Production and consumption. 
2 7 
mile. The freights going eastward conlcl be quite easily assigned 
a distance, but those going westward could not, in the absence of 
any information by the company, be so easily determined. The 
whole distance being 200 miles, I averaged the way freight at 75 
miles, and to make all sure, I made a cast of the company’s report 
for way freight, and I found it to substantially agree with my esti¬ 
mate. I had thus found the long sought key, and although I do 
not believe it to be mathematically exact, still I believe the gross 
amount under rather than over the gross receipts, for the reason 
that in the final cast I have taken no account of that no inconsid¬ 
erable amount of freight which has been carried at one and a half 
and double first-class rates, amounting at twenty-five miles as 
high as 35c., or 350 mills per ton per mile, and since the Hurlbut 
bill in congress proposes to limit bulk freights over 750 miles to 5 
mills per ton per mile, and other freights in proportion, I am incli¬ 
ned to the belief that the actual rates charged by most of the roads 
vastly above the bounds of equity, especially since the rates al¬ 
luded to on the branch of road I have carefully computed, show 
that the receipts are now 300 per cent, over the tabulated confess¬ 
ions in the report to the stockholders. 
I cannot say that I fully concur with the National Board of 
Trade that rates ought not to be controlled by law, but I have a 
well settled conviction that no legal regulation ought to be at¬ 
tempted without proper data to enable justice to be done to all 
interests. 
A PRETTY CLOSE TEST. 
What the people are most interested in at the present time, 
when this transportation subject is the “previous question, ’ is the 
actual cost per ton per mile in moving freights. I am aware 
that this depends somewhat on the amount of business as well as 
facilities, and the nearest I can get at the cost is from the report 
of the Michigan Southern and Lake Shore Railroad Company. 
The through rates that govern on this line are on freights through 
to New York, near 1,000 miles. I have made a cast of the low¬ 
est rates published by that company in all the classes for through, 
which give an average of 1 95-100c. per ton per mile, and taking 
way rates between Chicago and Toledo—244 miles—the average 
is 2 47-100c. per ton per mile, making a compound rate of 
