Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/604

586 and also the miles of road operated, by the Central Pacific system, compared with the Massachusetts roads:

To arrive at the latest results the figures taken are for the last four years of the Central Pacific, but, in order to make an equitable comparison in the volume of the tonnage, it is necessary to take the Massachusetts roads for a few years previously. In any corresponding year the Massachusetts roads have a considerably larger tonnage than the Central Pacific; thus, as has been shown, making any fair comparison impossible. Even in the years given they have an annual average of thirteen per cent more tonnage than the Central Pacific, placing the latter system to that amount of disadvantage in the comparison.

On the other hand, however, is the consideration that the prices of material and labor necessary in the operation of railroads have been considerably reduced during the periods shown in the above table, but, in California, they have always been much higher than in the Atlantic States, and were probably higher in the former State in 1881 than they were in Massachusetts in 1876. The relative conditions seem, upon the whole, as fair as it is possible to make them between any two systems.

As a result, the following more important comparisons may be noticed: The average mileage of road operated is about the same in