A comparison of the revenues received from the freight and passenger services by the American, German, French, and British railways is instructive. For each dollar received from the passenger traffic the American railroads earn $2.95 from their freight business, the German roads $2.40, the French $1.31 and the British railways $1.17. The United Kingdom has the greatest volume of passenger traffic per population of any country in the world.
AMERICAN PASSENGER TRAFFIC ON RAILROADS RELATIVELY UNDEVELOPED
The long distances of the United States necessitate a large freight traffic but act as a hindrance to travel. It is a generally accepted but erroneous supposition that Americans travel more than any other people. A comparison of the passenger traffic in the United States with that in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France reveals some surprising facts. The figures are for 1896. The number of passengers carried one mile per mile of road upon the railroads of the United States was 71,705, in France the number was 273,315, in Germany 315,399, and in the United Kingdom 440,000. The average distance which the Briton travels per year by rail is 244 miles; for the American the distance is 209 miles, for the Frenchman 176 miles, and for the German 165 miles. The Englishman takes 24.4 trips per year on an average, the German 11.3, the Frenchman 9.6, and the American 8.2. Americans travel extensively, but it is evident from the foregoing comparisons that the possibility of developing the passenger service in this country has by no means reached its limit.
RELATION OF TRANSPORTATION ON RAILROADS TO ECONOMIC ORGANISATION
The economic changes which have accompanied the great development of transportation that has taken place during the last fifty years have revolutionised our industrial and social life. Among the effects of developed transportation upon the economic organisation may be noted: First, that relations of producers and consumers have been fundamentally changed by placing a larger market at the service of both. Many classes of commodities are now bought and sold in a world market that were formerly restricted to local trade. Second, improved transportation has made the prices of commodities more uniform for different producers and consumers. The variations due to situation have been lessened. In a like manner there has been a decrease in those time variations in prices that result from changes in the supply of commodities. Improved transportation also makes prices lower—not only because it reduces the costs of moving the raw materials of manufacture and the finished products of industry, but also because it enables the merchant to turn his stock oftener and thus do business with less expenses for capital.
As a third effect of improved transportation may be mentioned the acceleration which it has given to the growth of cities. Cheap and efficient transportation has led manufacturers to locate their plants where they can command a large supply of labour and where they have the greatest advantages for the distribution of their products. The great manufacturing establishments are now located in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and the other large cities. Conditions of transportation have become a stronger factor than even the location of the sources of raw materials in determining where an industry shall be established. The effect of the railroad upon the location of agriculture has been no less potent. The railroad has brought new agricultural regions into cultivation and destroyed the profits of cereal agriculture in many parts of the Eastern States.
Another important consequence of improved transportation and communication has been that of bringing the nations of the world into closer economic and social relations. With the growing solidarity of the economic interests of the countries of the world, with the multiplication of the intellectual and other social ties that unite the nations, their political relations inevitably change, and for the better. Nothing is doing more to advance the attainments of the cherished ideal of international amity than is the development of transportation.
XI. FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL
THE ORIGIN OF RAILROAD TRAFFIC ASSOCIATIONS
The performance of the transportation services necessitates the co-operation of carriers. When the government owns and operates the railroads of a country they are managed by a single authority, and the different parts of the railway system are fully co-ordinated; but when the railroads are operated by a large number of independent corporations, co-operation can be secured only by means of traffic associations composed of representatives of the railway companies, and intrusted with the power of making arrangements affecting joint traffic, and settling questions involving the interests of two or more companies.