Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/111

Rh $1 to $5 a square foot. For the sake of example, say it is worth $2 a square foot, making the ground worth $1800. Here, then, is an investment for car and land of from $2500 to $3300. There are from 2500 to 3000 cubic feet of storage in a car, so that this storage space represents a capital investment of from $1 to $1.33 a cubic foot. A good warehouse several stories high could be built, using the same land area over and over again, for very much less per cubic foot, so that present commercial customs of permitting freight to be warehoused in cars are resulting in a serious economic waste to the country as a whole as well as to the railroads. Prompt loading and unloading of freight-cars is one way in which owners of freight can conserve railway service and in the long run help themselves.

The conservation of railway service has yet larger aspects. The moving of a freight-car from the place of shipment to its destination is the duty of the railway company, but it cannot perform that duty without adequate facilities. These facilities cannot be obtained unless the Rh