New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-07-16

Gates vast amount of transportation.
Eleven States occupying the Mississippi
valley send to market annually surplus
OF Its cereal products equal to 800. OOO, 900
bushels.
10 cheaper the carriage of that single
commodity by the amount of only ten
cents per bushel is saving of thirty
millions to the people.
Various expedients have been sup-
gested for lessening the cost of trans
portation. In some of the States it has
oeen proposed to place railway fares and
1relghts under the control of the State
The objections to that expedient are 80
serious that it should not be embraced
II better one can be found. This coun-
| Try IS so new, so raw, and so undevel-
oped, the demands for capital are so
many and so urgent, that any policy
which would tend to drive capital from
us should be avoided if possible. The
state is but the aggregate of the people
| in the State.
The people are the purchasers of trans
| portation.
The railway companies have trans.
portation to sell.
Inc law also holds railroad companies
TO be common carriers, and so bound to
carry for all when the price is paid. 1t
IS now mooted question whether that
price shall be named by the companies
or by the people-the sellers or the pur.
chasers OF the article. Which of these
two parties is legally authorized to fix
that price is probably determined by the
laws under which the several companies
are organized; but which of them can in
fact fix it is a different question.
1t is manifest that if the COMPANY be
allowed to fix the price they may de.
mana Zoo much. Vendors of all COM
mod1tles are very apt to want all thev
can get. On the contrary, if the people
or thelr agents fix the price they may set
1t too low. Purchasers are very ant to
want commodities as cheap as they can
DE mad. 1t is not probable that either
party to the transaction would ALWAYS
nit upon the exact equivalent. The con.
sequences OF mistake would probably
be found most injurious, if made by the
people. If the company makes the mis-
take, and charges too much, no one is
oollged to employ it. The producer does
his own carrying before the railway is
built. He has the perfect right to do so
after it is built. So, every company is
compelled by the laws of trade, even if
municipal law is silent, to carry products
cheaper than the producer can carry
them, or he will not have theru to carry,
Inc company must aIso -,.,Iy them at a
PROFIT to the producer, else the product
will cease. The farmers of Iowa will
send no wheat to Chicago, unless the
roads will transport it at prices which
will yield profit to the producer.
The carrier must earn money for the
producer as well as for himself, else he
Will soon have nothing to carry. 1t is
as absurd for the railways to demand
more for transportation than the pro-
Queer can afford to pay as it was for the
man in the fable to endeavOr to get two
golden eggs each day from his hen-the
attempt to do so was death to the hen.
Under favorable conditions, indeed,
the carrier may demand and receive
more than fair share of the profits of
production. Where such is the case.
when the State finds the producer makes
but ten per cent, while the carrier
makes fifteen or twenty per cent. it is
very easy and perfectly legitimate for it
to say to the company 1.-THE work you
DO can be done for less money we will
pay you for your road what it will cost
to build such another, OF you NAV keep
your road and we will build another
SO the people are not helpless against
exorbitant charges.
On the contrary, if the people set the
price, and set it too low, the consequences
may be graver. The company has no op.
ton. 1t must accept the price named
or not run. If the rates named will af-
ford slight return OH the capital, ex.
listing companies may continue to run,
but no more capital will encounter like
risks. If the rates will yield no return.
the road can not be run. Company and
community, in that case, are alike
ruined. This expedient seems to be too
hazardous to adopt, If better can be
found.
Another expedient is to build double
track railway between the Mississippi
and the Atlantic over which any party
may run trains, and all trains to run with
the same rate of speed. This is worthy
of careful consideration.
The practicability of relief through
governmental action is being ascertained
by an able commission constituted bv a
recent act of Congress.
A third expedient. and the most i'm
portant of all, is that proposed by the
Senate Committee on Transportation
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