Nothing in the nature of statistics under official authority more confusing and misleading has ever been issued from the government printing office than those portions of the Twenty-third Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the year ending June 30, 1909, purporting to deal with the financial results of the railways of the United States for the fiscal years 1908 and 1909. On the first page of the Report the financial results of the last two fiscal years are set down thus: =================================================================== | Operating | Operating | | Operating | Revenues | Expenses | Taxes | Income -----+----------------+----------------+-------------+------------- 1908 | $2,461,521,345 | $1,721,327,155 | $83,775,869 | $655,418,321 1909 | 2,494,115,589 | 1,662,102,172 | 89,026,226 | 742,987,191 -----+----------------+----------------+-------------+------------- The mileage operated in 1908 is stated as 228,164.80 and in 1909 as 233,002.67 miles. On page 54 of the report the summary compiled from the monthly reports gives the following comparative figures for the same years: =================================================================== | Total | Total | | | Operating | Operating | Net Revenue | Taxes | Revenues | Expenses | | 1908 | $2,421,542,004 | $1,687,144,975 | $734,397,029 | $83,775,869 1909 | 2,443,312,232 | 1,615,497,233 | 827,814,998 | 89,026,226 -----+----------------+----------------+--------------+------------ The mileage is the same as above, with the added information that the mileage operated at the end of the fiscal year 1908 was 229,952.36; and at the end of 1909, 234,182.70. It will be observed that the taxes in both summaries are identical, but in one they are subtracted from net revenues and in the other they are not. An insert facing page 54, giving the details of the monthly reports from which the table on that page is compiled, reveals the common source of both sets of returns and gives the key to the discrepancy between them. This is no less than the inclusion in the former of the revenues and expenses from "outside operations," which are excluded from the summary on page 54, in which the "net revenue" only from such outside source is mentioned and added to the net revenue from rail operations. The impropriety and inaccuracy of such accounting becomes manifest when its effect is seen to vary the ratio of operating expenses to earnings from 69.67% to 69.93% in 1908, and from 66.12% to 66.64% in 1909. On pages 64 and 65 appears another set of income figures for the year ending June 30, 1908. This is compiled from the annual reports of the carriers operating 230,494 miles of line, from which _the mileage of switching and terminal companies is excluded_. It supplies the following summary: