New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-19

clude the heaviest emigrant movement Inc
country has ever known, and years OF
enormous development in industry, trade and
progperity. 1t is a curious problem, which the
most skilled experts in railway matters do not
seem to have entirely solved-the question
why passenger business remains nearly sta
tionary, while freight traffic increases rapidly.
Possibly it may be due in part to the fact that
the reductions in charges for passenger trans
portatiOn have been comparatively small-from
2.3566 cents per passenger per mile In l872-'73
10 2.13O2 cents in 1S79-'S0. While pas
senger fares have been reduced less than per
cent in seven years, freight charges have been
reduced nearly AZ per cent. One would sup
pose that the mere growth of cOmmuta-
ton business to and from great and
rapidly growing cities would have largely
sweled the number of passengers carried
one mile, and reduced the average charge
per passenger per mile, even if there had
been no change whatever in the other move
mcnt and charges. The growth of such traffic
back and forth near this city and Brooklyn,
along the lines of the Hudson River Harlem,
New-Haven and Long Island roads, would nat
urally be in ratio exceeding the growth of
these cities, and similar changes would be ex-
pcctcd near Buffalo and Rochester Possibly,
on the other hand, the increase of other rail-
road travel has been checked by the growth
and greater cheapness of Geographic facilities.
The development of freight traffic has been
remarkable. An increase of so per cent in
seven years in the number of tons carried one
mile by all the railroads in the State has been
caused, first, by the growth of the country, its
L.. 81,
Nv enormous growth of exports to foreign
countries; and, third, by the rapid reduction in
charges for transportation, which has not only
stimulated the domestic and the foreign move
ment, but has also diverted a vast quantity
Of freight from other lines Of transportation.
The decrease in the average rate per ton per
mile has been sngularly regular, as well as
large. I'm the year ending June 80, 1873, it
was 1897 cents; in the fiscal year 1874, it
was 1.i176 cents; in 1875, 1.3O39 cents; in
1876, 1.1G04 cents; in 1871 1.O590 cents; in
1878, for the first time, it fell below l cent
per ton per mile, and was 1894 of l cent; in
1879 it was s0s2 Of a cent, and in 1880 .9199
of q cent SO great n decrease in charges for
TRANSFORMATION must Of necessity have caused
some Increase in movement, but the growth in
business has been so much greater than the de-
crease in rates that the aggregate receipts for
freight have grown fromS70, 1913, 1913 inls72-'73
TO $73,4IO,lOj in 1S70-'sO. Had the railroads
pursued similar policy as to their passenger
business, no doubt some greater increase in
that also would have resulted.
But it is particularly important to notice
that the railroads have been enabled to re-
duce freight charges by very great changes in
their modes of service. OF these changes by
far the most Important is the great increase III
average loads taken by freight trains With
given expenses for organization, debt, care and
repair of track and fixtures, and hire of station
hands, the principal increase IN the cost OF
TRANSFORMATION, when railroad doubles It's
freight movement, is in the engine, its hands
and its fuel. If every engine on railroad
can be made with certain supply of fuel, to
draw larger average load through the year,
the cost of transportation per ton Will
thereby be greatly diminished. In ls72-'13 the
average tram load for freight was only
97.97 tons, but it has increased almost every
wear. and in lS79-sO WAS 1854 tons-a gain
of over II per cent. Hence the average charge
for hauling a train-oad of freight one mile
has increased from 81 81 in ls72-73 to 81 81
in Ie79--O. In fact. the railroads received
HIGHER DAY per trau-load moved III lN79-'oO
than in any previous year, bat because OF Their
remarkable success in increasing the average
number of tons drawn hy each engine.
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