RAILROAD PROBLEM IX THE UNITED STATES. 295 



very keen, and at times so violent as to set all considerations of profit 

 at defiance. The routes connecting the great West with the Atlantic 

 ports vary in directness, in gradients, and in the thickness of the 

 population in the districts through which they run ; it follows that 

 their- inequality of desirableness as freight lines must be balanced by 

 differences in rates. To establish and maintain these differences in 

 rates, it has been the practice for the roads to enter into agreements 

 with one another, and, in making these agreements on fair and sat- 

 isfactory terms, and in enforcing the agreements when made, have 

 been encountered the most perplexing tasks of railway management. 

 In arguing for a basis of rates, two widely different stand-points are 

 occupied by the trunk-lines running eastward from Chicago. The 

 great interests centering in New York declare that the cost of service 

 should be the prevailing consideration in proportioning rates among 

 comDetintj lines. 



It is adduced that the easy gradients of the New York Central 

 and the immense traffic which belongs to the cities and towns through 

 which it runs enable it to be operated at less cost per ton per mile 

 than any other road in the country : the geographical and census argu- 

 ments should, therefore, be permitted to give New York a preference 

 over competing cities in the framing of joint tariffs. Philadelphia 

 and Baltimore take different ground : they point out that they are re- 

 spectively one hundred and thirty-two and one hundred and fifty-two 

 miles nearer Chicago than is New York via the New York Central, 

 and therefore they desire freight rates to be fixed on the basis of mile- 

 age. Contests, which have consumed many millions of dollars, leave 

 the question open as to which of these two principles shall govern the 

 charges of the trunk-lines on through business. Another reason for 

 the difficulty attending the making and keeping of agreements be- 

 tween railroads is the fact that the temptation to bad faith is ex- 

 treme. If one road can defraud another of some freight by an ille- 

 gitimate reduction of rate, the cash so earned is almost wholly profit, 

 for the fixed expenses of the road are scarcely affected whether that 

 freight be carried by it or not. The bad faith of a single road can 

 lead to the breach of an agreement entered into by several great 

 roads ; and often it is the weak or bankrupt line whose dishonorable 

 dealing leads to a war of rates being declared which may cost a mill- 

 ion dollars before it ends. And a curious point comes up just here : 

 so dear to the heart of the average shipper are these wars of rates, 

 that clear-headed men who know his inner springs aver that the ship- 

 per does not desire permanent peace among the railroads, and does not 

 wish to see them earn their incomes with the steady regularity enjoyed 

 by the investor, say, in Government bonds. Peace to the shipper 

 would be as distasteful as the absence of fluctuations to the speculator 

 in stocks or grain, for railroad men and those who find fault with 

 them seem to be made of the same clay. 



