New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-25

This table is exceedingly significant 1t
shows that the aggregate traffic on the three
Great trunk lines terminating in New-YOrk
was more than three times rs great in 1850 as
IN 1865, and that after making the proper al
lowance for currency values III 1858 the aver
oyc freight charges imposed in 1850 were 80
per cent less than during the year 1858. The
twelve years covered by the table embrace, it
should bc borne in mind, the period OF the
greatest activity in railway consolidation and
extension the country has ever known. What
ever dangers may be unprecedented from
continuance of the consolidation movement, 1t
is plain that the effect thus far has been
10 lower steadily the cost of transp0rta-
ton between the East and the West.
Mr.. Nimmo discusses with intelligence and
candor the evils Of excessive competition ana
arbitrary and 1uctuating rates, and the weak
ness of the pooling system devised to remedy
these evils. He thinks the railway system OF
the United States has entered upon stage in
the course of its development where the mag
nltude and completely of the issues involved
present difficulties too great to be compaSsed
Inv the Observation-Disclosures mt the command OF
the railway companies, holding, with some OF
the most thoughtful railway managers and
students of railway affairs, that the prop of
some external restraining influence is necessary
70 insure the maintenance of good faith be-
tween the different companies and the observ-
ance of rules which experience has shown to
be essential to the orderly manage
ment of the roads in their relations to
each other aud to the public. Governmental
regulation, it is claimed, is the only available
expedieut to this end. Some practical re-
| forms might be secured by legislation, Mr
| Ninmo thinks, without waiting Ior any gen.
era determination of the question of the re-
ations of the railroads to the public interests
| He favors law requiring that all rates should
be made public and should not be changed
without due pablic notice, andalso requiring the
companies to furnish cars to shippers equit-
ably in proportion to orders received, and for
! bidding them to give preference IN facilities
! to one shipper as against his competitor III
trade. If this much in the way of reform could
be fully secured, he argues, it would probably
be n matter of very much less difficulty to ad-
| lust differences as TO the territorial limits OF
the traffic operations of competing lines the
relative rates which shall prevail over conf
peting rail and water lines, and the relative
rates which shall prevail with respect TO the
commercial interests of rival cities.
Mr. Nmmo favors an investigation by a
! Government Commission "a a preliminary step
! to any measures of legislation OF radical
character. Such an investigation should, he
saws, include the two questions of chief i'm
portance connected with the railroad problem
" First, the matter of ascertaining in the inn
mediate interest of the public by what means
unjust determinations and other practices
detrimental to the interests of commerce and
"of industry may be defined and prevented
"and, secondly the proposition of certain OF
the moro advanced representatives of the
RAILROAD interests, that inasmuch as the laws
"ol supply and demand and of competition dc
mot so operate as to regulate the value OF