Narrow-gauge train, locomotive and tender, fuel and water.. 20 tons. 100 tons. 200 tons. 320 tons. 25 freight-cars, empty, at 4 tons each... 25 freight-cars, loaded, at 8 tons each. Total weight of train..... This is less than the capacity of locomotives. On the return-trip, westward bound, and half load, the comparison would be thus: The narrow-gauge train, with a paying load of 100 tons, is 38 tons lighter than the standard train empty. This advantage is too apparent to need remarks. But, in practical railroading, car-service does not average over three tons to the car, and often it is one or less than one ton. On the standard road this service is always made with a 10 ton car, and hence in many cases the proportion is 10 tons of wagon-weight to one of paying load, but on narrow-gauge roads this service is never over 4 to 1, and may, in most cases, be 3 or even 2 to 1. This is a point of financial importance which cannot be overlooked. The narrow-gauge train, with the load of a standard train, is 62 tons less weight than the standard train empty, and 102 tons less than the standard train with the same load; and when these trains run, as all trains do, with less than an average half load, the difference becomes startling when looked at from a financial standpoint. The above simple facts develop aggregate amounts in the commerce of the country which involve millions of dollars every year. The people are considering these, and statesmen cannot ignore them. Our transportation has outgrown the simple elements of development and facilities. Principles of legitimate business must hereafter prevail. Standard roads: (g.) Cost of operating. New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, 1871, per ton per mile.. .7704 mills. .87 mills. If to the above we add one mill for renewals, betterments, and contingencies, and allow for a fair decrease in cost for 1874, we will have a cost of 7 mills as the minimum for these roads. With an actual operating cost of 4.5 mills against 7.5 mills, we obtain the paying-rate of 6 mills as against the 10 mills, now the minimum charged by standard roads. This point is further illustrated by the fact that the cost of operating and maintenance of our best standard roads is 64 per cent. of gross earnings, while the Denver and Rio Grande, in 1874, did not exceed 50 per cent. of gross earnings on a very limited business; and, had the business been equal to their limited equipment, the proportion would not have exceeded 35 per cent. (Report 1874, p. 15.) 4. The financial results of the proposed reduction of rates are worthy of special attention. To make this point as simple as possible, we will assume the moderate business of an average tonnage of 2,500 tons per mile, and the distance as 1,000 miles, i. e., the distance from New York City to the Mississippi River, which is in the heart of the grain and meat districts of the country. This will give an annual tonnage of 2,500,000 tons. The transportation of these 2,500,000 tons would cost By standard roads, at 10 mills per ton per mile.... $25, 000, 000 By narrow-gauge roads, at 6 mills per ton per mile.. 15, 000, 000 By narrow-gauge roads, at 5 mills per ton per mile........ 12, 500, 000 The narrow-gauge road at six mills would save to the commerce of the country every year an amount equal to the aid asked of Congress to build this 1,000 miles of road, and at five mills would save $2,500,000 more than the amount of this aid. This is certainly worthy of consideration. This 10-mill rate is equal to 35 cents per bushel of 60 pounds, the 6mill rate is equal to 18 cents per bushel, and the 5-mill rate is equal to 15 cents per bushel, in the transportation from the Mississippi River to the seaboard. To obtain these rates the people of the West are now actively interested, and their recent elections indicate that a solution of the question will be pressed with energy and unrelentingly. The saving of this amount annually on even the limited commerce indicated is of national importance, and the inauguration of this commercial economy cannot be postponed with any apology that will be satisfactory to the people, especially in view of the fact that this transportation question is backed up by the necessities of the vast unemployed labor and capital of the country. 5. The direct financial return to the Government. The bill of the Fortyfirst Parallel Railroad Company secures, in perpetuity, to the Post-Office Department of the Government a telegraph-service and a mail and express-mail service free of charge. The annual value of this service is fully equal to the interest on the aid asked. From the report of the Postmaster-General, 1874, we learn that the rate per ton per mile paid to railroad companies for mail-service varies from $40 to about $1,000 per mile per annum. These rates appear to be inversely to the weight of daily mail-the largest mail pays the lowest rate; but the following may be accepted as specimens of fair rates: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: Washington, Wheeling. .11,403 6, 614 Hannibal & Saint Joseph Railroad: Quincy, Saint Joseph.... 6,020 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad: Chicago, Burlington. 7,643 This is an average mail-service of less than 4 tons per mile per day for these roads. The mail-service secured by the Forty-first Parallel Railroad may be estimated as follows: Post-office car, daily mail, 4 tons, at $70 Average value per mile..... $280 00 280 00 560 00 At this reasonable mail-service and price, the Government will save in mail-service, on every mile, the sum of $60 over and above the interest on the aid given; and this would amount, on 1,000 miles, to the handsome sum of $60,000 per annum, or the same proportion for any less or greater distance. To the above add the postal-telegraph service, a fair estimate of which cannot now be made, and we will have a net gain to the Government of about $100,000 per annum. From the above considerations, this subject is most respectfully pressed upon the attention of Congress, with the full conviction, also, that such practical and valuable legislation is expected by the people, and required by the best interests of commerce. The unemployed labor and capital of the country are equally interested. To relegate this transportation question to the people or to a future Congress, is to intensify the excitement in the West, and precipitate the demands of commerce into the arena of party politics to such an extent as to entirely disorganize business and affiliations. The responsibility is grave; the consequences are portentous. The producers of the West, the consumers of the East and South, and the labor and capital of the whole country, propose to be heard and relieved. Most respectfully submitted. J. K. HORNISH, On behalf of the Forty-first Parallel Railroad. 2d Session. No. 38. LOUISIANA AFFAIRS. RESOLUTIONS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA, RELATIVE TO Interference of United States soldiers in the organization of the legislature of Louisiana. JANUARY 18, 1875.-Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Harrisburgh, January 11, 1875. Whereas, under the Constitution of the United States, the use of the Federal Army in the suppression of domestic violence can be invoked "only on application of the legislature, or of the executive, (where the legislature cannot be convened;) and whereas, on the first Monday of January, instant, the day prescribed by the constitution of Louisiana for the meeting of the general assembly of that Commonwealth, at the time when the legislature was convened and in process of organization, a portion of the Federal Army, under the authority of the President of the United States placed at the disposal of the so called governor of Louisiana, forcibly ejected from their seats persons claiming to be lawfully elected members of the legislature; and whereas this act of usurpation and lawless power has received the sanction and approval of President Grant; and whereas it is the constitutional right and prerogative of a legislature of a free State to judge of the qualifications of its own members: Therefore, be it Resolved, That the house of representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, speaking for her people, do solemnly protest against so heinous an abuse of the power committed to the President. We protest against it as a precedent which substitutes the will of the executive and the Federal bayonet for the functions of the legislature, in determining the qualifications of its members, endangering personal liberty and imperiling free government. Resolved, That we commend the forbearance exercised by those whose rights were so unconstitutionally violated; we assure them of the sympathy felt for them by all who are zealous for the preservation of the principles of civil liberty upon which our Government is founded. Resolved, That copies of the foregoing be forwarded, by the speaker of this house, to the President of the United States, and the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this State, and to the governors of the several States. The foregoing resolutions are hereby respectfully certified and forwarded. SAMUEL F. PATTERSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. |