INTEGRATION OF INDUSTRY 75 



accomplished through closely affiliated companies, as is now 

 done by the Pennsylvania company through the Conemaugh 

 Steel company. 



The question may legitimately be asked why, in view of 

 these circumstances, if integration is such a strong force, the 

 roads have not already entered these fields; why, as regards 

 their most immediate needs, such as cars, direct manufacture 

 has not been more resorted to. The explanation lies in the 

 fact that the evolution of the railway systems in this country 

 has not yet advanced far enough to make this desirable. Dur- 

 ing the past as well as at the present time the great problem 

 confronting the railroads is the building up of systems through 

 which effective control can be obtained of particular territories 

 or lines of traffic. So overwhelming in importance is this con- 

 sideration that all other considerations have for the time to 

 be left in abeyance. In the contest for supremacy the great- 

 est arm is the possession of capital with which other railroad 

 property needed for the rounding out of the systems can be 

 acquired. It is thus the height of folly for any considerable 

 sum of capital to be devoted to other purposes, unless an abso- 

 lute necessity for such expenditure exists. 



The time is now rapidly approaching, however, when 

 these systems will be comparatively perfected, and the greater 

 part of the country be divided up among a few great systems 

 of railroads. When this is accomplished, a radical change may 

 be looked for in the policy governing railroad administration. 

 Energies will then be turned exclusively to the efficient equip- 

 ment and operation of the properties. The different lines of 

 the systems must be reconstructed, so that they may be welded 

 into one harmonious whole. The matter of securing supplies 

 and equipments at the best possible rate will receive the most 

 careful attention, and the time will then have been reached 

 when the desirability of the roads themselves manufacturing 

 the articles of which they have need will be considered purely 

 as a problem in the cost of production and control over a nec- 

 essary element in the operation of their properties. 



To what extent the railroads will ever become manufac- 

 turers on a large scale it is now impossible to predict. That 

 they will do much more than they are now doing would, how- 



