PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 
2 9 
which gives $8,379,886.79, leaving the company a little more 
actual profit than they claim their gross receipts to be for freight. 
As to discount on their rates, I know of no one who is the bene¬ 
ficiary of such unbounded ‘‘charity ” and benevolence. There 
is one way, and but one, so far as I know, for the people to ascer¬ 
tain for a verity, the exact amount received, and that is, to ap¬ 
point officers of the law, armed with power to sciutinize the 
books and papers, and to personally see to it that the whole gross 
receipts are published. Until this is done, I do not say it for all 
cases—but as a general thing—the law might as well say to the 
owners of our railways—pay us just what you please for taxes 
and charge us just what you please for your services. It will be 
seen that grain furnishes but 21 2-10 per cent, of the freight 
moved, while on the St. Paul road the actual grain moved 
amounts to about 25 per cent, of the gross tonnage. 
I am indebted to Mr. Stevens’ valuable statistics for the follow¬ 
ing, which is credited to the auditor’s report, of New York, for 
1866. The New York and Erie and the New York Central rail¬ 
ways for that year moved 809,561,319 tons of freight one mile, 
while the canals—open less than one-half the time—moved the 
same year, 1,012,448,034 tons one mile. The railway charges, 
even under restrictive laws that do not govern in the west, were 
$20,282,943, while the canal freights amounted to $10,160,651,thus 
showing that the canals—open only about five months—actually 
moved 202,886,715 tons one mile more than the roads, and at less 
than half the expense. The same author states that it costs 30 
mills per ton per mile to move wheat from the Mississippi to Lake 
Michigan. This is correct, with a qualification, which makes the 
charge (10 8 cents per bushel) from Madison to Milwaukee,(80 miles 
by the short route) about 45 mills per ton per mile, or nearly 
the cost by all rail in 1872 from Milwaukee to New York. 
Mr. Stevens estimates, that after deducting the grain shipped by 
rail from points not approached by water, that not over five per 
cent, of the whole amount shipped, goes by rail. I am inclined, 
from all the data at command, to accept this as correct. He also 
states that of the 273,000,000 bushels of corn raised in four west¬ 
ern states, in 1865, only 25,000,000 bushels were shipped, or 
about one in ten of the whole crop. 
