Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-08-25

pared with European railways. The reader
will find it an interesting and profitable pas
time to compare the railway timetables of
fifteen or twenty typical American railways
with the time tables of as many European
railways He will then obtain some idea of
the slow average rate of travel with us.
Osher features Ot our railways do not fare
better in the COMPARISON. our stations are
iuconNenient and ugly, sometimes even
filthy. our cars are uncomfortable, aud ii Is
difficult to see how one who has lived long
enough in Germany 10 become accustomed
to her institutions should not prefer second !
class travel i'll that country to first class i'll
the ordinary American railway, although the
average charge is thirty, forty and OCCASION
ally even more than fifty per centum lower.
4 still more important element is the
safety of travel, and IL eau pe said without
fear of successful contradiction that the reck-
less prodigality of human life, which rs part
of our railway history has astonished foreign-'
ers, is elsewhere unknown
THE CHEF EVILS.
But the chiei evils OF American railways
appear when we come TO treat OF them a.
performing economic services in the trans.
portston OF goods, and when we view rail-
way property as an important element III our
national resources. 1t is then difficult to tell
where to begin or where to end an account OF
abuses, as they are 50 numerous and mo-
mentous
My thesis is this: the needless waste of
provide good, comfortable bomes-s whole
house to a family-ior that part of the entire
population of the United States not already
provided with such homes
The Irst item in the count il needless eS-
penditure in railway construction. This has
been estimated at one thousand millions OF
dollars, and II is certainly low estimate, tor
two needless railways, the West Shore and.
Nickle Plate, alone account for one-iifth of
this sum. 1t must be borne in mind that
4. Ia sNf ma Afna nj
resources which ought 10 have beueiited the
people This Is very simple, yet it is often
necessary To repeat it Now, one thousand
millions of dollars Is a sum sufficient to build
homes for one million families, or five mill.
ion people.
Second, every needless train is a waste,
and parallel and competing roads necessitate
vast number of them daily.
Third, our railways have not been planned
according TO any Intelligent scheme, SO that
they should become part Of one grand
system of means of communication aud
transportation, supplementing our natural
aud artificial waterways and other highways.
On the contrary, they were often designed
to injur other public highways, and are
still managed with that view. Railways
run along by the side of canals, and drive
them out of existence. At times they buy
the canal and stop using it. lest 1t should
Longer render any service TO anybody. The
Richmond Il Allegheny railroad of Nir-
ginia is an example. Here is great waste
OF resources expended in canals. Railways
prevent the use of natural waterways. Thus
the Pennsylvania railroad and the Pacific
railways discriminate against those who use
the Ohio river and the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans respectively. These are examples of
a waste OF natures bounty.
Freight rates are often so much cheaper
between competing points than from an inter-
mediate point that freight frequently passes
twice over the same track-a waste OF labor
and capital. Freight is thus sent from Pitts.
burg to Philadelphia and New York and then
right back through Pittsburg to a Western
point, so as to get the competition rate from
one OF the large cities. Freight has likewise
been sent from Rochester, New York to New
York city, then back again over the same
tracks through Rochester 10 the West Last
winter freight was sent from Baltimore to
New York, then back through Baltimore to
the West These examples might be multi
piled indefinitely.
Another variety OF waste is illustrated by
the anthracite coal com mbination, which stops
production at intervals in order TO maintain
high prices Capital power and labor power
meantime remain idle, and other industries
are injured.
DIsCRIMINATIoNs IN CHARGES.
Determinations in railway charges mean a
difference OF treatment in favor OF one party
or thing aud against another party or thing.
They are Of three principal kinds, namely /:
first, between places, az for example, in favor
OF Boston and agains. New York, or in favor
OF New York and against Rochester; second,
between things, as in favor of wheat and
against iron third, between individuals.
Only the third will be treated in this place,
economical stand point
To understand the real gravity of this evil
1t is necessary to consider tho nature of COM
petition, or the struggle for existence i'm the
economic world. Men offer services goods
at varying rates, and each tries To und or bid
the other, and that offer is accepted which,
all things considered, is the lowest Now
this is not the universal rule OF business,
but It Is a very general one, and
in in the great business transac-
tions of our time it prevails to such an
extent as TO be decisive, provided these
transactions are honest The largest num-
Der OF exceptions may TOO found in the
remuneration for personal services but
the force oil competition Is indirectly
becoming more and more felt, and il is in
creasingly difficult to escape from its control,
When Mill wrote his treatise on political
economy, forty years ago, he could say that
custom, not competition, liked prices ia retail
| trade 1t is doubtful ii this can now be said
OF that trade in any of the large centres in
Europe or America--certainly not without
serious modification. In an ideal condition
OF things such as the old political economy
presupposed, there are excellent sides to this
competitive struggle, as it then gives a
stimulus to individual initiative and activity,
each one try ing to offer superior services or
goous, OF enueaVOrlng 10 devise methods
whereby production may be cheapened and
cheapened production means a saving of
capital force and labor force-a benefit TO
the world. II can perhaps be said with
slight modification that this economic
struggle produces near approxima-
tion TO justice when il is between
equals But how IL this affected by
railway determinations Ii has already
been stated that they are not merely IN favor
OF one, but against another, and the latter
proposition Is as important as the first Its
truth follows inevitably from the nature OF
composition. These fayors to the friends OF
the railway power, or to those who have in
some way secured an exceptional position
who have, to use an expression becoming
classic with us, gotten in "on the ground
loor," are an external force against which
all their competitors must contend. Their
rivals enter into the struggle CARRYING a
weight, weight varying in amount, but at
tunes great enough 10 bear down even those
who would otherwise be the strongest,
Where competition is sharp-and IL Is sharp
In these days for nearly alf outside OF rings
and combinaiions-the freight on goods Is
frequently lar greater than the profit on
them, and slight variation in charges in IA
vor OF Cne party Is all that is needed TO mako
the fortune oil that one and to ruin competi-
tors.
sMulhall in his Dictionary Of Statistics gives
the number OF killed and wounded On the rail
passengers, whereas In Europe IL Is only JOS