Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-01

that they had apprehended its success
rather than its failure, they made such
desperate efforts to retard its progress, and
had recourse to such unjustifable methods
of obstruction.
RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION IN ENGLAND.
The process Of railroad consolidation in
England is making rapid advances, and
recently discussion has sprung up in that
country as to the advisability OF anal.
gamating all The shorter lines and smaller
companies. OF course there is the usual
opposition to this. For in England as
with US in the United States there are
plenty of people who are incapable of be-
ing taught by experience, and who me-
chemically repeat the most obsolete notions
whenever change of any kind is proposed.
Recently, too. there has been some agita-
ton over the freight question, and this has
developed more clearly than ever the fact
that competition in transportation is more
often an evil than an advantage. For it
is found that competition gives rise to a
great many OF the inequalities in freight
rates which are complained of that cor
porations naturally seek to reimburse
losses forced upon them by sharp rivalries,
and that the result is to raise the rates
where competition does not exist. Anal
gamation, however, has been found to cure
these evils, and the testimony of the Par
lamertary Commissions which have in
vestigated the railroad question thor
oughly is that consolidation has in every
instance produced satisfactory results both
to the public and the corporations.
II to be observed that in England the
apprehensions which in this country have
been connected with great aggregations of
capital, do not exist. There it is believed
that these aggregations are no more dan
gerous to the state than separate small
accumulations Of wealth. With us dem
agogues have no doubt done much to per-
suade the people that such consultations
are menacing, but when the matter is
inquired into dispassionately it is probable
that the real cause for fear of this kind
will be found as baseless as in England.
The last Royal Commission on the English
railroads reported that in the largest con.
solicitations which had then taken place
the result had been reduction of rates,
an increase Of facilities, and correspond
ing increase of dividends. That this
should be SO is easily understood when it
is realized that very great economies are
made possible by consolidation, and that
the removal of competition enables the
railroads to adjust their tariffs entirely
upon commercial principles, and to elm
mate as far as possible those elements of
caprice which competition invariably in
PRODUCES
There are now in England more than
hundred distinct railroad companies,
nearly a thousand directors, and over three
hundred managers, secretaries and superin-
tendents, all of whom are high-priced off,
GERS. It is argued that by more extern
sive consolidation than has yet been
effected it would become possible to reduce
the expenses of superintendent and oper-
alton very materially /; that the lines could
be worked on more harmonious system
that the cost OF transportation could be
largely reduced and that the profits to
the shareholders would still increase. At
the same time the present complaints be-
cause of diversity of rates would be obvi.
ated, and the entire railroad system would
be made at once more popular and more
compact. In fact, the results of consolida.
ton thus far have been so emphatically
good that there seems no substantial argu-
ment for the maintenance of the old sys-
tenn. 1t is clearly more costly, less con-
venient, less satisfactory as to service, and
less profitable to the shareholders. As,
moreover, the tendency OF legislation there
as here is to impose continually new bur-
dens and restraints upon the railroads, it is
urged with much force that amalgamation
may become necessary to their preserva-
ton.
The English system has had compare.
lively fair and free play, and it has
worked itself steadily towards consolida-
ton. Here mistaken public sentiment
for long time resisted this tendency, the
idea being that it was necessary for the
safety of the public to keep up COMPETE
tion. The fact that competition, however
sharp, must in every case result in the
fastening of all the expenses OF it upon
the public, and that the sharper the compe-
tition the greater the extravaganza, makesi it
evident that the popular notion in this re-
gard has never been anything but popu-
lar delusion, and that competition has
always been attended with more evil than
good. This truth is being recognized in
England, and there can be no doubt that
in few years all or nearly all the rail-
roads of that country will be concentrated
in few hands. With US this process of
consolidation is destined to be slower,
principally because the progress of trans
portation has Jagged behind with us so far
as legislation is concerned. But it is plain
to all who watch the course of events that
what is happening in England will happen
in America, and that at no distant period.