Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-02-14
RAILWAYS As PUBLIC ENENIEA>
How They Kill the Geese that Lay
Golden Eggs.

Ing way the influence which railway man.
agement has upon the movement Of population
In any country. Almost without exception the
great cities of England have gained in popula-
ton within the last ten years, while the country
towns and villages have either remained sta
tionary or have lost; but 1t is rather surprising
to find that among the cities those situated on
the coast have gained the most. Apart from
the the pleasant seaside resorts Ike Bournemouth
popular as places of permanent residence, the
seaports Of Grimsby, Hull, Cardiff Gateshead
Hartlepool, and some others, have gained from
thirty to sixty. per cent in population within
the last decade, while Manchester, the second
city 10 England, has actually declined during
that time, and other interior manufacturing
little.
ferred to seaport towns from the interior places,
which depend on railways for their transporta-
ton, Is too conspicuous to escape attention, and
on examination 1T is found that the present sys-
tenn OF freight charges on the English railways
practically prohibits anufacturing in the in
taton om me
tlnent in a most effective manner. Thus iron
wire, which was once made in great guam
from Antwerp to London, and thence carried
by rail to Birmingham, at total expense of
Sale ton; while the railway charge for carry
ing homemade wire of the same kind from
Birmingham to London is $3.50. Antwerp is
about 200 miles from London, and Birmingham
100, so that supposing the expense of transp
that of transportation by land for the same dis
lance, the Birmingham manufacturer pays
merchant for carrying his goods to London. We
90 not know the price Of wire in England, but,
ton made against the Birmingham manufac-
turer by the railways amounts to an impost of
20 per cent in his largest market, to which his
continental competitor is admitted free ofduty
1t is needless to say that no honest business can
long sustain such a burden, and the wire manu-
facture, once one of the principal industries of
mo- ~ no ham, nfSoI
sea-coast manufacturing towns, where it is in a
measure Independent Of the railways
another town, near birmingham, Is Wolver-
hampton, where nails are manufactured in
great quantities. The port most nearly in the
direct route nom Wolverhampton to Antwerp,
the great distributing center OF the continent
is Harwich. The present cost of transporting
nails from Antwerp to Wolverhampton by way
Of OH aar v, where they are transhpped is
the charge for railway transportation alone
from Wolverhampton to Harwich, about one
expectation of nails from Wolverhampton to
the continent under such circumstances is out
OF the question, and the nail manufacturers
who wish to supply foreign markets must
either remove their works to the coast, where
they will no longer depend upon the railways,
or give up business.
In less degree the same powerful though un-
seen influence is modifying the distribution of
population all over the civilized world. 1t is
not an insane desire to live tn dirty tenement
houses that draws working people everywhere
to the great cities but the greater certainty that
they will find work there which comes from
the concentration Of manufactures in them: and
the concentration of manufactures in the cities
depends upon the fact that the cities are what
railway directors call competing points," and
that the same directors, in order to get away
each others business, are generally willing to
carry goods between these and other "com-
peting points for less than cost, making up
their loss by exorbitant demands from the man
u .:: who have been SO ill-advised as to
build their works at points which are not "com-
peting," and where they are, in consequence at
the mercy of the railway companies. In Eng
land, where combinations among the railway
corporations have taken the place of competI-
ton, the number of competing points" has
been reduced so far that all the producers of
are numerically taxed in consequence: while
foreign manufacturers who need not send their
goods over English railroads unless they wish,
are allured by low rates and special favors to do
So fortunately for the Englishmen the sea is
near them, and by transferring their business
to the coast they can use a highway which is
not subject to monopoly. but the process of
transfer is costly, and before the interior of the
country is quite deserted 1t may occur to some
director that railway line through an unin-
hablted country is usually improbable, and
that good local business built up by patient
c9qEe fs and fairness in spirit Of sympathy
inhabit the territory along the line, Is far more
remunerative to railroad than the greedy ex-
tortion which treats persons who have the mis-
fortune to need the services of the road as so
much prey, to be plundered without .mercy
Whenever they are caught at disadvantage.
same law In this country, we have only to open
the annual report of a certain Massachusetts
us. The railroad owned by the company is one
hundred and forty-three miles long, but it con-
meets with other roads to form a continuous
route both between Boston and the west and
towards the north, and carries a considerable
amount of freight between the Mississippi valley
and the seaboard. In its statement of the last
years business of the road, the report says that
the earnings from local freight per ton per
mile have been three and forty-four one-hun-
mile nom freight to and from other roads,
have been seventy-eight hundredths of one
cent; and the earnings on freight to and from
points west of the place where the roads connects
with the westward system have been six hum
dred and nine one-thousandths of one cent per
ton per mile. To put it in another way, this
railroad has, through the year, charged all the
manufacturers living on its line, and dependent
upon 1t for transportation, nearly six times az
much for carrying their materials and goods as
1t has their competitors little west Of them
and four-and-a-half times as much az the ones
to the north.