per train mile than those of any other
country excepting perhaps Austria, Russia and India. This should
certainly enable them to do business for less than it is done by
transatlantic lines.

In addition to all this, a number of European countries, particularly
France, require their railroads to perform large services, such as the
carrying of the mails and the transportation of the officers and
employes of the Government, gratuitously, and to carry soldiers at
reduced rates.

Another factor in the equation should be considered. European roads are
built, equipped and all permanent improvements wholly made at the
expense of the stock- and bondholders, while in this country they are
partially constructed at the expense of the patrons of the road. In the
former case the capitalization of the road represents what has been paid
by the stock- and bondholders, and in the latter, not only what they
have paid, but large contributions paid from the income of the road and
from public and private donations.

It will thus be seen that railroad rates ought to be lower, and even
much lower, here than in Europe. If it _is_ true that the average rate
per ton per mile is lower in America than across the Atlantic, this is
chiefly due to the fact that water transportation has forced down
through (or long-haul) rates and has thus lowered the general average.
This reduction was by no means made voluntarily by the railway
companies, but was forced upon them. Where in the United States water
does not exist, as in local traffic, rates are usually much higher than
in Europe.

The reduction in freight rates was brought about by a number of
inventions which greatly lowered the cost of both the construction and
the operation of railways. Through the introduction of the steam shovel,
of the wheel-scraper, of improved rock-drills, and of other labor-saving
machines, as well as by a general improvement in the methods of grading,
the cost of grading has been reduced from 25 to 50 per cent., and
railroad bridges are now built at one-third of their former cost. Owing
to Bessemer's great invention, steel rails can at the present time be
bought for one-half of what iron rails cost ten or fifteen years ago,
and about one-third of the cost twenty years ago. According to David A.
Wells, the author of "Recent Economic Changes," the annual producing
capacity of a Bessemer converter was increased fourfold between 1873 and
1886, and four men can now make a gi