The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-01-19
Railway Transportation and Railway
Consolidation.


We present below an extract from Mr..
ATKINsoN's paper on "The Railroad and
the Farmer" referred to by us few days
since. That Mr.. ATKINSON may with pro-
priety speak in this behalf, he makes the
following mention:
L" although have myself never been
connected with the management OF any
railroad, and have had very slight personal
interest in their ownership, and have, on
the other hand, conducted large business
in which | have obtained intimate know
leqe of their methods, and have been called
upon to pay many hundred thousand dol
lars OF freight-money-I am not sure that
il might not amount to two or three mil
lions-on the cotton which | have been
charged with the receipt OF during the last
thirty years"
The paper is so full Of meat that it is
very hard to tell where to begin in making
extracts for the information OF our read
ers. II one thing more than another is de-
monstrated, it is that cheap freights date
from the era OF railway consolidation
at cannot be too often repeated that the
railway and the steamship have eliminated
distance. The western farm and the east
ern workshop, the southern plantation and
the northern factory, have been brought
near TO each other, and in the process the
very lines of railroad that have been most
profitable TO their owners are the SPECIFIC
lines that have performed the largest SER
vice at the least cost TO those who use them.
One days wages Of = common mechanic in
Massachusetts, will pay the cost OF moving
his wears subsistence Of bread and meat
1000 miles, from Chicago to Boston. When
we consider this we may realize that
Cornelius Vanderbilt and his associ-
ates, who led the way to the consolidation
of the railway service, and thus rendered
low rates possible, were the great COM
munists lin the good sense OF the day.
They brought about community OF sub
sistcnce, and carried abundance to the door
OF the common laborer. For every cent
they earned in the railway traffic and added
to theii great fortunes the people have saved
dollars worth OF labor in the work OF
earning their subsistence by the reduction
of the charges that steadily accompanied
the increase OF the traffic upon the rail-
roads. Ii matters little whether their mo-
tive was that OF pure sclfshneSS or en-
lightened self-interest, the result Is the same.
All commerce is an exchange OF services,
and il may often happen that he who makes
the greatest fortune works the greatest bene-
| fit TO the community, whether he knows II
or not, and to this rule the great railroad
corporations, even ii they have no souls.
| form no exception. The principal and
most profitable among them now do the
| largest amount of work for the community
at the lowest cost OF any that are in opera
ton, and there is no other great elemen. in
the cost of subsistence OF the whole people
that has been so much cheapened in the
last ten or twenty years as the cost OF rail
way service. May we not, therefore, dread
the attempt Of State Legislatures, and o.
Congress, to alter these conditions by med
dlesome statutes, and to prescribe rules fol
| the conduct OF this vast and varied service
| III either body were to attempt to regulate
the production Of the farm by statute
who would be more quick to resent The
/ interference than the farmers them
selves? But the farmers derive thei
titles TO their lands from the same
source that the railway owner hold
the title to its track. They are no more
producers than the common carriers are
They move the soil with their machines
they move the seed, they move the crop OF
their wagons to the mill and to the market
All that the railroad does is to keep Tia
product moving. One is rs much under tn
supervision OF the law as the other; but
the work of either could be regulated b.
statute with success, it would be the sim
pie work of the farmer, and not the com
pleX work of the railroad. Again, VIII
would be more ready to resent any attemr
TO control the rate OF wages or earnings b
statute than the great body Of consumers t
whom the railroad carries its benefcen
service? Service for service is the rule OF a
exchange, and it is the competition OF pre-
duct with product in all the great market
that absolutely controls the traffic on ever
line OF rail, and in the long run compel
, its managers to do the most work for th
, least charge. The price OF wheat in Odess
controls the policy Of the New York Ger
trail railroad. On the other hand, the co,
Of railway service Is not alike between an
two points In the country; it differs wit
, the grades, with the distance from fue
with the appliances for loading and UNLOAD
, ing the cars, and with the length of I'll
; haul. 1t may be SAID that with all the abb
ity that has yet been given to the problem
r no rule has yet been devised by which tn
| special cost of any particular service ca
be ascertained with accuracy, and the onl
: approach to rule yet known is based on
crude computation of averages; and it Ina
been well said that the railway service n
, quires legislature of experts in constar
, session TO save il from ruin"
Evidently the lesson taught by Mr.. ATKIs
SONS large experience and careful study {
railroad problems is that legislature
should be slow in making new laws a
fccting railroads.