Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-04
THE PROGRESS OF RAILROAD COM
BINATIoN.


ton, whereby the Gould and Huntingdon
interests have coalesced, and which must
result in the abandonment of competitive
lines from the South and East into Cllifor-
MIA, and the establishment of one harmo-
NOUS and comprehensive transportation
system embracing eventually the whole |
Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico, has been |
received by the press generally with the
usual unintelligent and alarmist comments.
1t is indeed Tot little singular that |
the tendencies of railroad development in |
this country remain sealed book to |
American journals generally, and that
though experience, both at home and |
abroad, has furnished the most abundant |
aids to judgment, the average newspaper |!
persists in regarding the subject from a
standpoint which was never sound, and |
the fallacy of which has been becoming
more conspicuous every day during the
past ten years. The American popular
fallacy, or as it may be called, vulgar
error, in this regard, is that whatever
evils are connected with transportation are
to be cured by competition alone. 1t is
the more remarkable that this belief should
continue, because in no country has rail.
road competition been carried to such ex.
travagant and destructive lengths, and in
no country has it so completely failed to
do what was expected of it. The truth
fortified and emphasized by the fierce
and reckless struggles Of the lines
between New York and Chicago during
the past year,, is, that competition
has thus far failed to supply any of the con-
ditions looked for from it, while on the
other hand combination has furnished
whatever of stability, responsibility,
caution and fidelity, the transportation
question can exhibit. The popular idea on
this subject has always been erroneous,
but it has served to prevent the introduce |
tion OF more correct view, and it has also
hidden the facts which make against it.
But it is necessary to say plainly that
the natural tendency of railroad develop
ment in this country, as in all countries, is
toward consolidation, and that consolida-
ton is really very far from being the bug |!
bear it has been represented by ignorant |
and foolish people. And lest we should be
accused of advancing heterodox opinions
on this subject, we will support ourselves |
by citation or two from Charles Francis |
Adams, Jr., whose authority on the trans.
portation question is indisputabie He |
said, writing in 1878: 1--WE find that |
RAILROAD competition has been tried all |
''over the world, and that everywhere,
consciously or unconsciously, but with |
"one accord, it is slowly but surely being
abandoned. In its place the principle of
responsible and regulated monopoly is
asserting itself. The same process, varied
"only by the differing economical, social
'aud political habits and modes of thought
I" of the people, is going on in France, in
Belgium, in Germany, and in Great Brit
g ain" And then he shows in some detail I
how consolidation has been at work in all
these countries, and how monopoly has not
only succeeded unlimited competition, but
succeeded it to the very manifest advan-
tage of the public. Nowhere" he con-
tinues, 8" is the present tendency towards
the concentration of railroad interests in
g a few hands more apparent than in Eng
Gland. The mill of competition has there
about fulfilled its allotted work. The
"whole English system has now passed
into the hands of few great companies,
by whom the country is practically d.
"yided into separate districts. These are
&c literally in the hands of monopolies.'
Mr.. Adams quotes from the findings of
parliamentary commission the results of
these combinations. The North Eastern
Railway is composed of thirty-seven lines,
which were originally rivals. The COM
mittee said "Before this amalgamation
they had, generally speaking, high rates
" and fares, and low dividends. The sys-
item is now the most complete monopoly
" in the United Kingdom from the Tyne
"to the Humber, with one local excep-
" ton, it has the country to ITSELF and it
" has the lowest fares and the highest div
i" idends of any large English railway"
The committee also say that the general
:" feeling in the district it serves appears
" favorable to its management" which
proves that monopolies need not be op-
pressive. The common idea of railroad
combinations, indeed, is extravagantly in.
correct, for it represents state of things
which has never occurred yet in any part
of the world. Abuses in railroad manage
ment have no doubt been plentiful enough,
but the worst of such abuses have always
been connected with periods of fierce COM
petition and divided responsibility. In
deed, the fercer the competition the more
arbitrary are the Determinations, as rule,
and the less conscientious the management
aud as consolidation proceeds the great
fluctuations in rates, the reckless utting"
and "scalping," are abandoned, and sys-
TEN and order take their place. Compe.
tition, in fact, has thus far proved to be a
crude and clumsy and costly method of de-
veloping Consolidation. 1t is a species of
education which has cost railway managers
and the public very heavily, but it has
after all settled the question of the Survival
of the Fittest, and there is every reason to
hope that it has paved the way for more
generally satisfactory system of transporta-
ton than that which it accompanied.
We are not unmindful of the fact that
public opinion is prone to see in all these
consultations ominous and sinister events,
which are in some way binding shackles
on the limbs of the people. For this kind
of notion the press is largely accountable,
but it is time that more rational and Just
view of the situation should obtain. On
this question we may very well refer to
Mr.. Adams again. He says: "The pop
"ular apprehension of imaginary danger to
"be apprehended from railroad consolida.