The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-03-13

last Ten years. IL was only q lew years
ago that James McIIenry, an English rail.
road statician, while on Avisit to this coun.
try, suggested 10 the President Of The Penn.
sylvania road that corn should be carried
from Chicago to Philadelphia fora cent
per ton per mile. lie showed even then
lin 1865 that while the cost OF conveying
800 tons Of corn from Chicago to Philadel.
phia at cent per ton per mile was but
81, 600 tho revenue from the carriage was
$1,000, more than half Of which would be
clear profit. At this time the Pennsyl.
vania road would be glad to be employed
hauling corn from Chicago to Philadelphia
at II cent per ton per mile. 1t would give
it, calling the distance S25 miles, $50 80
per car Of tentons, or 800 per car OF twelve
tons, which Is vastly in excess Of the earn.
ings Of her through freight to-day. w.
The day is at hand when we will zee the
Pennsylvania road, and all the trunk lines,
carrying frcights at still lower rates. Their
road beds are being so perfected every
year as to materially reduce the recon.
struction and repair account. We observe
that the whole Of the Fort Wayne line is
laid with steel rails except about 6S miles.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis
line has sol miles Of steel rails laid. This
gives the Pennsylvania road two steel
lines 10 the West, over which it can haul
freight so low as to divert good deal OF
traffic from the water lines. Once road
bed is made practically permanent 1t be.
comes almost like a water highway. It's
rolling stock; However, escapes the dangers
OF navigation, and also the yicissitudes Of
the season. ltis navigable, in other words,
all the year round while the lakes and
the rivers must make all their money in
one part Of the year.
Cheapness is to be the order Of the day
from this time forward in the carriage OF
freights and passengers. The Baltimore
and Ohio road made money last fall by
carrying passengers to Chicago and back
at 81. To be sure It was an excursion rate,
but as James McIIenry said, at the time
we speak Of, reduced fare on great lines
OF travel quickens and educates travel
and ultimately pays transportation com.
panies. He said to Edgar Thompson, let
the fare be cent mile per passenger,
with cent and half for return tickets,
and will nndertaketo TO pay all loss, provided
l can have half the profits" No manage.
ment has as yet seen It's way to adopt this
idea, but they are gradually moving in
that direction. There are possibilities in
transportation that now seem like wild
and absurd climeras. When Sir Rowland
Hill first proposed penny postage in Eng
land member Of Parliament rose in his
place and said that OF all wild schemes
he had ever heard OF this was the
widest and most impracticable And
yet, although Sir Rowland Hill is
still living, penny postage has ex-
listed for almost a generation. II
somebody were to prophesy that
the time would come when a passenger
could travel hundred miles for one dol.
lar on any Of our leading railways, he
would seem quite as visionary to most
people as the originator OF penny postage
did when he first broached that project,
and yet who dare say that such thing is
wholly impractiCable2 Who can fathom
the possibilities of,human ingenuity and
enterprise in cheapening and extending
the uses OF steam2