The bulletin indicates that putty, Portland cement and Ames shovels are about the only exceptions to the general rule of greatly increased prices of railway supplies. It is plain that as to all of the important supplies and materials included in the foregoing list the $105.00 of gross receipts from the typical shipment heretofore used as an example would show the same, or a greater, loss in purchasing power which has characterized the comparisons previously shown. Evidence from official sources thus shows that in purchasing the same quantities either of labor or of supplies the railways have now to expend much larger sums than they did ten years ago. The official statistics already quoted are fully supported and their pertinence to the problem in hand is fully proven by the accounting records of the purchasing departments of the several railways. The Trunk Line Association has obtained detailed information concerning purchases in 1897 and 1907, by important railways represented in its organization, and this information has been carefully and accurately tabulated. A table showing the largely increased cost of articles which this tabulation reveals has been made Appendix B and will be found at pages 194 to 198 of this pamphlet. An examination of this appendix and, particularly of the classes of labor and of the articles shown to have greatly increased in cost, discloses the unquestionable fact that the increased cost pervades the whole aggregate of operating expenses and that there is no considerable exception to the rule that every item of operating expenditure is now very much greater than it was in 1897. OTHER COSTS OF SUPPLYING RAILWAY SERVICES. The cost of railway transportation which must be borne out of the receipts for railway services includes operating expenses, interest on capital and taxes. Before discussing the increase in the rate of interest demanded it is worth while to note that the exactions made by the taxing power upon the railways have also notably increased. The sums annually paid as taxes on railway property since 1897 follow: Taxes paid. Miles operated ---------------------- and included Average in reports Amount. per mile of taxes paid. operated.