The Interstate Commerce Commission re ports the freight movement for the year ending 30 June 1914, in. tons, as: Products of agri culture, 98,825,133; animal products, 26,352,289; products of mines, 574,000,013; forest products, 91,093,595; manufacturing products, 142,015,332; merchandise, 40,239,497; miscellaneous freight, 35,934,471; total of United States freight move ment in one year, 1,008,460,330 tons. More than half this total is mine products and more than a fourth is soft coal; bituminous and an thracite coal and coke constitute 38 per cent of the total; ores, 9 per cent; stone, sand, etc., 8.5 per cent ; lumber, 6.2 per cent; grain, 4.5 per cent; and cement, brick and lime together, 3.8 per cent. No other class of freight is over 2 per cent of the total.
The last census reports the railways as spending $95,000,000 annually for new cars and $437,000,000 for repairing cars. At least 95 per cent of this must be for freight cars, and the great excess of the repair item is evidence that very many cars are rebuilt so much that they might better be classed as new, and that from this point of view it requires about 200,000 new freight cars annually to handle the freight — 100,000 to replace those that wear out and 100,000 to take care of increased freight move ment. Since the railway mileage of the United States is about 35 per cent of the entire world mileage, it is reasonable to infer that the above statistics represent about a third of the world's freight movement by rail.
Ocean Freight—This was originally carried by sailing vessels, and while such transporta tion is very cheap, it has given way to steam navigation, nearly all the carrying trade being in the hands of regular lines plying between the important ports of the world. The tonnage going out of New York, which is now the world's greatest port, is about 15,000,000 tons annually. In time of peace London and Ham
burg each clear about 14,000,000 tons, Liverpool and Rotterdam 12,000,000 each, Hongkong 11, 000,000, Shanghai 9,000,000, Rio Janiero 8,500,000, and Marseilles, Singapore, Colombo and Cardiff each 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 tons. The steam ship lines follow the same practice as the rail ways in making rates, putting the price on the valuable freight, and carrying bulk cargo, which is sometimes needed as ballast, at low rates. There are a considerable number of coasters that do a freight business all along the Atlantic seaboard and handle cargoes at rates much less than the railways charge, but railway interests have sought to discourage such traffic by re fusing such vessels terminal facilities at the docks. There seems to be an economic loss here, for it is well known that a schooner with a gasoline engine can tow a half dozen large barges between ports on the coast and make money at rates away below what the railways charge; but there is risk in the business and occasionally a string of barges is wrecked by a sudden storm.
The total ocean freight of the world is ap proximated by the commerce reports. The imports of 31 leading countries in 1912, the best year for comparison, were of 19,000,000,000 value, and the cost of transportation was about $350,000,000. The tonnage is believed to be about 1,000,000,000, of which about 20 per cent now originates in the United States. It thus appears that America is far ahead of all other countries in freight movement, the •internal movement here by rail being equal to the entire water movement of the world, and one-fifth of the ocean freight being American though little of it is carried under the American flag.