Show profits of the report or the me interstate commerce commission shows showe that last year the railways of the united states carried ed over passengers one mile they also carried tons of freight one mile the total amount paid in dividends on stock was call it of the total earnings of the railways about 70 per cent came from freight service and 30 per cent from passenger service let us assume then that of the paid I 1 in dividends 70 40 per cent or 61 was profit on freight service and 23 26 was profit on passenger service let us drop fractions and call li IT from freight and from passengers by dividing the passenger profit into the number of passengers carr carried aed we find that the railways had to carry a passenger miles in 0 order to earn one dollar of profit or five miles to earn one cent their average profit therefore was less than two tenths of one cent for carrying a passenger and bis baggage one mile by dividing the freight profit into the freight mileage we find that the railways had bad to carry one ton of freight 1530 miles in order to L arn larn one dollar or over fifteen n miles liles to earn one cent the average profit therefore was loss less than one fifteenth of a cent for carrying a ton of freight besides loading and unloading loading it one mile |