THE INTERSTATE ''LONG AND SHORT HAULy 539 



making in any department is beyond the province of even the most 

 perfect and ideal legislation. But some one will suggest, that while 

 this proposition may be true of prices of commodities in general, that 

 railways, having a serai-public character, and receiving by their char- 

 ters certain privileges from the State, are exceptional in this respect. 

 It will also be claimed that, in the absence of rate-restricting legisla- 

 tion, the public will have no protection against the rapacity of great 

 corporations, whose object is solely their own profit. The fact is over- 

 looked that, in the absence of legislative enactment, there is a sover- 

 eign natural law, which is fundamental iu its character and unceasinsr 

 in its operation. Entire dependence on demand, or the amount of 

 business, forms a natural barrier against abnormally high rates, in 

 addition to both direct and indirect comjJetition. In tariff-making it 

 hedges in the most powerful corporation. 



Even in the absence of competition, any tariff that is much above 

 the normal (or above that point which is natural and fair) will inevita- 

 bly cause a falling off in business, so that profits will surely diminish. 

 Though not always realized by the management, it is directly for the 

 interest of any road to stimulate, develop, and increase its business by 

 making a normal tariff", and only by such a course can the maximum 

 of profit be reached. The greatest financial success lies directly in 

 the line of the old adage, " Large sales and small profits." To quite 

 an extent rates make themselves, and the arbitrary power of the man- 

 agement in this respect is greatly overrated by the general public. A 

 railroad is not mei'ely an improved public highway, but it is a compli- 

 cated transporting machine. To successfully manage such an institu- 

 tion, or even to make, approximately, a perfect tariff, requires peculiar 

 ability and talent, which is so rare that it commands a very high price. 

 The tariff which is the most profitable for any given road, is not the 

 one which is the highest, but that one which is the most perfectly 

 adjusted, so that each kind and class of freight shall pay just what it 

 will bear. Some will object to such an expression at first sight ; but 

 let us state it again, with an always understood qualification. A per- 

 fect tariff would be one so adjusted that each kind of freight would 

 pay what it will bear, compatible with its steady increase and develop- 

 ment. The profit lies in the increase of business, and not in abnor- 

 mally high rates. It may be admitted that many roads often mistake 

 their best interests in this respect ; but experience is a persistent 

 teacher, and, in the absence of legislation, rates have been tending 

 steadily downward, and would have so continued. The principle is 

 well illustrated by the successive reductions in the rates of postage. 

 Within a short time after each reduction, the business has so greatly 

 increased that, as a direct result, the profits have become larger than 

 before. 



Let us now briefly examine the point which is the cause of so much 

 misapprehension in regard to the long and short haul. The provision 



