[D] In the United States in 1908 the average contents of loaded freight cars was 19.6 tons and the average of a freight train was 351.80. On some of the mineral roads the averages were much greater.—S. T.
[TRANSPORTATION CHARGE AND PRICES]
By Logan G. McPherson,
Lecturer on Transportation, Johns Hopkins University. Author of "The Working of the Railroads."
CHAPTER VI.
Reprinted by permission from "Railway Freight Rates in Relation to the Industry and Commerce of the United States," by Logan G. McPherson. Copyright 1909 by Henry Holt and Company, New York.
Vastly the greater proportion of the commodities moved by the railroads are in the processes of commerce; that is, the conveyance from the place of consignment to place of receipt in the majority of cases is sequent to a transfer of ownership. The seller cannot continue in business unless he obtain a market for his material, or his merchandise, and the purchaser can not continue in business unless he secure the material, or the merchandise, which he needs. The margin within which the added charge for transportation may be adjusted is therefore limited in one direction by the amount which the seller of a commodity will accept and the purchaser will pay and continue in business. If the seller or the purchaser cannot make a profit at least approximately as great as from other operations in which it might be feasible for him to engage he will, other things equal, change his business, and the railroad will no longer have the traffic that flowed from his operations. A railroad, therefore, must adjust its transportation charges that production may continue. This includes the adjustment of rates that products may be sent to markets, that the products of the region tributary to one railroad may reach markets in competition with similar products of other regions, and in competition with other products that will answer the same purpose.
The wider the markets that the producers can reach, the greater is the encouragement to production. The more numerous and varied the sources of supply of which the purchaser has choice, the more likely that his requirements will be met to his satisfaction. This is the case whether the sale or purchase be of food, whether it be of raw material to feed the processes of mill or factory, whether it be of wares for wholesale distribution, or whether the purchase be of merchandise by the retail dealer, or the final consumer.