ommission--the one for the year
ended June 30, 1896--contains financial reports from 1985 companies,
there were only 782 "independent operating roads," the remainder of
the companies being subsidiary organisations. This report shows that
forty-four of these operating companies have an aggregate mileage that
equals nearly six tenths of the total railway mileage of the United
States. Indeed, the statistician to the Interstate Commerce Commission
declared in 1894 that "over 83 per cent. of the business of the
railways and 82 per cent. of their earnings fall under the control of
less than forty associations of business men."

The Pennsylvania system affords a good concrete illustration of
railway consolidation. That corporation, with its 9000 miles of road,
was built up by the union of over 200 railroad companies, and it now
comprises within its organisation 177 corporations--most, though not
all, of which are subsidiary railroad companies. This one railway
system does one seventh of the entire freight business performed by
all the railroads of the United States and handles one eighth of all
the passenger traffic.

THE FREIGHT SERVICE OF RAILROADS

The freight business of the railroads of the United States is much
larger than their passenger service, the earnings from freight being
nearly three times that from the passenger traffic. It is only in some
of the New England States, the most densely populated parts of the
United States, that the passenger receipts equal the freight earnings.
The industrial conditions of the United States necessitate the
movement of great quantities of bulky freight long distances. Our
principal grain-fields are from 1000 to 1500 miles from the
manufacturing districts and seaboard cities. Our richest iron deposits
are in the States adjacent to Lake Superior hundreds of miles from the
coal-beds of Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Most of the cotton crop
is moved long distances to reach the mills of New England and Great
Britain. In fact, most of the products of our fields, forests, mines,
and factories are marketed over wide areas. The average distance
travelled by each ton of freight moved during the year ended June 30,
1896, was 124.47 miles; and, as the railroads carried 765,891,385 tons
that year, the number of tons carried one mile was 95,328,360,278.

A comparison of the revenues received from the freight and passenger
services by the American, German, French, and British railways is
i