"An army of more than 1,500,000 men is employed directly in the operation and maintenance of the railroads in the United States, and millions of other men are furnished employment indirectly in the mines, the forests and the factories, supplying the railroads with approximately one and one-quarter billions of dollars' worth of material and equipment annually consumed. "These are wonderfully interesting and impressive facts; but the fact of greater interest and worthy of the most careful thought of every citizen of this country is that this vast army of men engaged in producing the commodity of transportation at an average cost more than _40 per cent lower_ than is shown by any other country is paid an average wage more than _50 per cent higher_ than is paid in any other country where railroads exist." (W. C. Brown, before the Michigan Manufacturers' Association, June 22, 1908.) LESSON I. FREIGHT RATES AND THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. Whom have we here? Eleven different types of American citizens, standing in a row, clad in the varied uniforms or togs of their several occupations or leisure from hod-carrier to the dude in dress suit and opera hat. These men all live in the Mississippi Valley. Their clothes were made in New England. They paid the railroads _nine cents_ apiece for transporting their clothes, including shoes and hats, from the point of manufacture to the Mississippi Valley. The combined freight charges on _all_ the clothes worn by the eleven men in the group, including shoes and hats, was _less than one dollar_. If freight rates were advanced 10 per cent the increased price to these men on their entire wearing apparel would be _less than one cent each_. If they have to pay more than that per cent it will not be because freight rates are advanced. LESSON II. FREIGHT RATES AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. Consider the McCormick harvester. It mows, gathers, binds and stacks the bearded grain, while its proud possessor cracks his whip above the backs of his three-horse team. It has banished the nightmare of farm mortgages from the great prairies of the West. This particular harvester we are considering is cutting grain one hundred miles west of the Mississippi River. It was built in Chicago and sold for $130. The farmer paid $1.76 to have it brought to him from Chicago, three hundred miles away. If freight rates were advanced 10 per cent the cost of the harvester would be increased _seventeen and one-half cents_. LESSON III. FREIGHT RATES AND COOKING UTENSILS. Next to the harvester the modern kitchen cooking range has added more joys and years to the farmer's life than anything in the cornucopia of modern civilization. Here is a standard range. It is a thing of beauty as well as a means for cooking everything your mother used to cook and much more.