Judge Blatchford then said: "We regard these views, which we have referred to as announced by the Court of Appeals of New York, so far as they support the validity of the statute in question, as sound and just.... We must regard the principle maintained in Munn vs. Illinois as firmly established."

General Horace Porter has made a contribution to the railway rate literature by an article which appeared in the December, 1891, number of the North American Review. Unfortunately many of the General's statements are either false or misleading. Thus, in a table which he presents for the purpose of comparing the passenger rates of Europe with those of the United States, he gives the regular first-class schedule rates for the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the average earnings per passenger per mile for this country. That this is an unfair comparison needs no further argument, especially when it is remembered that in Europe from 85 to 90 per cent, of all passengers are carried in the third class at a regular rate averaging about 1-1/2 cents per mile, and that considerable reductions are made for excursion, commutation and return tickets.

But General Porter says concerning American rates:

"When we take into consideration the excursion and the commutation rates, we find first-class passengers carried as low as half a cent a mile."

Now the question arises whether American railway companies carry passengers at such rates with or without loss to themselves. If they are carried at a loss, an injustice is done to the regular passengers, whose fare must not only make up the loss, but yield a larger profit than would otherwise be necessary. If, on the other hand, a rate of half a cent a mile can be made remunerative, there is certainly no justice in maintaining rates five and six times as large on well-patronized lines. General Porter places stress upon our superior accommodations in the way of lighting, ventilation, ice-water, lavatories, and free carriage of baggage, etc., and then adds:

"In this connection we must also recollect that the cost of fuel, wages and all construction materials is considerably higher here than in Europe, while the population from which the railways derive their support is much more sparse; the United States having 166,000 miles of railway with a population of 63,000,000, while Europe has only 135,000 miles with a population of 335,000,000."

We grant the point which the General makes on ventilation, ice-water, etc.; but, to make the comparison a fair one, he should also have referred to the much greater cost of European roads, to their much greater number of employes per mile, to the much shorter haul, to the higher price of their fuel, to the superiority of their roadbed and the greater security of their passengers. Moreover, whether the railroads of a country are profitable or not cannot be ascertained by merely comparing miles of road with square miles of territory and number of inhabitants. British India has a population of 275,000,000 and only about 16,000 miles of railroad, and yet her roads are scarcely as profitable as our own. China has 3,000,000 and Asia has about 4,000,000 people to every mile of railroad, but so far their railroads have proved no bonanza. The question is not how many people there are to each mile of railroad, but rather to what extent the railroad is used by the people. The amount of freight carried annually by the railways of the United States is about 680,000,000 tons, or 85,000,000,000 ton miles, and the number of passengers carried is about 535,000,000, representing an aggregate of travel of nearly 13,000,000,000 miles. This shows an average of 1,300 tons of freight carried one mile, and 200 miles traveled annually for each inhabitant of the nation, and a greater use of railway facilities than that of any other country in the world. The income of the railroads per capita is $17 in the United States, $11 in the United Kingdom, $5 in Germany, $4 in France, and still less in Italy, Austria and Russia. The average freight haul is 63 miles in Europe and 120 miles in the United States; the average passenger haul 15 miles in Europe and 24 miles in the United States. It has already been shown that the average earnings per train mile are also larger here than there. Röll's Encyclopedia of Railroads for 1892 shows that in France the average rate for all traffic for the year 1888 was for passengers 1.45 cents per mile, and for freight 1.14 cents per ton per kilometer, and that the nation had also received by way of free or reduced rates on Government business during that year benefits to the amount of $59,000,000. Large reductions have been made during the past year in passenger rates.

The General indulges in making the stereotyped railroad charge that "the legislatures of several of the States have enacted laws to effect a reduction of rates, the literal obedience to some of which would amount to the practical confiscation of railway property."

The General or any of his friends cannot name a road that was ever confiscated by legislation, or even seriously injured. It is a fact that the very legislation of which railroad managers so bitterly complain has had a beneficial influence on railroad earnings. Thus, in Iowa, where, according to the testimony of railroad men, Grangerism has reigned supreme during the past few years, railroad earnings increased between 1889 and 1892 from $37,000,000 to $44,000,000, or more than 18 per cent. Still better results could have been secured if the railroad managers had been in sympathy with the law. There is no doubt that they would gladly suffer, or rather have their companies suffer, a loss of revenue, if this would lead to a repeal of the laws and restore to them the power to manipulate rates for their own purposes.

But the General comes to the main point of his article when he complains against "the unreasonable requirements and restrictions of the Interstate Commerce Law." He says: