170 THE FARMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



service and repairs. Railroads will even carry freight at less 

 tlian actual train charges, providing that it tends to produce 

 other traffic which yields profit enough to more than make good 

 the original loss. If it does not pay its proper share of the 

 fixed charges, still, if it pays anything at all towards them, it 

 by so much reduces the necessary charges upon other traffic. 

 This is the principle upon which all railroad companies are 

 managed, and which is accepted as sound by all who are 

 familiar with transportation problems. The question, how- 

 ever, will rise, in each case, whether or not the rate fixed is 

 "reasonable" under all the circumstances, and it is a question 

 which should always be decided by some impartial tribunal, 

 and not by the railroad authorities; or by the people of any 

 interested community. It is also proper to note that there is 

 the competition of markets to be considered, as well as the 

 competition of carriers. There may be, and, in fact, on long 

 railroad lines nearly always is, some commodity which will 

 not bear transportation at its just proportional rate, but which 

 can be carried at a rate which will yield something, more or 

 less, towards the payment of fixed charges. In such cases 

 the carrier will wish to transport it, and the community which 

 produces it will be desirous that it should, without any regard 

 whatever to its propriety or impropriety, when all interests 

 are considered. 



Discrimination between industries may be illustrated by 

 an extreme case. Upon tlie line of a certain railroad there 

 was a limited amount of timber suitable for railroad ties, 

 which the company desired to have kept there, and to have 

 the price always very low, so that the ties could always be 

 bought cheaply for the uses of the company. To eff'ect this 

 the company adopted the very simple expedient of a prohib- 

 itive freight rate.* This, of course, was little better than open 

 robbery. But there are constantly arising cases in which a 

 company may desire to favor or oppose the growth of a partic- 

 ular traffic. A company may have upon its line a large man- 

 ufactory from whose business it derives a large local revenue. 



*The Interstate Commission, in this case, compelled the company to make 

 its rate conform to other lumber rates. 



