Station agents 60.7 51.2 15.65 Other station men 64.8 59.0 8.95 Enginemen 28.8 24.4 15.28 Firemen 51.2 41.3 19.34 Conductors 34.2 28.5 16.67 Other trainmen 55.3 41.3 25.32 Machinists 47.1 36.6 22.29 Carpenters 52.2 43.8 16.09 Other shopmen 61.4 51.0 16.94 Section 61.8 55.3 10.52 Other trackmen 90.5 71.9 20.55 Switchmen, flagmen and watchmen 61.0 56.1 8.03 Telegraph operators and despatchers 55.3 46.5 15.91 Employees, account floating equipment 56.5 46.3 18.05 All other employees and laborers 64.0 54.7 14.53 ---- ---- ----- Average -- -- 16.27 The foregoing shows that on the average the gross railway receipts derived from the service assumed as the basis of the calculation would purchase 16.27 per cent. less of the necessary services of railway employees, in 1907 than in 1897 and what is true of the receipts from this service is true of every dollar received by a railway--that is, no railway dollar will pay for more than eighty-four per cent., on the average, as much railway labor as it would in 1897. The change in railway rates necessary fully to offset this decrease in the value of the money in which rates are paid would amount to an apparent advance of 19.43 per cent, of the money rates now in force. COST OF FUEL FOR LOCOMOTIVES. Next to labor the principal single item of expense incurred in the operation of the railways of the United States is for the fuel used in their locomotives. The expenditures for this purpose now constitute about eleven per cent. of the cost of operation and since 1897 have been as follows: Cost of fuel Year. for locomotives. 1897 $65,044,670 1898 72,469,777 1899 77,187,344 1900 90,593,965 1901 104,926,568 1902 120,074,192 1903 146,509,031 1904 158,948,886 1905 156,429,245 1906 170,499,133 1907 200,261,975 -------------- Total $1,362,944,786