The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-09-10
some THOUGHTS UPON A SUB.
JECT OF GENERAL INTEREST.

w Whlle II is un0enlaDle tnat some rail-
roads make glsring determinations in
their freight rates, and that some rem
edy should be had, it Is we'll not to lose
sight of the causes of these discrimins-
tions, and also to reflect whether they
are of such nature as 10 be
cured by legislation. These disclim-
4 nations are not the result OF
caprice, personal favoritism, nor pure
selfishnesss; they are the products of sgen-
cies that the railroads themselves canno.
wholly control. There are many consid-
erations bearing on the cost OF railroad
carriage The gradients of road have
much TO do with it; experiments prove
that 93-ton locomotive can haul 70
loaded cars, weighing l,4O0 tons over q
level road; 81 cars, weighing 655 tons,
over road having grade of 70 feet to
the mile, and only Is cars, weighing 800
tons, over road having grade of 90
feet to the mile 1t would therefore cost
twice as much to haul freight over road
with 2O-foot grade, and four times as
much to haul it over one of 60-fOot grade,
rs over level road. Then again, th5
cost of carriage is affected BY the cost Of
the road itself Ii there be two roads of
equal length, one built at cost of S2O,-
100000, the other built at cost of Sl0,-
100000, the former must earn twice as
much rs the latter to pay the same divl-
dend. The cost of labor and fuel has some
bearing on it also; railroads in Pennsyl.
vania and some parts of Ohio get coal at
81. so a ton, while those of Iowa and ILL
nois pay S4 to S5 ton-and 1t is said
that the price OF material and wages are
so per cent. greater IN some sections
than In others. The amount OF traffic
done is an important consideration, since
for manifest reasons road that carries
100000 tons of freight q year can carry
at lower rate than one that carries only
100000 tons. Careful estimates show
that while it costs only rs cents per ton
q mile to carry freight over the Louis.
per ton per mile TO carry it over the
Nashville and Decatur road, All cents
over the Knoxville branch, $50 cents
over the Richmond branch, and 1910
cents over the Glas 5ow branch the diff
ference being attributable to the
amount OF business done over the
roads respectively. The Now York
Central has sixteen miles of freight cars
passing over 1t daily; it is evident, then,
that it can afford to carry this immense
business at cheaper rates than n road that
has only two freight trains a day each
way. Another element affecting the
question is the distance freight is carried
the cost ol hauling n large distance
being less in proportion than short one.
Thus, on the New York Central road it
has been found that the cost of hauling
l30 tons 10 miles is q little over cents
ton per mlle-the cost steadily increas-
ing as the distance is increased 1t is as
serted by railroad men that there is more
profit to be made in carrying freight at
2 cents per mile on long hauls than at 3
cents on local traffic, in which the ex-
penses, increased by delay of cars at STA
tions, exceed the running expenses of cars
while in motion. The cost OF transporting
commodities in bulk is less thsn the cost of
Transporting them in separate packages;
the cost of carriage for u regular traffic IS
less than tor an irregular one; 1t is cheaper
to carry goods not liable to decay or
damage than goods of pesishsbe
nature; it is cheaper to carry goods IN
large than in small quantities; and freight
can be carried cheaper when the cars
that carry 1t have q return trip, than
when they are forced to return empty.
These facts present some OF the dIth
culties in the way of adopting uniform
transportation rate for all rosds and for
all distances, and show why railroad COM
psnies so stubbornly resist the imposition
of such rates. At the same time, there
is popular element in the question tnat
the companies are bound to take into
sccount-the good will of the people
living along the road. 1t may cost
to secure the good will; the
people may be unreasonable in their
demands and their complaints; never
theless they must be needed, for it will
cost more in the end to run road
through a hostile population than to con-
clllste it.
THE BETTER DAYS.
s