Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/122

It is my sincere belief that a very, very large proportion of the transactions made daily between the railroad-owner and the railroad-user go on without friction, without difficulty, and without hardship or injustice to any one. Not long ago I caused a calculation to be made of the total number of individual freight transactions on the Northern Pacific road in a year. In round figures there were something over 3,000,000 separate freight transactions, or about 9600 a working day. Each one of these transactions involved the use of freight tariffs, the making of bills of lading and waybills, the loading and transporting of the freight, the safe delivery to the consignee, the collection of the money, and the issuing of receipts. During the same time there were claims against the railroad for loss and damage, and other errors and failures connected with this large number of complicated transactions, of about one per cent of the shipments. Considering the complexity of the business and the large number of employees involved, this record, I believe, is creditable and shows reasonable