Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-04-19
Saturday, April 10. 1884.

STATE CONTROL OF RAILROADS.
It il beginning to be generally perceived
| in this country that State CONTROL of railroads
| may not be the fine thing that the Grangers
used to say it was. And great many think
that 1t would do great harm to the interests
of the public to put the railroads of this
country into the hands of the government.
Some of the reasons why such course would
not be wise are plainly and forcibly stated
by Gerrit L. Lansing In the current number
of the North American Review.
Mr.. Lansing very properly ascribes the
feeling in favor of interference to the belief
that railroads are not controlled by competi-
ton, as are other commercial institutions.
and seeks to show that this opinion is not
well-founded. He calls attention to one
is often overlooked, namely, the
competition of markets. Markets that
are common to various points of
production or supply control the rates from
all the points by the competition which may
exist with any one of them, and the lowest
rate to the market by any route controls the
rate by all the other routes. The district of
Birmingham and South Stafordshire in Eng
land, with population of over million
souls, consumes largs quantities of foreign
grain. 1t can be supplied from five
points reached by vessels, of which
Cardiff. one hundred and ten miles away,
ia most distant, and Gloucester, at fifty
three miles remove, nearest. The COST of
conveyance is naturally cheap from Glouees-
ter, and the rates from the other four points
have to be fixed SO as to enable them to COM
pete with Gloucester. In precisely the same
way the rate on grain from Odessa, on the
rail from Dakota to the American seaport,
whence Northwestern grain is shipped across
the Atlantic.
Another safeguard of the public interest is
the effort Of the railroads to increase their
traffic and net income, which, broadly speak
ing, can only be done by decreasing the cost
of transportation. The operation of the
principle is shown by a comparison of the
business done by the New York Central,
roads of 1875 and 1880. The average ton
mage in freight per mile was ,2O3,6 in
1875 and 2, ,O32, $50 in 1880, while the rate
per mile had sunk from l. 1853 cents per ton
to 1916 cents, and the net profits
had grown from $4,974 to $7,291
per mile This principle holds even
with road so little exposed to competition
as the Central Pacific has hitherto been, self
interest leading the management to reduce
the rate from 2.71 cents per ton a mile in
1877 to 1 81 cents in 1882, with the result of
largely swelling their profits, the gross re-
ceipts from freight having risen in the six
years from s9. .73s, ,099 to SIG, ,3o2, 882.
Mr. Lansing shows the folly of putting
the State into the railroad business by calling
attention to the fact that when the Granger
agitation was at its height. ten years ago,
committee of the Senate reported
their unanimous conclusion that the
problem of cheap transportation was
only to :, be solved through compe-
tition, and consequently recommended that
the government build and operate a double
track freight railroad from the Mississippi to
the Atlantic. They estimated that the
charge on shipments in bulk might thus be
reduced from the II flo mills a ton then
demanded to Z Ia mills. The scheme was
never carried out, but the operation of nat
ural causes has already brought the tariff on
grain down to 10 mills, or nearly third |
less than was promised for the proposed
government road.
The truth probably is that if the govern
ment should run the railroads of this coun-
try the public would not get as good service
as it does now, and it would have to pay |
more There would also be other and great |
evils connectedwith the system. The railroads |
can be properly controlled, and beyond such |
control the best plan is to let them alone.