Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-16
NEW FARE SCHEDULE OF THE SANTA
FE-PASSENGER PROFITS.

| About the middle OF the coming
month of June the Santa Fe Railway
company will inaugurate its programme
of cheap fares to the Pacific coast from
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and
from Chicago. There is no doubt about
the wisdom of this new departure. 1t
will result in an amazing stimulus to
both tourist travel and immigration,
and will have a most beneficial effect
upon the railway exchequer as we'll. BY
the new schedule man can get from the
Missouri river to Los Angeles for $l2 so,
second class. This class Of travel en-
braces the immense majority OF those
who come to this section for purposes
OF actual settlement, and takes in the
less wealthy class of tourists. Where
man contemplates bringing his family
with him it will make pro.
digious saving to him in reaching
California. Hitherto the rates have
seemed to be prohibitive to men who
were not positively rich. There are
large numbers of well-to-do men, be-
sides, who do not care to go very deeply
into their pocket books for railway fare.
TIE TIE new schedule ought, therefore, to
result in the largest tide of summer i'm
migration Southern California has ever
known, with perhaps the exception OF
the great boom year of 1887. Should
the action of the Santa Fe result in a
general rate-cutting war we might even
see the rushing times OF 1887 repeated,
that is to say, as respects the volume OF
travel. The kite-fying real estate spec
ulation which characterized that period
will probably not be duplicated. and it
is not desirable that it should be.
There is no reason why the several
transcontinental railways should not
initiate the Santa Fe and give the peo-
pie cheap fares across the continent. 1t
was generally admitted by the passen-
ger agents of the leading railways that
they never did so remunerative traffic
struggle OF 1887. Where they carry one
! passenger under syste NJ of high fares
| they carry ten under low rates. The
expense is almost the same whether the
number of passengers is large or small
whether car contains four passengers
or forty makes no oappreciable difference.
Not only does the railway make more
money for its passenger department
by carrying large nun bers of passen-
gers; but, as in the case with the
Pacific roads in an especial degree, they
are adding to the business OF their
freight department by go doing. OF the
people they bring to the Paci fic coast,
probably fully one-half become pro-
ducers, and remain patrons of the sew
eral roads practically for all time. There
is really no putting limit to the ulti
mate profit railway may make by car
rying man from the Missouri river for
$3.50. He may become considerable
producer, and pour great sums into the
treasury of the company. The corpora
ton will really thus profit by sort of
arithmetical progression.
Passenger traffic at almost any living
rate is specially desirable class of
business. The passenger involves no
expense for handling. He gets on and
off the cars himself. Take the case OF
car loaded with forty passengers from the
Missouri river to Los Angeles, at $3.50
apiece, the new rate which is about to
be inaugurated by the Santa Fe from
that point. This makes $5l2 for the
car, and the forty passengers will weigh,
at the outside, two tons and half. All
of the transcontinental railways will
haul ten tons OF freight the same dis
tance for 5000. And yet, in the case OF
the passenger, there ia neither the
trouble nor the expense involved in
handling a cargo. There is really
difference in favor OF the passenger
proposition of eight to one. This view
of the matter has been too often disre-
garded. In fact, we have no recollec-
tion of having ever seen it presented
before, but it is nevertheless one of
great force.
Those railway officials who are op-
poeed to innovations in the interest OF
the people will probably say that it
would be impossible to get passengers to
fill the cars at all times. Doubtless this
is true to some extent. At the same
time they would be astonished to see
how nearly they would be kept crowded
by constant stream of travel. 1t will
be well to keep an eye upon the results
of the new fare schedules adopted by the
Santa Fe. They will tell the story pretty
fully, and they will do it under the great
disadvantage of this being presidential
year, when people are supposed to stay
at home, and business is almost univer.
sally dull.