OWNER, EMPLOYEE AND USER
least equal to 60 per cent of that paid in dividends should be put back out of current earnings into the property each year. How many farmers, merchants, and miners would think these returns attractive enough to justify their engaging in the business?
Out of every one hundred dollars of gross earnings of the railways in 1908 there was paid for —
| Labor — direct payment | $43.36 |
| Labor in materials purchased | 7.77 |
| Labor in fuel and oil | 6.88 |
| Total for labor | $58.01 |
| Fuel and oil, less labor | 1.72 |
| Material, less labor | 3.33 |
| Hire of equipment and buildings | 2.46 |
| Hire of tracks and terminals | 4.60 |
| Damages and injuries | 1.80 |
| Taxes | 3.56 |
| Interest | 13-34 |
| Deficits | 2.39 |
| Total | $91.21 |
| Betterments to property, etc | 4.37 |
| Dividends | 4.42 |
| $100.00 |
Out of each one hundred dollars, ninety-one dollars was paid out for labor, material, taxes, rents, interest, all of which must be paid if the railway-owner is to keep out of the hands of the
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