EARNINGS, TONNAGE, AND RATE PER TON PER MILE OF LEADING ROADS THAT FORM THE IOWA LINES.

We extend for the year 1885 the tables that we copied into last year's report, giving the gross earnings from freight, the number of tons freight moved, the number of tons carried one mile, and the rate per ton per mile of the lines that carry fully seventy-five per cent of the tonnage of Iowa.

The aggregate earnings from freight of these roads in 1870 were $26,547,890.00; in 1885 the earnings were $69,444,567.00, or the freight earnings of 1870 were 38 22-100 per cent of 1885.

The tons of freight carried in 1870 were 7,279,147; in 1885, 30,615,679, or the tons of freight carried in 1870 were 23 77-100 per cent of the tons carried in 1885.

The tons of freight carried one mile in 1870 were 1,089,678,291; the tons carried one mile in 1885 were 5,587,094,503, or the tons carried one mile in 1870 were 19.5 per cent of the tons carried in 1885.

RATE PER TON PER MILE.

The aggregate rate per ton per mile received for freight in 1870 was 2.423; in 1885 it was 1.241, or the rate per ton per mile in 1885 was 51.21 per cent of the rate in 1870. The average rate per ton per mile in 1885 is less than in any of the preceding years. These roads have all paid the interest on their indebtedness, and for several years have paid dividends on their stock. We append the tables referred to above:

THE PARTIES SPECIALLY INTERESTED IN TRANSPORTATION.

For years past there has been in the public mind an agitation on the subject of transportation rates. When produce commands good prices it seems to attract little attention, but whenever prices are low it returns with greater force. The tonnage reported for the Iowa roads is 12,343,364 tons; of this 21.53 per cent is grain, nothing else but coal-which is 24.73 per cent-exceeding it. Animals are 9.17 per cent; other agricultural products, 4.04 per cent; flour, 3.43 per cent, and provisions 1.90 per cent. It will be safe to assume that of

Chicago, Rock

Island & Pacific.

Illinois Central.

Aggregate of all.

the tonnage carried in the State, forty per cent represents the products of the soil, and as the State is mainly agricultural, this percentage represents the surplus, or the proportion of our earnings from which is realized the material prosperity of the people of the State. It is then a matter of special interest that the rate paid by this forty per cent from the producer to the ultimate market shall be the lowest amount practicable. Whatever causes may operate at home or abroad to raise or depress the values of these products, the final and determining price is fixed by the rate at which they are sold in Liverpool and London, the markets of the world. So far as the future seems to promise, there is little to encourage the hope of materially higher prices for our surplus, represented by this forty per cent of our tonnage. The railroad system of India has been extended so that it has become a competitor with us for the grain products, the cultivation of wheat and flax being among the leading industries of the eastern empire.

The long lines of road in India are operated as cheaply as the trunk lines between Chicago and New York. This is due to the fact that the price of labor is but a moiety of what is paid for similar services here, and the conclusion is forced upon us that when the same skill and experience have been acquired, the rates of transportation will be as low. It is clear that in the future the demand for low rates for this forty per cent will be as pressing as it is now-possibly more so. As opposed to this demand, and almost as if to negative it, the labor question is assuming an aggressive character all over the country, and demanding hours, rates and conditions that if applied to railway service would seem to prohibit low rates. The owners of the railway properties will insist on a return for the capital invested, and certainly with some show of justice. We have here three parties all vitally interested in the railroads, and whose interests in their earnings are directly affected by those of each of the others. We leave out of the discussion the twenty-five per cent earned by the passenger service, which, as the expenditure by the people is mainly voluntary, does not specially figure here. Could this forty per cent of the Iowa railway tonnage be delivered at tide water without any cost to the producer, at present prices the profit to the western farmer would not be extreme.

The amount directly paid for labor by the railways in the State of Iowa this year was $13,677,780.53; this was simply the amount paid to employes. The operating expenses as reported were $22,931,

555.10. Of the difference between these two amounts, excluding a million of dollars paid in taxes, very little of the balance is not directly chargeable to the account of labor.

There is a certain value to coal and iron in the mines, but it is very slight compared with the labor charges to make it available; a value to timber in the forest, but slight as compared with its cost where used. We believe we are safe in assuming that at least $20,000,000 is paid out of the operating expenses of the roads in Iowa in some form for labor. A very moderate reduction in rates would wipe out the difference between this amount and the earnings. A decrease of twenty per cent in the hours of labor and a corresponding increase of wages would go far to accomplish the same result. Either of these would leave the owner of the property without any returns for his investments. We have been lead to this train of thought by the various views that are agitating the popular mind at this time, influenced by the position from which the conflict between the three parties is viewed. They are neither of them natural allies, and any combination between any two to the impairment of the rights of the other would result in serious injury to all. Dennis Kearney's idea that the business of the country should pay additional rates so that the laborer need but devote a portion of his time to earning subsistence, would put such a price on transportation as to keep our surplus at home, and work to the detriment of the class he specially desired to serve. From a grain producing we would be. come almost entirely a pastoral people. That we are tending rapidly in that direction is one reason why the entire earnings of the lines in Iowa have increased so little of late years, notwithstanding the increased mileage.

The whole subject is one which it is wise for the representatives of the three interests to study carefully without passion or prejudicé. We own that we are not prepared to suggest a remedy for evils that seem impending, but believe if these differences are rightly adjusted, it will be after approaching the subject from the standpoint from which we have started.

GENERAL RAILROAD VIEW.

CAR-LOAD RATES.

There is still a pressure brought to bear from Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee against car-load rates. It is earnestly urged that the car load rate is of no benefit to the railroad companies; that it injures St. Louis and Chicago dealers, and only benefits dealers in interier towns and on the Missouri river, and that railroads are not in the least justifiable in making any distinction between wholesale and retail transactions. In combatting the car-load rate the Transportation Committee of the Merchants Exchange, of St. Louis, under date of September 10, 1885, say: "The abolition of the car-load rate would naturally result in an equitable division of the western retail trade between jobbers of St. Louis, Milwaukee and Chicago, and those on and west of the Missouri, consequently the through business from the east to and beyond the Missouri river would fall off, but your business from St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee would show a corresponding increase."

In the sentence above written Iowa may see the proposition that the wholesale interests of Burlington, Davenport, Clinton, Dubuque, Keokuk, Marshalltown, Cedar Rapids, Ottumwa, Des Moines and other interior points would inevitably go to Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis by the abolition of the car-load rate. The railroad companies are told that by the abolition of the car-load rate revenues can be increased; that no one is benefitted by the car-load rate but jobbers on the Missouri river; that the Illinois Railroad Commissioners are opposed to it, and that the Missouri Railroad Commissioners concede the injustice of the car-load rate. Again it is urged that, with the car-load rate maintained, the retailer buys at Des Moines, Ottumwa, Sedalia and Springfield; that he does not come east, and the railroad companies fail thereby to get his passenger fare, etc.