600 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



"The average rate on all the roads of the United 

 States, according to Poofs Manual of American Railways, 

 on all classes of freight, is 1.04 per ton per mile; while 

 the report of the Pennsylvania company show that on all 

 kinds of freight on a great number of more or less profita- 

 ble lines, the average rate of freight was only 8.98 mills 

 per ton per mile. The above figures would indicate a fair 

 and possible reduction of 16 per cent. But we have seen 

 that the railroads were charging 3QC for carrying a bushel 

 of wheat from St. Louis to New York. 



"This is 12.4 mills per ton per mile for the 1,043 

 miles of road. If we take the Pennsylvania rate to be fair 

 and just, there is an over charge of 3.42 mills per ton. 

 This is not taking into consideration the fact that wheat is 

 below the average class of freight, as they are rated. 

 Taking the Pennsylvania road as a basis, the above figures 

 indicate a possible, fair reduction of 38 per cent. A ton 

 of wheat at 39 cents per bushel from St. Louis to New 

 York, will cost $14; but twelve men, weighing a ton (or 

 about 170 pounds each), are charged $20 apiece, or at the 

 rate of $240 per ton. 



"We must take all the factors to arrive at a just basis 

 of rates. Coal has been carried in England, on roads cost- 

 ing nearly three times as much as our American railways, 

 for 3.2 mills per ton per mile." 



Assuming that the difference in the cost of the roads 

 would offset the difference in the class of freight, our own 

 roads could transport wheat for 3. 2 mills per ton per mile. 

 At this rate the cost of transporting a bushel of wheat 

 from St. Louis to the seaboard, would be a fraction less 

 than 1 1 cents, or a net saving to the farmers of the West 

 and Northwest of 28 cents per bushel. It is safe to say 

 that there is an extortion on the rates of corn and wheat 

 shipped to the seaboard of 20 cents per bushel. In 

 1886 we exported 180,000,000 bushels of wheat, for which 



