46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



while devices to rule commerce by tlie suspension of compe- 

 tition^ and to exact arbitrary profits from the masses, are the ex- 

 treme of selfishness and oppression. The universal nature of 

 this truth was perceived when the world emerged from the medi- 

 aeval system of economics, but it seems in danger of being for- 

 gotten. This is illustrated by the criticism of Mr. E. P. Alex- 

 ander, the most recent writer on the railway question, that those 

 who hold competition to be the only just measure of profits in 

 any industry are years behind the age in comprehension of the 

 science of the railway question." 



Whatever there may be beyond platitude in the above is 

 pure invention. The element of " the least cost " as parcel of 

 the definition of " commerce " is certainly novel, and as interest- 

 ing as it is novel. And certainly, too, the remainder of the sen- 

 tence — from the words "the universal nature of this truth" 

 (which truth ? — Mr. Hudson has alluded to several) onward — is 

 an extremely remarkable statement to come from the pen of a 

 writer who assumes to deal with economical questions and mat- 

 ters of social science. The allusion to Mr. Alexander is equally 

 childish, and without bearing upon the matter which we believe 

 Mr. Hudson claims to be discussing ; unless, indeed, he thought 

 it necessary to show, in passing, how thoroughly he had failed 

 to comprehend the question of American railway systems, to 

 the discussion of which Mr. Alexander has lately contributed a 

 most admirable monograph. When Mr. Alexander used the 

 words dragged from their context as above, he was pointing out 

 how the question of modern industrial competition had long 

 since ceased to involve simple problems of competition in get- 

 ting business alone ; how it at present includes also the element 

 of the cost versus the price of doing business at all — that is to 

 say, the value of the opportunity to do business at all, as against 

 the actual outlay in cost necessary to do the business brought to 

 the party offering to do the business at all (which element, 

 everybody — who knows anything of the matter at all — knows 

 to be not only a very serious and a very practical one, but act- 

 ually the paramount one, under present conditions). (As others 

 besides Mr. Hudson may be ignorant of Mr. Alexander's mean- 

 ing just here, I may explain that, to the railway, the value of 

 doing a competing business, of keeping its trains running and 

 so perpetuating its charter, is naturally always a larger consid- 

 eration than the mere question of a profit — is, in fact, the most 

 vital consideration that could be named. Or, should the ques- 

 tion present itself differently : a bankrupt railroad is worse than 

 no railroad at all. It can run recklessly and cheaply, since un- 

 able to respond in damages for lives or property injured or 

 destroyed. And yet, were competition the only rule by which 



