Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-02
From the Portland Daily Advertiser ::
RAILWAY COMPETITION.

Ioiu thS oitihHd haliy [AuNSipsSi
RAILWAY COMPETITION.
The most powerful statement hitherto of
the objections to the consolidation of the
Maine Central and Portland & Kennebec
railroads, appears in a communication printed
in the Somerset Reporter and signed "Vin-
dex." The writer not only objects to the
measure now pending before the legislature
but proposes an alternative policy-the enact
ment of IA general law authorizing the con-
struction of railways wherever companies can
be formed and money raised for the purpose,
and 'forbidding the consolidation of parallel
and competing lines"
Spacious as this proposition is, it is never
thcless founded on misconception OF facts
which ought not to pass unchallenged, and
tends to hinder rather than to help the devel-
opment of policy which would really give
scope to competition and subject the railway
tariff to the operation of the law of supply and
demand. The conditions of free competition
are easily defined. 1t is necessary that the
profits of the business shall be generally
known, and that the amount of capital re-
CURED to engage in it shall be at the command
of sufficient number of persons to prevent a
combination of capitalists; SO that when the
profits rise above the general average, capt.
tai will inevitably flow into the business until
inc equilibrium Is TcStoTtQ. liuc Is dlso an
important element. competition which can
only begin after two or three years waiting,
is not likely to begin at all. Not one ofthese
conditions applies to railway transportation.
The business is complex and not generally
understood The amount of capital generally
invested is extravagantly beyond the means
of individuals. The time required to put
competing line in operation would alone prove
an etfectual bar. In fact there are no par
allel and competing lines" in existence, and
there never will be. There are competing
points; but competition to be of any real
advantage should be universal. Even at the
competing points, the competition is usually
limited to two corporations, and they find it
easier and more profitable than to contend for
barren victory over each other.
This state of things arises from the unfore-
seen Development of the railway. When
the Bangor & Oldtown railroad was built, it
was belived that these iron roads would only
serve exceptional purposes-to transport lum-
Der or coal for short distances to tide water.
The early roads were private enterprises, as
strictly as the tramways which they superseded.
We have lived however to see the business
and travel of the country diverted to the rail-
way Our railroads have become highways,
not legally but practically. The law still af
fects to treat them as private enterprises,
tlOuRH t0S ulSpOSltlOii " dSeeIt puUilG TlRutS
in and over them is strong and growing.
They have been built by the public The
original stock holders have usually received
no more direct return for their payments than
for payment of taxes. We have now a law
by which municipalities are allowed to take
stock directly in railroads, raising the money
by taxation. Only one step remains to be
taken. We must make the railroads high
ways in fact and name. The State must own
the roadbed and track and allow any citizen
who chooses, to put on trains at any time and
run them under such general regulations as
are necessary to ensure safety and on payment
of such tolls as are needed to keep the road in
good order. Under such system we should
have all the conditions of a genuine COM
petition. If the charges for transportation
were too high, it would be easy for shippers
of lumber or cattle to buy or build an engine
and few cars, hire an engineer, and do their
own business and their neighbors' at lower
but still remunerative rate.
The proposed consolidation, while it will
not break up any existing competition-for
there is none--will on the whole tend toward
the consummation which has just been des-
Intentionally, we imagine, but
none the less surely. 1t will simplify the
problem. Instead of a dozen corporations,
the character of private enterprises,
there will be one corporation on the one hand
and the State on the other. The State has
permitted these corporations to take private
property for public uses When in turn, the
State claims the right to take their property,
on the same plea, the adjustment will be east
er with one corporation than with more. 1t
will be powerful corporation no doubt. 1t
is idle to pretend that it will uot control the
railway development of the State. All ex-
perence shows that men who have power use
it. But that may not be misfortune. 1t is
safer to trust the development of our rail-
ways to practical men, than to allow it to be
shaped by enthusiasts. The opinion of the
few men who have made study of the bust
ness of Maine and know to dollar what it
costs to build and maintain railroad, is worth
more than the guess-work of all the rest of
the State put together, In the present fever
of popular feeling, it is easy to inaugnrate
for new railroad almost anywhere.
What we want is a clearer Judgment and better
more careful and less expen-
sive management, and by and by free COM
petition on public highways. The tendency
of consolidation is, in our judgment, toward
all these reforms. The objection is obvious
that the corporation will resist an attempt to
take its property for public uses but if it
should place itself so plainly in the wrong as
it would by refusing to sell at fair price, its
very resistance would become SO powerful an
argument against it, that the result could not
long remain in doubt.