Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1898)
. 7 ? . & ' : * r . . . , $ . ; -I - ' " ° * - - _ _ _ , . . . , - . Si"1- lit fit u. . Conservative. country ( and the payments of the people ple ) would have been more than one billion dollars ( more than $1,000,000,000) ) greater than they were in the last year alone. THIS SAFETY OF Last'ycar on RAILWAY TRAVEL. American rail ways one passenger was killed in acci dents out of every 2,827,474 passengers carried. That is to say , that you can take a train 2,827,474 times before , on the law of averages , your turn comes to be killed. You will have to travel 72- 098,963 miles on the cars before that turn comes , and 4,541,945 miles before you are injured. If you travel 20 miles every day for 800 days in the year , you can keep on at it for 758 years before your turn comes to bo hurt. If there had been railways when our Savior was born and you had begun to travel on the first day of the year A. D. 1 , and had traveled 100 miles in every day of every month of every year since then , you would still have ( in this year 1898) ) nearly three million miles yet to travel before your turn came to be killed. PASSENGER AND FREIGHT RATES ON AMERICAN RAILWAYS. From the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission a table show ing average rate received in United States per passenger and ton per mile since 1888 : Per pass. Per ton per mile , per mile. Year. ( Cents. ) ( Cents. ) 1888 2.849 1.001 1889 2.165 .922 1890 2.167 .941 1891 2.142 .895 1892 2.126 .898 1893 2.108 .878 1894 1.986 .860 1895 2.040 .889 1896 2.019 . 806 # # # From the report of the Illinois State Railroad and Warehouse commission for 1895 : "Tho passenger tariffs of the railroad companies of Illinois in 1870 , just prior to the establishment of the railroad and warehouse commission , were from S % to 6 cents per mile , averaging more than 4 cents per mile , including through rates. At the some time their tariffs for all classes of freight , through and local , averaged more than 2.48 cents per ton per mile. The average of the local and through fares for passengers in this state for 1895 does not exceed 2.75 cents per mile , and the average tariff for all classes of freight , local and through , does not exceed 1.85 cents per ton ppr mile. It will bo seen from these facts that , comparing the cost to the public of trans porting passengers and freight in 1870 and 1895 , the rates in 1870 , for passen gers , were about 46 per cent higher , and the rates for freight were 80 per cent higher than in 1895. "Under the force of these enactments , and the competition of the roads , pro digious results have been obtained. The direct saving to the people of the state individually , in the cost of transporting their persons and property for twenty - 1897 a statement of receipts in cents per passsengor per mile and per ton of freight per mile for all railroads in the United States for 18 years : Pass. Freight Year. rate. rate. 1884 2.856 1.124 1885 * . . . . 2.199 1.057 1886 2.194 1.042 1887 2.276 1.084 1888 2.246 .977 1889 2.169 .970 1890 2.174 .927 1891 2.184 .929 1892 2.168 .941 1898 2.072 .898 1894 2.025 .864 1895 2.069 .889 1896 2.082 .821 # # * From an article by 'Olios. A. Prouty , member of the Interstate Commerce Commission , in the Forum for Decem ber , 1897 : "In 1871 , it cost 81 cents to transport a bushel of wheat from Chicago to New York. In 1896 , the cost of the same service was 12 cents. At a recent hear ing before the Interstate Commerce Commission , the general manager of the Chicago & Alton railroad testified that within the lost twenty years freight rates in the state of Illinois had declined 48 per cent. Mr. Blanchard states that , if the current freight rates of 1873 had been charged for the freight actually carried in 1895 , the earnings of the rail roads of the United States would have been -$1,215,844,000 more than they were. These figures sufficiently indi cate the enormous reduction in railway transportation charges during the last quarter century , and the consequent saving to the people who have paid those charges. " * * * From a paper by Dwight 0. Morgan , engineer of the Illinois State Railroad and Warehouse Commission , 1897 : "In 1871 the average revenue in Illi nois for the transportation of all classes of freight per ton per mile was 2.48 cents. In 1895 the average revenue was 1.28 cents. The average freight revenue in Illinois has therefore been reduced 49.4 per cent since 1871. "In 1871 the passenger rates in effect in Illinois were from 8 cents to 6 cents per mile , averaging for all roads about 4.25 cents. In 1895 the passenger rates were from 1 % to 8 cents per mile , aver aging for all roads 2.26 cents per mile. "Comparing the volume of passenger traffic , the average distance hauled and the average rates charged as deduced from the sworn reports filed with the commission it shows that in 1871 the railroads of Illinois carried per mile only about one-third the number of passen gers carried today , but that in the con duct of their business the average dis tance hauled was 50 per cent further , and a comparison of the average rates charged per mile shows a reduction since 1871 of 46.8 per cent. "What reduction has taken place in the prices of commodities ? From the comprehensive data compiled by the Committee on Finance and submitted to the United States Senate in March , 1898 , bearing upon wholesale prices , wages and transportation , in the United States at large , the report shows that , from 1878 to 1891 , there was an average reduc tion in nine principal agricultural pro- ductsincludingmeatwheatcorncotton , oats , barley , rye , hemp , and tobacco , of 7.2 per cent , food , 12.8 per cent , clothing , 28.9 per cent. "Two hundred and twenty- three other articles affecting the average con-