FOOTNOTES:
[487] U. S. Industrial Commission, XIX, 1901, pp. 272-290; Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, 1898, pp. 324-352.
[488] Revenue per ton mile in index to the Senate (Elkins) Committee Hearings, 1905, vol. IV.
[489] Compare conclusions as to rebating in 1900; U. S. Industrial Commission, XIX, p. 285. When, as in 1887, a general departure of 50 per cent. from published rates characterized transcontinental traffic, the difference between the theoretical and actual revenue, as measured by the published rates, is very great. 21 I.C.C. Rep., 349.
[490] The movement of average trainloads in connection with ton-mile revenue bears upon this point. Thus in 1905, the increased trainload, accompanied by a lower ton-mile revenue, points specifically to an increase in low-grade traffic.
[491] Senate Finance Committee Report on Prices, 1893, Part I, p. 437.
[492] The effect of periods of depression, such as 1903 and 1908, upon the proportion of low-grade tonnage is a moot point.
[493] U. S. Statistics of Railways, 1910, p. 64.
[494] Mileage of roads represented on June 30, 1910—130,395.46 miles.
[496] Senate (Elkins) Committee, Digest, App. III, p. 63, brings out the high proportion of local business in the South. On the L. &. N. 80 per cent. is thus classed.
[497] Mass. Commission on Commerce and Industry, 1908, p. 117.
[498] McCain, in Senate Finance Committee Report on Prices, 1893.
[499] I.C.C., Annual Rep., 1903, p. 150.
[500] Emphasized in the case of wool rates. 23 I.C.C. Rep., 151.
[501] Samuel O. Dunn, The American Transportation Question, p. 65.
[502] 22 I.C.C. Rep., 617; 11 Idem, 296; 13 Idem, 418; 23 Idem, 7; 9 Idem, 382, etc.
[503] J. R. Commons, Bulletin, Bureau of Economic Research, No. 1, July, 1900; unfortunately not continued to date.
The best data giving actual rates and classifications is the Forty Year Review, etc., published by the Interstate Commerce Commission, as "Railways in 1902," part II, 1903; continued in Senate (Elkins) Committee, Digest, App. II, 1905; and 58 Cong., 2nd sess., Senate Doc. No. 257, savagely attacked in Bull. II, Chicago Bureau of Railway News and Statistics, 1904. The largest collection of material is in the Senate (Aldrich) Committee Report on Prices, 1890, I. pp. 397-658, covering the period 1852-1890. Also Bulletin 15, Misc. Series, Div. of Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1898, pp. 1-80.
[504] The continuation of Commons' index number of freight rates to date, seemed inadvisable on account of the changes in traffic conditions which have taken place. Originally well selected, the thirty-seven rates chosen in 1900 are not now representative. There are, for instance, no transcontinental quotations at all; none from the southern states, such as on raw cotton; none for the great staples elsewhere moving under commodity ratings, such as iron ore, chemical fertilizers, lumber, citrus fruit, etc. Moreover, twelve of the thirty-seven items chosen by Commons were rates on petroleum which now moves in bulk in pipe lines except locally. Several of the quotations for coal, and for all the other carload rates, as a matter of fact, have been so affected by changes in carload minimum rules, that the mere rate by itself has little significance.
Rejecting Commons' particular index number by reason of its inherent defects does not, however, lessen the desirability of choosing some other combination of rates which may be used as a standard for measurement of rate changes year by year. Yet the selection of such an index number is open to all the difficulties attaching to a similar index number of prices. Is the object, for example, an academic determination of rate changes per se; or is it intended to ascertain the financial burden of such charges upon the community? In the former case the volume of traffic affected would not be an important consideration. Local rates on indigo or millinery would be given the same weight as similar changes in the rate on wheat between Chicago and the Atlantic seaboard. The latter mode of approaching the question, on the other hand, would correspond to an index number of prices, weighted according to the volume of consumption. A doubled freight rate on hard coal to Perth Amboy would outweigh an equal change in the charge on castile soap in exact proportion to its commercial importance as measured by the total tonnage transported. Many such details would call for careful consideration before the final adoption of the rate items chosen to constitute the index number; but the Interstate Commerce Commission might well consider the initiation of such a statistical project, endeavoring to do for railroad rates what the Federal Commissioner of Labor performs so satisfactorily in officially recording current changes in the price of commodities. Such a record of railroad rates extending over a series of years, supplemented by data for ton mileage revenue, would be invaluable in the determination of the reasonableness of rate advances in future; even as the rate increases of 1910 clearly pointed to the need of a similar standard for purposes of comparison from year to year in the past.
[505] U.S. Industrial Commission, XIX, pp. 281-291; 58th Cong., 2nd sess., Sen. Doc. 257.
[506] 16 I.C.C. Rep., 85. For other instances compare 12 I.C.C. Rep., 149, and 23 I.C.C. Rep., 158.
[507] 9 I.C.C. Rep., 382.
[508] For further examples supplementing our concrete instances above, the following citations are significant; For cattle, 11 I.C.C. Rep., 238, 296 and 381; 13 I.C.C. Rep., 418; 23 I.C.C. Rep., 7; for soft coal, 22 I.C.C. Rep., 617; for hay, 9 I.C.C. Rep., 246; for transcontinental rates in general, U. S. v. Union Pacific Railroad, etc., Supreme Court, 820. October Term, 1911, p. 558. The record, so far as the general advances of 1910 are concerned, will be considered in connection with the legislation of that date, in chapter XVIII.
[509] Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, 1898, pp. 324-352.
[510] Discussed in chap. XX.
[511] Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1907, p. 618.
[512] Calculations of C. C. McCain on the Diminished Ratio of Railway Rates to Wholesale Commodity Prices, in connection with the increases in 1910.
[513] Well expressed in a recent soft coal case; 22 I.C.C. Rep., 617.
[514] Further details in our historical summary in chap. I.
[515] The main sources of the following chronicle have been the files of Annual Reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission and of the Railway Age and Age-Gazette.
[516] A carload of bamboo steamer chairs across the continent for $9.40 is a cut to the bone indeed. 21 I.C.C. Rep., 349.
[517] 54th Cong., 2nd sess., Sen. Doc. 115, is as fine a picture of utter rate demoralization as can be found.
[519] Senate (Elkins) Committee, 1905, pp. 2730 and 2874.