17-i HAUPT— TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. [April 19, 



Central and Hudson River Railroad which is in competition with 

 the enlarged Erie Canal, are so much higher than those on the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad, that had the latter been able to charge the 

 New York rates on the business of last year, '' its increase in 

 freight revenue alone would have been upwards of six and a half 

 million dollars." 



From which it is concluded that Pennsylvania does not need 

 canals to secure low rates. 



These data point inevitably to the fact that because of her 

 waterway the state of New York is enabled to secure a lower rate 

 on a large part of her crude materials, and supply her mills and 

 factories without requiring the railroads to carry so much of this 

 class, at about cost, to keep the wheels of industry in motion, and 

 that in consequence the railroads have a larger tonnage of higher 

 class freight and are making more money. Under this exhibit 

 would it not be good policy for the railroads of Pennsylvania to 

 expend some six millions annually for a few years to enable them to 

 increase their revenues permanently by not less than that amount? 

 In fact a prominent official stated only last week that what Penn- 

 sylvania needed most for transportation was the restoration of her 

 abandoned canals. 



There is an inherent difference between the railroad and other 

 systems of transportation which enables its managers to control 

 it absolutely, and although it is supposed to be built by public funds 

 under state and government laws, the public has little or nothing 

 to say as to its policy or control. In fact, its own board is never 

 sure it has the control of its property, if large blocks of its securities 

 are on the market. But the patricular feature to which attention 

 is directed is the impossibility of any one shipping his own goods, 

 in his own vehicle, and at his own convenience as is the case with 

 a waterway, or a road. This feature makes it possible to so control 

 the movements of freight as to have led in the past to many and 

 serious irregularities, discrimination, rebates, special charges for 

 terminal facilities, demurrage, warehousing, failures to supply cars, 

 and many other acts in restraint of trade. 



The railroads should be regarded as a public trust and not a 

 device for the acquisition of great wealth for those in control. It 



