The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-05-06

! Mr.. Albert Fink. the able General Super
intendent Of the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad, says in his last annual report:
The revenue derived from the through
! business is nearly 81 per cent Of the total
/ revenue. and over 81 per cent OF the local
earnings. Although it is generally conceded
that the transactions of a large through
I business over the road must prove Temuner-
I alive 10 the company, the fact that local IN
4 terests are thereby also greatly benefited,
/ Is hardly ever appreciated. Ii Is no doubt.
for this reason that local shippers consider
1t an act OF injustice to them-the builders
of the road that the railroad company
transports freight coming from distance,
or. in other words. through freight. at
lower rate than Is charged for LEGAL freight
/ They argue, and TO those who are Ignorant
of the principles which govern the case.
their arguments must appear plausible
enough, that the people who contributed
their means towards the building OF the
road should have the preference over those
who never furnished dollar for its construc-
ton. WeCe it merely question OF prefer
ence, this should certainly be the case. But
in reality the question is this: Shall the
through business be secured TO the road, or
shall be permitted TO pass over other routes
IL Is evident that II rates are not made 70
meet competing lines of transportation, this
class ofbusiness must be lost TO the company
altogether.
During the past year this Company re-
allied from through business alone the sum
of SSI2 $50 20, of which IS 16-lOO per cent.
was expended in operating the road, leav-
ing a nett profit of 1885 2l3 81. equal TO Sc
47-l00 per cent. of the entire net revenue
Thus people living at a distance, who had
nothing TO do with the building of the road. !
contributed largely towards making Ii sue
cessful enterprise. Nor are the owners of
the road alone benefited by this business
The sum of $477.622 s. operating expenses. |
was nearly all expended along tue line OF
no, trade hV iurrpas-
ing the wealth of the States through which /
the road passes. Now If this business had I
not been secured to the road at such rates as /
could be obtained, 1T would have been ne 1
ce sSaryeither to have increased the local /
rates 80 47-1OO per cent, or TO have reduced /
the annual dividend $40 per cent, leaving /
it at 40 instead of per cent, on the cap /
ital stock. But as long as the road Is oper- /
ated in the interest of all the stockholders. /
and not for the benefit of a certain class of /
shippers. the main object must always be to
secure a sufficient revenue to pay reason
able dividend on the capital invested. Hence
if the through business Is neglected, or Is
forced over rival routes on account OF high
rates. the local shipper must either contrib
ute the whole amount of the loss, or the
owners of the road lose the interest on their
capital, in which latter case heIocal ship
pers must still furnish the entire operating
exp enses. as otherwise the road could not
be kept in running order for any length of
time The unavoidable result, therefore,
would be TO raise the local tariff. while on
the other hand, with large through bust
ness, the company would be enabled to low
err it.
In view of these facts, it is apparent that
the opposition so frequently made by local
interests To the efforts of railroad companies
to secure through business by judicious eX-
tensions or close connections of their roads
with existing lines, whereby they might
reach sections of country otherwise inacces-
sible, or be put in condition to compete with
rival routes, must. if successful, invariably
prove detrimental both TO local interests as
well as to the interests OF railroad compa-
MES:
The larger the business of a road the
cheaper will be the cost of transportation.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pant, for instance, with receipts amounting
to about 5 100000 per month, and operating
about the same number of men as the Lou
svilIe and Nashville Railroad Company,
when the leased roads are included) carries
freight at Il cost less than one cent per ton
per mile, while it costs the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad Company. whose month";
~ revenue is only about $250,0OO 2S-lO0
cents per ton per mile.
Tie American Railway Times, in the
course OF an article on PRO Rata" writes
as follows:
That "A pro rata freight will not be a BEN
fit either to the railway or the public, we
have heretofore demonstrated, and we pro-
pose TO restate some of the figures and facts
which prove this. The interests of the rail-
way ana the public are identical, or should
be, and any deviation from this in practice
for any length of time is harmful 10 both.
There are many elements TO be considered
in this question, as the physical features of
the lines differ as much as the amount of the
traffic and the distance which each ton Is To
be carried. That a correct tariff should be
graduated and not prOrated for the different
distances is admitted by all who know any
thing whatever of railway matters; but the
exact scale or rate of graduation is a nice
matter TO settle. To be fair with long dis
tances we should not extract therelrOm a
greater profit per ton per mile than upon
charge per ton per mile, and yet get as much
profit from the long as from the short dis
tances, Will be seen approximately by the
following figures:
- Taking the fac from a railway report
which classifies the working expenses into .
the parts which are dependent upon the /
amount OF traffic moved. we find that the |
average distance travelled by a ton of freight /
was ] 20 miles: that the average cost of I
transport per ton per mile was % cents, and /
that the ration of what is called the constant /
expense, TO the whole, is 4,Tl, or 81 per /
cent.
The distance, 10 miles, at 0,96 of a cent |
per mile, gives as cost of a ton of freight 1
100 miles. 1852 cents, of which, "a per cent, |
or 80 cents are constant. while the remain /
ing &c cents are TO be divided by the dis /
lance l20 miles, giving the actual cost of /
moving the load 0,63 cents per ton per mile /
whence, for different distances, we form the (
following table:
~