------------------------------+-----------------+------------------ Property destroyed. | Amount paid by |Freight charges on |railroad company.| the same. ------------------------------+-----------------+------------------ Butter, 200 pounds at 35 cents| $70.00 | $0.50 Ore, 75.9 tons at $3.50 | 265.80 | 56.91 Paper, 4,600 pounds | 269.10 | 8.74 Pulp, 10,400 pounds | 160.00 | 12.65 Shingles, 85 M | 192.50 | 11.00 Horsenails | 2,986.06 | 37.44 Lumber | 252.00 | 18.40 Apples, 159 barrels | 508.80 | 15.26 Hops, 209 bales, 37,014 pounds| 34,908.86 | 59.22 ------------------------------+-----------------+------------------ | $39,613.12 | $220.12 ------------------------------+-----------------+------------------ This was during the fall of 1882, when hops sold in New York for over $1 per pound. The plan of payment for car service by the mile run, without reference to time, has the merit of simplicity and long-established usage. It is, however, in reality, crude and unscientific, and has brought with it, in its train, numerous disadvantages. The owner of a car is entitled, first, to the proper interest in his investment, that is, on the value of the car; second, to a proper amount for wear and tear or for repairs. The life of a freight car may be reasonably estimated at ten years, so that ten per cent. on its value would be a fair interest-charge. The average amount for repairs varies directly as to the distance the car moves, and may be put at one-half cent per mile run. It will be seen that by the ordinary method of payment the car-owner is compensated for interest at the rate of ¼ of a cent for the time that the car is in motion, but receives nothing for all the time the car is at rest. If cars could be kept in motion for any considerable portion of each twenty-four hours, this would prove ample. But in practice it is found that few roads succeed in getting an average movement of all cars for more than one hour and a half in each twenty-four. This gives about five per cent. interest on the value of the car, only one-half of what is generally conceded to be a fair return. Still further, there is no inducement to the road on which a foreign car is standing to hasten its return home. On the contrary, there is a direct advantage in holding the car idle until a proper load can be found for it, rather than return it home empty. The most serious abuses of the freight business of the country have grown from this state of affairs. It costs nothing but the use of the track to hold freight in cars; consequently freight is held in cars instead of being put in storehouses, frequently for weeks and months at a time.