{table continued} =============================================================== Year and average rate in mills per ton per mile. ------------------------------------------------ Group. Region. 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908(a) --------------------------------------------------------------- I. A 11.67 11.96 11.79 11.72 11.45 11.10 II. B 6.67 6.86 6.65 6.50 6.55 6.43 III. C 6.07 6.20 6.07 5.94 5.98 5.94 IV. D 7.14 7.16 6.91 6.90 7.03 6.96 V. E 8.27 8.51 8.39 8.13 8.27 8.25 VI. F 7.74 7.79 7.66 7.45 7.43 7.35 VII. G 9.80 9.64 9.00 8.94 9.33 9.42 VIII. H 9.62 9.98 9.88 9.47 9.66 9.53 IX. I 9.74 10.00 10.96 10.09 10.51 10.02 X. J 10.05 10.36 10.98 11.03 11.63 12.04 --------------------------------------------------------------- United States 7.63 7.80 7.66 7.48 7.59 7.5 --------------------------------------------------------------- (a) Average for 1908 added from 21st annual Report of Prof. Adams. S. T. The foregoing shows that the average rates per ton per mile, expressed in money, were lower in every group but one, as well as in the whole country, in 1907 than they were in 1897. The average for the whole country was lower in 1907 than in any other year shown except the years 1898 to 1902, inclusive, and for three of those years the difference was less than one-tenth of one mill. The decrease in the general average from 1897 to 1907 was 4.89 per cent. and the increase from 1899, the year of the lowest average, was 4.83 per cent. So far as the quality of the ton-mile unit is affected by changes in the geographical distribution of traffic the tendency between 1897 and 1907 was toward a higher quality, for traffic movement grew more rapidly in the regions where rates are normally higher than it did in the regions of lower rates. In the following statement the groups used by the Interstate Commerce Commission are arranged with the group in which ton-mileage increased most rapidly from 1897 to 1907 at the top, the group that increased next most rapidly in the second line, and so on to the group that increased least rapidly at the bottom: Average rate per ton Tons of freight carried one mile. Increase, per mile in mills. Group. 1897. 1907. per cent. In 1897. In 1907.