5o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



goods have been lowered, on an average, by 28 per cent ; the public 

 have sent 2,706,000 tons more goods, while they have actually saved 

 more than $4,000,000 on the cost of carriage, and the public treasury 

 has earned an increased net profit of $1,150,000.' A further reduction, 

 made subsequently to this statement in 1864, exceeded even these re- 

 sults, and under it the tonnage rose from 4,479,000 tons in 1863 to 

 6,533,000 tons in 1864." * 



In this country, an extract from the report of the railroad com- 

 misioners of a single State will illustrate the common experience as to 

 the operation of the princijile of discrimination in things. The Com- 

 missioners of Railroads for Alabama tell us : "A proviso of the first 

 section of the act to provide for the regulation of railroad companies 

 and persons operating railroads in this State, approved February 26, 

 1881, provides : 'That nothing in this act shall be construed to pre- 

 vent contracts for special rates for the purpose of developing any in- 

 dustrial enterprises, or to prevent the execution of any such contract 

 now existing.' "Whether in pursuance of law, or for the development 

 of their own business, it is usual for such railroad companies to con- 

 cede such ' special rates ' to these ' industrial enterprises ' for the pur- 

 pose of developing and building them up, such as factories, mines, lum- 

 ber-mills, flouring and grist mills, gas companies, water-works, and other 

 'industrial enterprises.' These 'industrial enterprises,' as we have 

 stated, have these special rates conceded to them very generally in the 

 difi'erent States of the American Union. The products of the labor 

 and skill of these 'industrial enterprises' are in many instances trans- 

 ported to distant markets, and the enterprises themselves are created 

 for the purpose of such competition. Where this is the case, enter- 

 prises of this description in Alabama would not enter into this com- 

 petition with those of other States unless put upon an equal footing 

 with them as is done by these * special rates ' ; nor could they maintain 

 their business in competition with those of other States in the absence 

 of such * special rates.' And where these ' industrial enterprises ' do 

 not enter into the competition in other States — many of them do in 

 Alabama — and in the absence of such ' special rates,' they would not 

 be on equal footing to compete even in this State with enterprises of a 

 similar character in other States, but doing business in Alabama. And 

 in this class of these industrial enterprises where this competition does 

 not exist at all, yet they furnish employment to larger numbers of 

 persons, and confer public benefits in business upon the localities where 

 they exist. It will thus be seen that in the two classes of these 'in- 

 dustrial enterprises ' first above named, what would seem to be, to 

 those not familiar with the facts, a special immunity given to them in 

 these 'special rates,' and not accorded to the public generally, is, in 

 fact, nothing more than putting them on an equal footing with similar 

 enterprises in other States, and enabling them to fairly compete with 

 * "Massachusetts Report," ISTO-'Vl, pp. 52, 53. 



