414 THE GEOUNDSWELL. 



plausible ; but a select committee of the British Parliament, 

 after thoroughly investigating the question, last year ; came 

 to the deliberate conclusion, and so reported to Parliament, 

 that &quot; to impose equal mileage on the companies would be 

 to deprive the public of the benefit of much of the competi 

 tion which now exists, or has -existed; to raise the charges, 

 on the public in many cases where the companies now find 

 it to their interest to lower them ; and to perpetuate monopoly 

 in carriage, trade, and manufacture, in favor of those routes 

 and places which are nearest or least expensive, where the 

 varying charges of the companies now create competition. 

 And it will be found that the supporters of equal mileage, 

 when pressed, often really mean, not that the rates they 

 themselves pay are too high, but that the rates which others 

 pay are too low. 



&quot; Pressed by these difficulties, the proposers of equal mile 

 age have admitted that there must be numerous exceptions ; 

 e. g.j where there is sea competition: where low rates for 

 long distances will bring a profit ; or where the article car 

 ried at a low rate is a necessary, such as coal. It is scarcely 

 necessary to observe that such exceptions as these, while 

 inadequate to meet all the various cases, destroy the value 

 of equal mileage as a principle, or the possibility of apply 

 ing it as a general rule.&quot; 



Ohio has particularly distinguished herself in special en 

 actments ; with what success may be inferred from the State 

 Eailroad Commissioner s report in 1870. Speaking of the 

 nine different tariffs prescribed for the transportation of 

 passengers and freight, he pronounces these intended bene 

 fits &quot;the most fruitful source of complaint;&quot; and of one ex 

 isting law, the Commissioner further remarked, that its strict 

 enforcement would compel &quot; some companies ultimately to 

 suspend business, prohibit the transportation of certain arti- 



