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No. 6.
OPINION OF PRIESTLEY,
British Expert on Railroad Rates in Europe and India,
as Contrasted with the United States—We Have
the Lowest Rates in the World and
Best Service.
Do American railways provide for American domestic
commerce the best possible facilities at reasonable rates? is,
after all, the main question behind all the agitation at Wash¬
ington for the regulation of railway rates. The general
public, aside from interested parties, does not care who
makes the rates so long as they are low enough to encourage
traffic and are open and equal to all.
That the public service of American railways is the best
and also the cheapest in the world is the testimony of Ne¬
ville Priestley, undersecretary to the Government of India,
whose official report on their "Organization and Working"
has been condensed for American readers by Slason Thomp¬
son of this city. Mr. Priestley was sent to the United
States in 1903 to study our railway methods and a report
of over 70,000 words testifies to the thoroughness with
which he went into the subject. His final conclusion, which
may be commended to the attention of some busy statesmen
in Washington, is that American railways :
Have managed to do what no other country in the world
has done, and that is, carry their goods traffic profitably at
2
extíábí'diñary low rates notwithstanding the fact that they
,pay, TOore for. their .labor than any other country.
y ;In the'presence of crude efforts to bring our railways more
under the control of the State it is interesting to read Mr.
Priestley's tribute to their success under the reverse policy.
"The railways of America," says he, "are commercial un¬
dertakings on a gigantic scale, and are operated under con¬
ditions which are to be found nowhere else in the world,
since they receive no protection from the State, and have to
fight their way to the front by sheer ability of management.
* * * Many of their methods are different, often start-
lingly different, from those one has been brought up to be¬
lieve the only correct method; and it is not till one realizes
that the one idea in the mind of American railway men is to
'get there,' and that they do 'get there' by the shortest and
quickest way and do not allow themselves to be turned aside
either by red-tape, old-time prejudices, tradition, or any
other of the bogeys by which older countries are assailed,
that one understands how the results have been obtained
which one sees there."
Everything in railway management in the United States,
he says, is judged by results. If these are satisfactory, the
method is approved. If they are not the method or the
man responsible for its failure is changed. The standard
unit is the passenger and ton mile, income and cost.
Mr. Priestley finds that in America rates are not fixed on
the theory to "charge what the traffic will bear," but a rate
which will move the largest business requiring to be moved
profitably.
In support of his statement that "railway rates for goods
traffic, judged as a whole, are lower than in any other coun¬
try in the world, India not excepted," he prints a table giv-
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ing the rate a ton of 2,240 pounds in India as 0.96 cent in
1901 as against 0.84 cent for the United States in 1900.
* * *
Mr. Priestley's comparisons of the rates a ton mile in
America and India are especially interesting because the
traffic in both countries is hauled long distances—only the
average haul is longer in India, being 158 miles to 131 in
the United States.
In India grain is carrieo distances between 900 and 1,000
miles at from 0.48 cent an English ton to 0.54 cent, in the
United States similar distances at 0.35 cent for export and
0.45 for domestic use.
For rates on bituminous coal an English ton a mile Mr.
Priestley gives the following table (6 pies equal to i cent) :
DOMESTIC SHIPMENTS.
America. India
Distance Pies. Pies.
275 miles 3.16 3.26
350 miles 3.06 3.15
420 miles 3.08
450 miles 2.94 3.05
478 miles 2.32 3.02
In discussing the phenomenon that car load traffic in the
United States is carried cheaper than in India, when, con¬
sidering the conditions of the two countries, it would seem
that it should be higher, Mr. Priestley says :
"Railways cost more to construct in America than in In¬
dia, and consequently need more net earnings to pay the
same rate of dividend.
"Working expenses also are higher in America, because
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labor is very much dearer, as will be seen from the following
figures :
Enginemen— Month.
America $115.20
India, European 80.00
India, native 13-33
Firemen—•
America 66.00
India, European 30.00
India, native 5.00
Guards—
America 96.30
India, European 50.00
India, native 16.60
Brakemen—
America 61.20
India, native 6.16
Trackmen—
America 37-SO
India 2.00
"Note—Overtime is paid in both countries; the bulk of
the labor in India is native; and in America the hours of
work are shorter.
"The prices of material, also, do not appear to be any less
in America than in India. The price of coal in America is
nearly $3 a ton, or more than the price paid by most rail¬
ways in India.
"The wages of an unskilled laborer averages for all parts
of the States $1.25 a day. In India the same class of man
receives from 4 to 8 cents a day."
* * î|C
Mr. Priestley is unable to present as convincing a com¬
parison between passenger fares in America and India be-
s
cause of the variety of classifications there, but he does make
the following comparison, which is far more instructive than
any mere comparison of rates would be.
"The rate of wages in America for unskilled laborers
averages $1.25 a day. By the expenditure of one day's
wages such a man can travel over sixty-three miles. By the
expenditure of a month's (thirty days') wages he could
travel 1,894 miles.
"The rate wage (not average) in most parts of India for
the same class of worker is 4 cents a day. By the expendi¬
ture of one day's wages such a man could not travel more
than ten miles, and his whole month's wages would only
carry him 300 miles."
Moreover, the train service in America is more rapid and
frequent, and the accommodations are better.
Altogether, Mr. Priestley's report affords a most enlight¬
ening review of the railways of America, and he very justly
concludes that:
"The present prosperity of the United States of America
is to no small extent due to the low rates charged for trans¬
portation. At the back of it all there is no doubt the pro¬
tective tariff, but that would have availed little without the
cheapening of the cost of transportation."
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