country the next twenty years must see a constant addition to the railway facilities of the country if the commerce is to be moved satisfactorily, and the railway-user must see to it that the railway-owner has sufficient margin to justify the enormous additional investment that must be made in order to provide the needed transportation.
The passenger-trains of the United States earned on the average for the year ending June 30, 1908, $1.27 per train-mile, and the average cost per train-mile for expenses, not allowing anything for taxes, using the total freight- and passenger-train-miles, was $1.47. From this it is plain that there is no margin in the passenger business for taxes, interest, and dividends, and that passenger-train service, as a whole, is furnished without profit, and often to the detriment of the freight business, which must be moved promptly for the development of the country.
This country, as it grows in population and wealth, wants more and better passenger-train service and better stations, just as it wants
