about 20,000,000 policy-holders in these companies, and they are very much interested in the soundness of this great investment. There are 16,108 holders of Northern Pacific stock, of which 5675, or 35 per cent, are women, and presumably the same relation obtains in other large railroads.
This great piece of machinery handled last year 33,510,673,000 passengers one mile, and carried 267,313,687,000 tons of freight one mile. These figures are so vast that the human mind cannot comprehend them. But, if we assume that there are 92,000,000 people in the United States, it means that the railroads provided a trip of 364 miles and hauled 2905 tons of freight one mile for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
People from all over the world come to examine the American railroads and the American railroad system, and go away in wonder because the American railroads perform a greater service per mile of track than those of any other nation, at lower rates, and pay their employees higher wages.
