The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-03-16
TartH Of RAILROAD Charges.

Mr.. Charles Eliet, Jr,, the most accomplished of
American engineers, has addressed an admirable
letter to the National Intellgencer the subject
Of railroad charges for freight and passengers
This able production shows the ruinous effects of
an improperly arranged railroad tariff, both from
understanding and overchargipg. The New York
and Erie Railroad, stock is worth next to nothing,
yet this road annually transports more than
million of passengers and over three quarters of
million Of tons of freight! The gross annual traf
nc OF this road, In freight, says Mr.. Elet, is about
equivalent TO eight milIions of barrels of flour,
nuneer which, laid side by side in row. would
extend from New York to London! Yet this mag
uiacent and most valuable Improvement does not
pay, because its managers have adopted an made
guate tariff of tolls. Another illustration men,
tioLed by Mr.. Ellet is the Reading Railroad Com
paDy, Pennsylvania, aud some idea of it's business
he gives by stating that 1t transports coal enough
.pery sir months to fill up the whole of Pennsylva-
mia Avenue, Washington, depth of forty feet,
from the basetof the Capitol to the Presidents
mansion, with vast quantities of merchandise, aud
heavy travel in addition. The stock of this road
10 selling for about oResir oneScUen of its par
value Mr.. Ellet also mentions four great pa
uies engaged in the transportation of the anthra-
cite coal Of Pennsylvania from the mines to the
eeabcerd, works which, with their outfits, have
cost about fifty millions of dollars. They carry
now about six millions of tons per annum, q mass
sufficient TO form pile forty feet wide, forty feet
high, and thirty miles long, yet, these companies,
overburdened with trade, each seeking to destroy
the others prosperity, adjust their charges as
to render the prosperity of any one Of them int
possible.
But il Is not only company that carries habit.
ually for less than cost that must 60 to ruin MIR.
Elicit expresses the opinion that "the iniu rious
consequences due to overchsrges are always great
er than those dns 10 uadercharaes' charge that
is too high reduces both the profits and the bust
of the road, and is consequently adverse both
70 the interests of the company and those of the
public. Again, to show how important to the
prosperity of 8 company correct tariff of charges
is-neither too high nor too Iow-he says: at il,
Idtc general, and susceptible of demo nstratiop,
that desiations from the charges which will yield
the greatest nett profit, will cause reductions Of
the nett revenue, proportional 10 the squire Of those
de,iatioRS. Hence, a deviation of only one mill
per ton per mile from the charge which CORES
ponds with the greatest nett profit, might cause
an exceedingly small diminution of the profit
while deviation Of cent would increase the
loss consequent on the deviation one hundred f,ld
or one hundred times as much as the deviation Of
one mile would have caused. This is an astoupd
ing fact, when 1t Is remembered, too that deyia.
ton Of one cent too high is even more Injurious
than deviation OF one cent the other way. MIR
Ellet, then, well asks the question, which should
rivet the whole attention of every railroad com.
pany: sWhat subject eau be presented to Board
Of Railroad Directors of greater impor tance, or
more worthy Of labor aud study than the prepare
ticn Of its tariff Of charges I"