TABLE No. 6.-PRICES OF PIG IRON, ROLLED BAR IRON, IRON AND STEEL RAILS, STEEL BILLETS, PER TON, FROM 1852 TO 1897.

[From the Statistical Abstract of the United States.]

a At Philadelphia. b At Pittsburg. c From store at Philadelphia._d At mills in Pennsylvania. e Wholesale base prices at store, Philadelphia. f Base prices from factory, f. o. b. Chicago, in carload lots. g Superseded by the manufacture of steel rails.

TABLE No. 7.- PRICES OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES during the YEARS 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, 1879, 1880, and 1897. [Furnished by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.]

Present prices (1897) of locomotives of same types, same sized cylinders, but with an increase of frame 10 per cent. to 25 per cent. in weight, are as follows: 1897

8

13 x 24

$6,250

6,500

7,100

8,450

9,500

5,200

5,950

BURNHAM, WILLIAMS & Co.

Table No. 8, furnished by Mr. A. J. Pitkin, of the Schenectady Locomotive Works, shows that the locomotives manufactured by that company were about 57 per cent. cheaper in 1897 than the same class of engines

were in 1866. Mr. Pitkin's remarks which are quoted in Table No. 8 show that the high prices of locomotives in 1866 were caused by the high prices of materials (principally iron and steel) which ruled in 1866, and that with the fall in the prices of the raw materials the price of the finished product declined. The average life of a locomotive is about sixteen years, and depends. largely upon the purity of the water used in the boiler. The average life of a freight car is about the same, while well-built passenger cars last somewhat longer.

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TABLE No. 8.

COMPARISON OF PRICES ON SAME CLASS OF ENGINES IN 1866 AND IN 1897. [Furnished by the Schenectady Locomotive Works.]

These cover the different classes of engines which we find we built during the year 1866. You of course appreciate that the cost of material was as high in proportion to the price charged for locomotives in 1866, as at the present time. A. J. PITKIN, Vice-Pres. and Gen'l Mgr.

PRICES OF CARS DURING THE YEARS 1865 AND 1870.
[Furnished by the Barney & Smith Car Company.]

Box Cars..
Stock Cars

Coal Cars

PRICES OF CARS IN 1897 AT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
[Furnished by the Wells & French Company, car builders.]

Flat Cars

Tank Cars

Refrigerator Cars

The compensation of the laborer reached its highest point in the United States in the year 1873. In his report on "Wholesale Prices, Wages and Transportation in the United States," made on March 3, 1893, Senator Aldrich, of the Senate Committee on Finance, says: "If we average all quotations, giving to each equal weight in the result, we find that wages stood at 160.7 in 1891 as compared with 1860, while in 1840 they stood at 87.7 as compared with the same year (1860).

(Senate Report No. 1394, Finance Committee, 2d Session 52d Congress, 1893.)

Mulhall, one of the most accurate of statisticians, in giving statistics of the railroads in the United States, says: "In 1850 there were 9,020 miles of railroad completed and equipped, at an average cost as represented by stocks and bonds, of $33,000 per mile. In 1860 there were 30,640 miles of road, on which the total amount of stocks and bonds amounted to $39,000 per mile, and that in 1871 there were 60,520 miles, with an average of $46,500 stocks and bonds per mile." (See Statistics by Mulhall, page 507.)

Table No. 5, taken from the "Statistical Abstract of the United States," published under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, gives the cost of railroads in the United States in the year 1873 at $53,851 per mile for the 70,278 miles of road then in operation. This

estimate, it appears, is based on the total liabilities alleged to have been incurred in constructing and equipping the roads, which liabilities, it is claimed, are represented by the capital stock, funded debt, and floating debt, as shown in Table No. 5.

The cost of the construction and equipment of a railroad depends entirely upon the amount of work required in grading the road-bed, bridging watercourses, erecting the necessary buildings, the cost of acquiring the rightof-way and lands for terminal and other purposes, the cost of rolling stock, the price of labor and materials, and the cost of engineering and superintendence. If the cost of each of the above items of expense increases year by year, the cost of constructing and equipping railroads would also necessarily increase in proportion thereto. If the cost of the different items of expense in constructing and equipping railroads decreases year by year, the average cost per mile for constructing and equipping railroads should also decrease in the same proportion, the truth of which proposition, no honest, sane man will deny. Railroad officials have been quick to take advantage of rising prices of labor and materials, in fixing the average cost per mile of their roads. If in 1860 the average cost of all the railroads in the United States was $39,000 per mile, and in 1871, after the period of high prices in railroad materials, caused by the Civil War, had passed, the average cost of all the roads was $46,500 per mile, would it not be reasonable to suppose that if the cost of materials, labor and rolling