424 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



necessary return. So long as the charges are such as to 

 render transportation by rail preferable to any other mode, 

 they are reasonable. If any one is assured that existing 

 rates are too high, the liberty to build a rival line is free 

 to all. There is no monopoly in this country of the right 

 to construct railways. 



The actual cost of operating the road should be ascer 

 tained. Experts only could perform the task. Novices 

 would not think of one-half the items of expense. This 

 statement the history of railway legislation confirms. 



Has American legislation ever considered the question of 

 speed while framing pro rata and non-discriminating laws ? 

 Yet, it is a well-established law of railroad economics that 

 speed is the essence of expense. The recognized rule is, 

 that the cost of transportation increases as the square of 

 the velocity. Thus, a speed of ten miles per hour would 

 be equal to one hundred, twenty to four hundred, and fifty 

 to two thousand five hundred. In all enactments hitherto 

 perpetrated or threatened, this startling difference in the 

 cost of moving trains, being as $16 to $4 between an ex 

 press and an ordinary accommodation train, has been wholly 

 ignored, doubtless never thought of. 



This principle was recognized by the British Parliament 

 when, in 1844, being urged to protect the poorest classes, 

 they required all railway companies, one-third of whose 

 gross earnings were derived from passengers, to run one 

 train daily, each way, upon which passengers should be 

 carried at Id. per mile, at a rate not less than twelve miles 

 an hour. The slow rate for third-class trains is still main 

 tained, although express trains average forty miles an hour, 

 including stops. In addition to this just recognition of 

 speed as one item of expense, Parliament excepted the earn 

 ings of these slow trains from taxation. 



