Compared with the increase of only 41.5% in the revenues from mail received by the railways during the same period, each one of the above percentages testifies to a positive reduction in the rate received by the railways for the service. And if the increase in weight of mail carried in 1909 were known, the contrast between the service and the pay would be more striking. In 1899 the total weight of all mail was reported as 635,180,362 pounds. In 1907 the estimates made from the special weighing placed the weight of mail carried that year at 1,290,358,284 pounds, or an increase of nearly 105% in eight years. By reference to the above table it will be seen that the railway revenues from mail between 1899 and 1907 increased only 40%. The contrast is illuminating. In its light the charge that the railways are in any way responsible for the postal deficit is grotesque.
Freight Traffic
According to the monthly returns to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the proportion of revenues from freight of the railways of the United States to total earnings from operation, for the years 1908 and 1909, receded to the unusually low figures of 68.51% and 68.88% respectively. The official summary for 1908, based on the annual returns, shows a proportion of 69.17% for that year, which probably is nearer the mark.
The annual reports to this Bureau for 1909 yield a proportion of 69.18% for last year.
Accepting this proportion taken from the annual returns as being based on the same character of reports as those from which former ratios were derived, the preponderance of freight traffic is shown in bold relief in the following statement of the ratio of its revenues to total earnings from operation, 1899 to 1909:
| Year | Proportion of Freight Revenues to Total Earnings | Year | Proportion of Freight Revenues to Total Earnings | |
| 1899 | 69.55% | 1905 | 69.67% | |
| 1900 | 70.56% | 1906 | 70.54% | |
| 1901 | 70.41% | 1907 | 70.44% | |
| 1902 | 69.93% | 1908 | 69.17% | |
| 1903 | 70.39% | 1909 | 69.18% | |
| 1904 | 69.82% | |||
The average proportion for the nine years preceding 1908 is seen to be slightly above 70%, and the fact that it was almost one point below 70% in 1908 and 1909 indicates that it was the freight traffic that bore the brunt of the business depression which curtailed railway revenues during those years.
In no other of the leading countries of the world does the freight traffic assume the overwhelming relative proportion that it does in the United States. In the United Kingdom it amounts to 50.35%; in France to 53.64%; and in Germany, including express and mail, to 65%. If these were classed with freight in the United States, it would raise the proportion for that traffic here to over 74%.
Freight Traffic 1909 and 1908.
The next statement presents the significant items of the freight traffic in 1909 for the roads reporting to this Bureau compared with those of the final official returns for the preceding year.