646 APPENDIX. 



The item of transportation enters so largely into the cost of products delivered 

 at the great wholesale centers that no treatment of the subject of prices — espe- 

 cially from the farmer's standpoint — is complete without a consideration of the 

 relative prices of transportation. Unfortunately the data upon this subject, for 

 the earlier part of the period covered by the foregoing tables, are very meagre, 

 as to railroad transportation, and I have found no statistics, whatever, covering 

 transportation by sea or inland waters. The statistician of the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission supplied to the Aldrich Committee all the data relating to 

 early freight tariffs which could be gathered by that office. Since the creation of 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission the data are ample, but no one, that I am 

 aware of, has summarized the facts and constructed an index table or other 

 device to show the course of cost of transportation. The most convenient 

 method of showing relative freight rates is by a comparison of the average rates 

 per ton per mile. The information on this point which was available in 1893 

 will be found on page 615 of the Aldrich Report. From the facts there given"! 

 select the following. While they apply in each case, only to the railroads 

 named,* they will give an idea of the decrease in the cost of transportation 

 during the last quarter of a century. 



AVERAGE FREIGHT RATES PER TON PER MILE. 



SOME TYPICAL CASES SELECTED FROM DATA ON PAGE 615 OF THE REPORT 

 OF THE ALDRICH COMMITTEE. 



Average rate per ton per mile. 



Cts. Cts. 



Fitchburg Railroad 1852 3.12 . 1892 .925 



Central Vermont Railroad 1866 2.85 1890 .777 



New York & New England Railroad 1886 6.40 . 1892 1.155 



New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad .... 1857 3.80 . 1892 1.756 



New York Central Railroad 1855 3.02.1892 .700 



Lake Shore & M. S. Railroad 1854 3.51 . 1892 .687 



Cleveland, Cincinnati & St. Louis 1853 3.03 , 1892 .710 



Pennsylvania Railroad 1852 5.42.1892 .647 



Ohio & Miss. Railroad 1858 3.25 . 1892 .911 



Chicago & Northwestern 1868 3.13.1892 1.013 



Union Pacific Railroad 1872 2.34 . 1892 1.081 



Atchison, T. & S. F. 1873 3.10.1892 1.130 



The foregoing will give an idea of the reduction in cost of transportation, 

 and may be as valuable as an average for the United States were it known. 



APPRECIATION AND INTEREST. 



It is claimed by some that while gold has very likely appreciated, with 

 respect to commodities, interest upon invested capital has fallen so rapidly 

 that the possession of $10,000 of loanable capital will now bring to its owner 

 no more annual income than $5,000 would have procured in 1870. The table 

 below is from Professor Fisher's " Appreciation and Interest," in which, sub- 

 stantially, that view is taken. The figures are doubtless authentic but require 

 some explanation for the reader untrained in finance. The rates of interest 

 quoted are all upon securities upon which principal and interest can ordinarily 

 be counted on to be paid upon thu day lliey become due. The element of risk 



