they be at any time thrown out of the service, more than half
of their property would be irretrievably lost. This percentage of
dividend would be large enough but for such possibilities as these,
which may soon reduce it to a deficit and a loss. Thus it is that
steam stock should declare three times the dividend of other stocks,
to be eventually equal to them. And hence it is that, with the clear
record of this Company before the Government, and with an investment
of between three and four millions of dollars, being at the same time
free from debt, the stock of the Company is selling at thirty-three
per cent. below par. This is a good exemplification of my views in the
preceding Sections regarding the costs, and hazards, and low values of
ocean steam stocks generally. Nor are the stocks of this Company kept
from the public. They are advertised and sold at public auction at
these reduced rates every day in the year in this city; and no one of
the five hundred and four stockholders, among whom these interests are
diffused, seems anxious to put "his all" in the enterprise. And yet
there are some people who call such companies a monopoly. If a
monopoly, why do they not come forward, buy the stocks, keep them in
their own hands, and profit by them; especially as a monopoly must be
doubly good when it can be bought for two thirds the cash originally
paid for it!

I have noticed this Company thus fully, because its extent of stock,
and large field of operation, make it a fit illustration of the views
which I have advanced throughout this work. I have no desire to
depreciate the stock, or in any other way injure the Company, as my
own enterprise gives me quite enough to do.

Many of the views advanced with regard to the Pacific Mail Company
will apply to the United States Mail Steamship Company. That Company,
at the outset, built very fine steamers, and ran them incessantly,
until they were unfit for duty. They have constantly supplied their
place, and have at all times, by building and by chartering at the
highest prices, kept up a large and costly fleet for their ramified
service. The service contemplated in their original contract, at
$1.88-3/4 cents per mile, is but about two thirds of that actually
performed. The contract required them to run 3,200 miles semi-monthly,
but they actually perform semi-monthly 5,200. (_See Mr. King's Letter,
Paper G._) The actual service has required nearly twice the number of
steamers neces