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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 342 



violent antagonism toward them. Nowhere were greater induce- 

 ments held out to capital to supply railroad facilities than west of 

 the Mississippi, between the close of the war and the early seven- 

 ties ; yet in those very States, which owe their present" prosperity 

 and development to no cause more than to railroads, we see the 

 most rampant hostility displayed toward the creators of their 

 wealth. 



In the early days of railroads in this country, their profits reached 

 very respectable proportions. In some instances, where the lines 

 were especially favored in respect to location and physical surround- 

 ings, these returns were so large as to excite the cupidity of capital 

 to such an extent that, at several periods of the country's history, 

 the eagerness displayed by railroad constructors in pushing their 

 lines beyond the requirements of the territory resulted in plunging 

 the country into financial crises having far-reaching effects. But 

 the days of large profits appear to have passed. A railroad which 

 in the future can pay regular dividends of 5 per cent per annum, 

 will be regarded in much the same light as those which formerly 

 paid 8 and 10 per cent for years without intermission. 



In the Manual are three tables, showing the decline in freight 

 rates upon various railroads of the United States. Table No. i 

 includes seven leading Eastern trunk lines, running between 

 Chicago and the seaboard, and covers the twenty-four years, 1865 

 to 1888 inclusive. Upon these roads the rates received for trans- 

 portation of freight declined from 2.9 cents per ton per mile in 

 1865, to .609 of a cent per ton per mile, — a reduction of 79 per 

 cent within the period covered by the statement : in other words, 

 the railroads comprised in that statement received, in 1888, §21 for 

 ihe performance of a service for v/hich in 1865 they received $100. 

 What other business can show a corresponding decrease in re- 

 1 urns .' 



Table No. 2 gives like statistics for six leading Western trunk 

 lines running west, north-west, and south-west of Chicago, and 

 embracing the same period, 1865 to 1888. Upon these lines the 

 reduction equalled 73 per cent in the twenty-four years, or from 

 3.642 cents per ton per mile in 1865 to .934 cent in 1888. 



The thirteen roads embraced in these two tables are typical of 

 the entire railroad system. Upon the basis of the deductions here 

 shown, it may be assumed that the average reduction throughout 

 the whole country since the close of the civil war has been at least 

 70 per cent. To earn an amount equal, on the average, to that 

 earned twenty-four years ago, the railroads are now required to 

 perform a service nearly three times as great. YeJ:, notwithstand- 

 ing this, the cost cf operating the lines has not been decreased to 

 any appreciable extent. Of the total cost of operating a railroad, 

 fully 80 per cent is paid to labor in one way or another. Expenses 

 of this nature cannot be materially redu'ced : in point of fact, the 

 tendency is constantly toward an increase. The average rate of 

 wages paid by railroads is to-day as large as in 1865, if not larger. 

 It becomes plain, therefore, that the immense sums that have been 

 annually lost to the railroads of the country by their voluntary re- 

 ductions in rates have been a corresponding saving to the public 

 at large. A calculation of the sums saved to the public by these 

 reductions in rates during the past quarter-century would reach 

 far up into the thousands of millions. 



During all these years the railroads have met with most active 

 competition from the waterways of the countiy, upon which freight 

 can always be transported at about one-third of the cost of railroad 

 transportation. It early became apparent to the railroad companies 

 that to make their lines pay required an immense volume of traffic, 

 which could only be secured by the development of their routes to 

 a point where competition from waterways need not be feared. 

 With this view, tracks have been doubled, trebled, and even in 

 some cases quadrupled ; roads have been almost entirely rebiMit 

 with heavy steel rails ; locomotives and cars of double or treble 

 their former capacity have been constructed ; and trains have been 

 run with a frequency and at a rate of speed which were once con- 

 sidered to be among the impossibilities. 



The effect of all this is seen in the wonderful development of all 

 sections of the country, but particularly in the Western States, in 

 which the progress recorded in a short quarter of a century is 

 justly regarded as one of the marvels of the present age. 



