Further defense of the railroads

Colonel Wilgus´ statement that the average charge to shippers, as measured by the average revenue for hauling a ton of freight a mile on the railroads, has gone up from $0,007 to $0.01, is true if you take a sufficient length of time and ignore the intermediate period. The seven-mill rate prevailed before the first World War. A great many things have changed since that time. For example, back when seven mills was the average charge per ton per mile for handling freight, the railroads were paying to government for taxes approximately two cents out of each dollar of revenue taken in. Last year the railroads paid in taxes just under ten cents out of each dollar taken in. In the days when railroads were handling freight at seven mills per ton per mile, the wages of engineers, conductors, and all other labor were less than half of what they are now. My recollection is that the average railroad wage in that period was 20-odd cents an hour. Today it is 75 cents an hour.