5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The construction company, by procuring the capital, obviates the 

 delay of resorting to individual subscriptions, and the dilatoriness of 

 small subscribers ; and, by securing a rapid building and equipment of 

 the desired road, serves the public by affording them early transporta- 

 tion facilities. And if, at the same time, it secures the stockholder 

 and builder by relieving against the reasonable probability that a rail- 

 road built to develop new territory would pass into the bondholders' 

 or into a receiver's hands before the territory could be developed, the 

 benefit to the stockholders ought not reasonably to be considered an 

 offset to the benefit to the shippers. 



IV. Rebates and discriminations are neither peculiar to railways 

 nor dangerous to the "republic." They are as necessary and as harm- 

 less to the former as is the chromo which the seamstress or the shop- 

 girl gets with her quarter-pound of tea from the small tea-merchant, 

 and no more dangerous to the latter than are the aforesaid chromos to 

 the small recipients. The trouble Mr. Hudson finds with them is that 

 the railway systematizes them instead of granting them at random or 

 for sentimental reasons. The quasi-public character of railways, he 

 thinks, should make these rebates illegal. The railway, in exchange 

 for its right of eminent domain, should listen to the wants of the 

 whole people instead of to individuals. Undoubtedly. But the whole 

 people are not shippers over any one railroad ; nor does any one rail- 

 road draw its revenue from the whole people. Of course, I am pro- 

 ceeding upon the supposition that the United States Government does 

 not propose to become a gigantic railway corporation, and add to its 

 legislative, judicial, and executive functions the operating of 125,379 

 miles of railway, with a funded debt of $3,669,115,722. Did "the 

 republic " undertake such a task, does Mr. Hudson, after reading his 

 own book, believe that there would be no rebates or discriminations 

 extended to anybody for political, economical, or social purposes ? 



V. The subject of " fast-freight lines " might well be dismissed in the 

 same breath, these being a financial consideration entirely between the 

 companies and their stockholders. It may be noted, however, that they 

 are public accommodations, affording to large parcels the safety, care, 

 and prompt delivery which express companies afford to small ones, 

 and that, like the express companies, they have grown to be public 

 necessities. They not only secure the delivery of freight at destina- 

 tions beyond the receiving line, but have introduced new amenities 

 into civilization by distributing products. By their aid the New- 

 Yorker finds daily on his table the fruits of California, or the glorious 

 beef from Texas grazing ; and the dweller in the lake-shore States his 

 sea-food, as if each had changed places with the grower and gatherer. 

 Nor do the figures show an increase, but, paradoxical as it may seem, 

 a substantial decrease in tariffs on non-perishable freights by their 

 means. 



Stripped of declamation, this is all there is of Mr. Hudson's counts : 