In proportion to population, the earnings of the railroads in the 



States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiaria, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas were considerably 

 higher in 1888 than in 1870, being $18 per capita in the former 

 year as against |i2 in the latter, the increase being 50 per cent. 

 But this increase of averages is a very deceptive one, as, calculated 

 upon the basis of mileage, — the only true test, — the earnings in 

 1S88 were but $5,728 per mile, as against $6,753 pe"" "^''^ i" 1870. 

 The fal)ing-off of revenues in these States equalled more than 

 $t,ooo per mile, which for 1888 alone amounted to an aggregate of 

 $73,000,000. 



With these facts before us, it is difficult to understand the ex- 

 traordinary antipathy to railroad corporations now prevalent in the 

 West. The railroad mileage of' the West has advanced in far 

 greater ratio than the population, and the wealth and commerce of 

 that section have kept pace with the railroad mileage. Were the 

 railroads to be advanced only in ratio to the increase in population, 

 the situation in the West and throughout the country would present 

 an entirely different aspect, and public sentiment would experience 

 a corresponding change. 



The acreage of wheat and corn in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, 

 and Kansas in 1888 was 66,435,304 acres. No figures of acreage 

 in 1870 are obtainable, but it was undoubtedly less than 30,000,000 

 acres in that year. Without railroads, the products of this im- 

 mense territory would be to a large extent valueless ; but such 

 trifling matters as these are always dismissed from the considera- 

 tion of demagogues when they strive to excite the public mind 

 upon the rapacity and greed of railroad corporations. 



In point of importance, the railroad interest now takes preced- 

 ence of all other industries or enterprises. Its magnitude is greater 

 than any other interest in the world, and it has become so thor- 

 oughly a part of the economic system of the Republic as to be 

 second only to the government itself. 



In order to show how closely interwoven are the interests of 

 railroad stockholders and the working-classes of the country, a few 

 calculations are herewith submitted. 



If we estimate that in the operation of our railways there are 

 employed in prosperous times an average of six persons per mile of 

 road, it would show a total, on the basis of our present mileage, of 

 more than 936,000 persons regularly employed in connection with 

 that single interest ; and if to this number we add 780,000 — a 

 number representing an average of five to the mile — as the num- 

 ber of persons employed in connection with all those industries 

 which are directly affiliated with and dependent on our railway 

 system, such as locomotive and car building establishments, rail- 

 mills, etc., we have a total of jiearly 1,716,000, or an average of Ji 

 to the mile of railroad. Assuming that each of these would rep- 

 resent a family averaging five persons, we have an aggregate 

 population of 8,580,000, — nearly one-seventh of the total for the 

 country at large, — of which 90 per cent are actually dependent on 

 the railway system for the sustenance of life. If we allow, as the 

 average rate of wages of those employed in operating, say $450 

 per annum, and for those employed in locomotive building, etc. 

 say $500 per annum, we have a total pay-roll of $911,200,000 per 

 annum, of which at least $500,000,000 is directly chargeable to 

 operating account, while the remainder is for account of better- 

 ments, improvements, and new construction. Add to this the 

 amount paid to laborers engaged in construction in such a year as 

 1887. In that year there were built new roads whose aggregate 

 length was 12,984 miles. If we take, as the average cost of labor 

 in grading, track-laying, etc., for each mile of this total, say $10,- 

 000, and allow the average daily wages of laborers to be $1.50, 

 with, say, 100 laborers of all classes to each mile, this would show 

 the average time for the completion of a mile of railroad to be 67 

 days. On this basis, the construction of 12,984 miles of railroad 

 would give steady employment for 300 days in the year to an army 

 of 289,976 laborers, whose total earnings would be $129,840,000. 



This gives a total of 2,006,000 persons, to which we will add 

 44,000 as the number whose labors are stimulated by the employ- 

 ment of the 289,976 last mentioned, making a total of 2,050,000, 

 representing families numbering in the aggregate 12,250,000 per- 

 sons. To maintain this number, there would ba expended by rail- 

 roads and others under the above calculations at least $1,040,000,000 



