroads are devoting a great 

 deal of attention to the subject of agriculture. Their reason is 

 frankly a selfish one to make more prosperity for the railroad. 

 The roads with a federal land grant were interested in selling this 

 land. These grants amounted to 115,500,000 acres. All roads 



