The average amount received by the French rail-
ways in 1905 was equivalent to almost one and
one-half cents per net ton per English mile. Up to
1904 the nation and the departments had contributed
under guaranties, and as subsidies to the six great
companies, $926,350,000, which at four per cent
amounts to an annual charge to the state of $37,-
054,000. This is equivalent to a charge of 3.7
mills per ton mile, which added to the average paid
by the shippers makes the charge on the rail freight
traffic borne by the people of France average about
1.8 cents per ton mile. This is more than double
the average in the United States.
When the Prussian-German government took Prussian tariff
over the railways, the tariffs were remodeled, in s*™^
accordance with popular desire, upon the basis of
what was then generally accepted as the "natural
system," that is, the cost of service. It was held, at
the time, that it was not part of the function of
a railroad to adjust its tariffs to market conditions.
It was quickly found, however, that cost of service,
as applied to any particular shipment, was a chimera,



io8 Transportation in Europe

and that the rigidity of these rule-of-thumb tariffs
was not only restricting the traffic of the railroads,
but hindering commerce. So many exceptions were
made to the tariffs that before long they had ap-
parently relapsed into the condition that during the
preceding period had been characterized as chaotic.
This led to a further revision and to the adoption
of the present system, which is a compromise be-
tween a strict distance tariff and a tariff to meet
commercial needs.
