Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-09-25
WHOLE NO. 2,733.

% construction; this has been estimtaed nj one
y thousand millian OF dollars and ID is certain
~ 4 low low estimate for two needless railways
: a,.e a Mesl shore and the nickel Plate alone
: account ior one NTH of this sum. IL must be
: ooIne IN mind that a needless expenditure II
= wtste OF national resources, which ought 10
! nave oenentted the people.
IA will not stop to show, as can be
easily shown, that this needless waste J,
i mas been due not to- any adherence to
the doctrine OF laiSsesJdiye but to un-
I wise or corrupt interference by some
4 KIND OF government to unhealthy
stlmulus given by land grants or sub
sldles. only wish here to make plain
that, whatever these railroads may be
olies.
As another and last quotation on this
point, Irefer to the report made by
Messrs. Thurman, Washburn, and
Cooley, constituting an advisory COM
mission on different rates by railroads
between the West and the sea-board.
On page IL they say, Competition has
thus made roads national which were
once local, and ON page 2S, they assert,
competition obliges the companies to
take what they can get, and to satisfy
the demands on them for it,"
1t must be admitted after this testl-
mony that one chief :object OF restric-
tlon Is to protect the people from the
EVIL consequences OF excessive compe-
tlon, rather than to shield them from
the exaction Of monopolists, and in
spirit 1t seems akin to that which led
Elizabeth and James to establish mon
opolies in salt and soap, giving exclu-
slve control OF these commodities to one
company in order to protect their sub
Jects from an excessive usa OF salt, or u
too free indulgence in the use OF soap.
But all this testimony aside, an in
curry into the nature or character of
transportation would show that it is not
in the power OF man or any OF his
creatures to establish a monopoly in
this commodity. Great as are these.
iron ways, the very winds and tides,
have entered into competition with
them, and there is outside OF these
natural forces power of another kind
which fixes limits beyond which no.
railroad manager, though the rights
conferred by his charter were absolute.
could 60 We all admit the influence
OF water rates on the regulation Of the
cost OF transportation but very few
writers have sought to show how far
seeing and almost commanding is this
force. Nearly every road has an outlet
in some way to the sea-board. to the
lakes, or to some of our great rivers.
heinfuence OF water transportation is
all pervading. Louisville on the Ohio
has the rates fixed at Chattanooga,
Atlanta, and other interior points, bw-
the cneap water rates from New York
to Savannah and Charleston, thence in
to the interior. The Ohio River regu-
lates the rates from Pittsburg, Cincin-
natl, and Evansville, to Memphis
Vicksburg, and New Orleans, and not
to these points only but to all the terri
tory tributary to these points. A re-
duction in the tariff from New York To
Chicago necessitates reduction from
New York to the South Atlantic and
Gull ports and from the Ohio river
points INTO to same territory. Compe-
ton between two lines entering the
same territory is not confined to that
territory for, above all this rivalry
between two companies, there is the
greater rivalry between place and place.
and above even this is the competition
between product and product. A few
words in explanation
Each city is seeking by everv means
10 extend the area OF its commercial in
duence it is with new lines reaching
out IN all directions. If Memphis will
not supply her customers at reasonable
prices Vicksburg, Nashville, Mont
somery, or Atlanta, will soon deprive
1er OF her commerce Ii Chicago can
1ot cure meat economically, Kansas
City Will if Louisville lays an unneces-
'ary tax on the exchange of tobacco. il
Will go to Evansville or to Mavsville.
Many of our great roads are due to this
rivalry, but in the evolution of the sys-
EN- these lines had to extend their con-
1ections and build branches and even
enter rival cities, and so lost their local
character. This gives greater stability
o rates, but in time it takes away from
he roads the arbitrary power of making
'ates it destroys that practice of dis
in favor of one city as
lgalnst another; and still further. It
eads to lower tariff II one cares to
olow out this idea, let him secure the
'eport on difierential rates to the sea-
board made by the advisory commits
ion, Mess~s. Thurman, Washburne.
md Cooley, from which have already
quoted.
TO be concluded next week.
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