RAILROAD PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES. 297 



management, and their eagerness to adopt every improvement as soon 

 as produced, chief among which improvements must rank the steel 

 rail. Quoting from Mr. Edward Atkinson, Mr. Fink said that an 

 artisan in the Eastern States pays the transportation from Chicago on 

 a year's food by a single day's labor, and so great have been the re- 

 ductions during recent years, in railway charges, that, had the rates of 

 1873 been maintained until 1879, the roads would have had in the inter- 

 val 89-22,000,000 more revenue than they actually collected. In 1880 

 more than three times as much freight was carried by the roads as in 

 1868, and at sixty per cent less rate ; and, although shippers may 

 grudge certain companies the appreciation of their property which has 

 taken place an advance in value decidedly less than that which has 

 overtaken real-estate holdings generally no agitation has yet been 

 promoted to pay dividends or make up deficiencies on unprofitable 

 lines, although such lines have been indirectly great sources of pros- 

 perity to their districts and the country at large. Mr. Fink recognizes 

 the injustice of charging different prices to different firms for the 

 same service, but has no faith in any attempted legal preventives of 

 the practice. Rebates may be granted a year or two after a transac- 

 tion, or may take the form of gifts, or in other ways detection may be 

 evaded. His explanation of the disparity so often complained of, be- 

 tween local and through rates, is very interesting. A line is built 

 chiefly to accommodate and develop the region through which it 

 passes ; that region, without it, might remain backwoods or unbroken 

 prairie ; and, therefore, as the services of the road are of most value to 

 its own district, that district should in justice principally contribute to 

 its support. Now, when a road has a fair local business at regular 

 tariff rates, and can add to its business without proportionate increase 

 of expense by taking through freight originating in a city like Chi- 

 cago, where many competing roads center, then it is allowable to 

 grant marked reductions in terms to attract a share of through busi- 

 ness. It is plainly unfair, under the circumstances, to take the stand 

 of certain complainants and ask that local rates be based upon through 

 rates. Mr. Stanford, President of the Central Pacific Railroad, ex- 

 plains some of the discriminations of his line on the same principle. 

 A car-load is taken from New York to San Francisco for $300, but 

 if dropped at Elcho, G19 miles east of San Francisco, the charge is 

 $800, the sum of the through rate from New York to San Francisco, 

 plus the charge from San Francisco to Elcho. Mr. Stanford points 

 out that his road has to meet severe water competition at San Fran- 

 cisco, and that therefore the local rates charged towns created by the 

 line can have no relation to competitive terms, and must wholly rest 

 on considerations of the revenue to be earned on the capital employed, 

 after the expenses of management are paid. Facts worthy of being 

 weighed in this connection are that cars carrying local freights are, on 

 an average, not more than a quarter filled, and that they are subject 



