Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-11-06
miscellaneous.
Report on the Tariff OF Toll for the
Virginia Central Railroad.
WASHINGTON. D. c.. August. 1858.

To the President and Directors of the
! Virginia Central, Rail Road Co.
GENTLEMEN :-In compliance with your
request, | have carefully examined the tar
# Of toll, which has been in use on your
road since 1855, and submit herewith &
substitute for it.
! La recommending radical change o.
she system of charging toll, which is gen
orally pracriced in this country, and pro
posing to substitute we'll matured principles
applied to can eful ly collected facts, for mere
arbitrary exactions, deem it due to the
company, as well as to myself, to present
an outline of the process by which have
produced the tariff of rates now offered for
your adoption.
am fully aware Of the difficulties Incl
dent to the duty which you have commiss-
Toned me to perform.
First, must be surmounted the difficulty
of collecting the needful authentic facts.
Then, that Of their application, with proper
discrimination Then the public prejudice,
which assumes that this subject is entirely
beyond the reach of calculation, and that
the tolls are necessarily arbitrary, or only
to be guessed at-and, as a natural conse-
quence, that each one may make the guess
that best accords with his own interest.
wish, therefore, to state, at the outset,
that do not and that no one else can, de-
eide arbitrarily upon the charge proper to
be levied on any commodity. The tolls are
not established by the Agent or by the
Board Of Directors. The proper charge is
determined by the facts, and the duty of
the constructor Of the tariff is confined to
the mere discovery of what that toll is
which the existing facts indicate to be
proper.
Your company have invested a capital Of
many millions of dollars in the construction
of a valuable work from which they do not
obtain regular cash dividends. The rev.
enues are not sufficient, at the same time
to keep up the road in safe and proper
condition; to pay the expense Of running
the trains; to meet the interest on the mon
ey which you have borrowed for its con-
struction; and still leave enough fairly to
remunerate the stakeholder for the capital
he has invested.
The only source from which the means
can be derived for these several objects is
the tolls. The problem then to be solved
is, SO to adjust these tolls by the use of the
oest light and the best experience we have,
as to increase the Company's revenue to the
greatest practicable extent If there were
hanger Of getting too much revenue, other
considerations might occupy our thoughts.
We might then discuss the relative merits
Of different articles Of trade, and seek to
!etermise which are the most worthy of
special protection and encouragement. But
having no apprehensions Of that sort, we
ire relieved of all the embarrassments
which they might occasion and, renting
chat branch Of the subject for some future
Board, we may confne our present inquiry
to the single problem:
What principles should control your
charges a6hile the object Is to obtain the
greatest possible net reoenme?
The principles which I submit, as the
foundation upon which the tariff should
rest, are these:
FRS, No commodity should be charg-
ed for less than the actual cost Of storage
and handling. and the value of the risk
which you incur in case the object trans
ported is injured. lost or stolen while i'll
your care. This principle furnishes us
with one limit to charges. If the toll on
any article comes down to this limit, you
get no net revenue. If it fall below this
limit, you incur, to that extent, a positive
loss
Second No commodity should be charg-
ed 50 much as entirely to prohibit its trans
portation on the work, except in eases
where the actual cost of transportation is
itself prohibitory. This rule assigns anoth-
er limit above which your charges connot
go. If you charge up to the limit of pro-
hibition, you have the specious advantage
of high rates but no resulting revenue.
Here, then, are two sets of facts to be
ascertained, as far as practicable, for every
commodity which you transport upon the