A comparison of these figures with those corresponding of other transcontinental lines is instructive, and is commended to Congressmen who have to deal with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific questions. Stock and bond inflation, it may confidently be asserted, has created from five to six thousand millions of dollars of fictitious railroad capital. In 1890 the average liabilities of the railroads in the United States, including the capital stock and the funded and unfunded debt, were $63,600 per mile. According to Mr. Poor's estimate of the average cost of American railroads per mile, more than 50 per cent. of this vast sum is pure water. But, as has been stated before, Mr. Poor is partial to the railroad interest, and his estimate of $30,000 a mile is too high for the time at which it was made. Furthermore, railroad building has since then been materially cheapened. Tens of thousands of miles of road have been built in recent years that did not cost to exceed $10,000 a mile. Very recently the Union Pacific Railroad Company proved, before the Board of Equalization at Salt Lake City, by the testimony of engineers, that the average cost per mile of the Utah Central line was only $7,298.20, itemized as follows: Engineering $ 300 00 Grading 5-ft. fill, 18,480 yds. 2,310 00 Ties, 2,640, at 30 cts. 792 00 Rails, 82 tons 1,845 00 Splices 12 00 Bolts 24 00 Spikes 142 20 Track-laying 600 00 Bridges 200 00 Station-building 100 00 Fences 150 00 Right of way 720 00 --------- $7,298 20 In a recent article Mr. C. Wood Davis states that "many auxiliary lines have been built at costs ranging from $8,000 to $15,000 per mile, and capitalized at two, three, four, and even five times their cost, as in the case of the 107 miles of the Kansas Midland, costing, including a small equipment, but $10,200 per mile, of which 30 per cent. was furnished by the municipalities along its line. Yet, with construction profits and other devices, this road shows a capitalization of $53,000 per mile." And that "the Missouri Pacific line from Eldora to McPherson, Kansas, a comparatively expensive prairie road, being located across the line of drainage, cost much less than $10,000 per mile, as have thousands of miles of other prairie roads."