fixes its own
excursion and commutation rates; one or another of the joint passenger
associations determines the rates where several roads divide the
traffic. The latter are usually one, or one and one-third fares for the
round trip.

Except on a few local roads in densely peopled regions the passenger
service is much less remunerative than freight business, and not a few
railways would abolish passenger trains altogether were they permitted
to do so. Rate-cutting between competing roads has not been common since
the existence of joint passenger associations. It is sometimes done
secretly, however, through the use of ticket-brokers, or "scalpers," who
are employed to sell tickets at less than the usual rate; it is also
done by the illicit use of tickets authorized for given purposes, such
as "editors'," "clergymen's," and "advertising" transportation.

In many instances, where several roads have the same terminal points, it
is customary for the road or roads having the quickest service to allow
a lower rate to the others. Thus, of the seven or eight roads between
New York and Chicago, the two best equipped roads charge a fare of
twenty dollars on their ordinary, and a higher rate on their limited,
trains. Because of slower time the other roads charge a sum less by two
or three dollars for the same service. This cut in the rate is called a
"differential."

=Railway Mileage.=--The railways of the world in 1900 had an aggregate of
nearly four hundred and eighty thousand miles distributed as follows:

North America 216,000
Europe 173,000
Asia 36,000
South America and West Indies 28,000
Australasia 15,000
Africa 12,000

In western Europe and the eastern United States there is an average of
one mile of railway to each six or eight square miles of area. In these
countries railway construction has reached probably its highest
development, and the proportion seems to represent the mileage necessary
for the commercial interests of the people.

The railways of the United States aggregate 193,000 miles--nearly
one-half the total mileage of the world. Over this enormous trackage
38,000 locomotives and 1,400,000 coaches and cars carry yearly
600,000,000 passengers and 1,000,000,000 tons of freight. They represent
an outlay of about $5,000,000,000. Owing to the absence of the
international prob