Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/815

 PUBLIC OWNERSHIP VERSUS PUBLIC CONTROL 799

30 per cent, of the families in Glasgow, according to an investiga- tion made a few years ago, were living in single rooms, as com- pared with about \y 2 per cent, in Boston.

But there is yet another most important consideration entering into this matter of fares the question of wages. The relation of wage-rates paid, to the average fare charged, is twofold.

First: Wages are by far the largest item of operating expenses, and, as between two systems using substantially the same traction methods and carrying approximately the same num- ber of passengers per car, the one paying the higher wages must necessarily charge a higher rate of fare. If the system paying the higher wages also operates more lines and furnishes a larger number of cars for the amount of traffic handled, all the more reason why the rates of fare must be higher.

Both Glasgow and Boston use the system of electric traction. Boston operates more than three times more track, and runs 40 per cent, more cars in proportion to traffic. How about the wages. The pay of motormen and conductors in Glasgow ranges from 97 cents per day during the first six months to $1.22 after three years of service. In Boston surface-car conductors and motormen receive $2.25 ; elevated motormen, $2.30 the first year, $2.40 the second, and $2.50 the third; brakemen, $1.85; guards, $2.10; while all these employees receive 5 cents per day additional after five years of service, 10 cents after ten years, and 15 cents after fifteen years. These rates are about double those paid in Glasgow.

From the operating standpoint, therefore, whether it be in respect to wage expense, trackage operated, or amount of car movement, or all three, as is actually the case, there is abundant reason for higher average fares per passenger carried on the Boston system.

The second respect in which the wage matter relates to fares charged brings in the question of purchasing power. The differ- ences between Boston and Glasgow street-railway wages reflect similarly wide differences between the general " run " of American and Scotch wages all along the line not so great in some cases, of course; in others greater. It is one of the truisms of economics that prices are to be considered high or low, not abso-