Show ja f v fc awry 17 TW ry WT REPORT ON THE views of minority presented in the senate by elkins of west virginia figures covering a period of thirty seven years show a big deduc t on in rates service much more eff efficiently organized washington senator ell ns of west virginia has just completed and filed in the senate his minority report on the railroad rate law it presents a comprehensive history of the economic development of american railroads raili oads together with exhaustive tables wh ch eh tend to show a constant ly decreasing fre and passenger rate and the relation between such rates and the price of commodities and cost of labor the average passenger rate says tte report adv advanced aneed slightly from 1870 to 1880 during the next twenty four years there was a decline amounting to 1785 17 85 per cent of the average tor for 1880 the net decline from 1870 to 1890 averaged 16 1614 14 per cent during the years from 1870 to tor 1904 the rate for the earlier year being about two and a half times of the latter and the net savings to the ship pers averaged 1109 mills per ton mile the report says that the cost ol 01 transportation in 1904 was nearly two billion dollars less than it would have been had the rates for 1870 still pro pre availed the passenger bus ness of 1904 ex ceedee that of 1890 by more than 25 per cent while the freight rate was 13 26 per cent in coal o 0 anson with the increase in wages of allread tall i road em aloyes from an average wage ot of 25 in 1900 to 80 in 1904 the report says that the service in 1904 was so mich m ich more efficiently organ iced that the labor contributed by the average employed accompli hed 23 per cent moie in the movement of passengers and 74 per cent more in the movement of freight than in 1880 the report gives the total railway capitalization june 30 1904 as 10 and sai says this amount Is 4 74 per cent less than the commer cial value of the railways as asti mated by the census bureau |