Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/185

Rh fourth since 1888, very largely through the voluntary action of the railroads themselves. On the freight tonnage shipped over the railroads in 1910, this meant the very large saving of $615,928,000.

A bushel of wheat sold for about $.62 in Minneapolis in 1896. That $.62 at that time paid for transporting a barrel of flour 161 miles back into Minnesota. A bushel of wheat sold for about $1 in Minneapolis in 1911, and that $1 paid for transporting a barrel of flour from Minneapolis out into North Dakota 436 miles. In other words, the farmer’s bushel of wheat in 1911 would buy nearly two and three quarters times as much flour-transportation as in 1896, although the wages paid by the railroad and the cost of most materials used by it are very much higher now than in 1896.

The present freight rate is very small. How small it is can be better understood when one realizes that for 25 cents, what it costs, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, for the farmer to move a one-ton load by wagon one mile, the Northern Pacific Rail- Rh