The record-union., 1891-09-05
RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION.

RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION.
Mr.. c. p. Huntington, President of the
Southern Pacific Company, than whom
there is no more experienced railway
financier, has paper in the North Ameri-
can ReVie10 for September upon railway
consolidation that is deservedly attracting
wide attention. The article must be read
in full; we can refer only to few points
made in it by Mr.. Huntington and on
other occasions.
Consolidation, or joint ownership, in
his opinion, is the one and only effective
remedy for ''rate wars" and the demoral-
ization resulting from ''rate cutting" j"
This is not a sudden judgment by Mr..
Huntington, but one that he reached sew
extended experience and long study. The
process Of consolidation, he says, is sim
ply the endeavor to, secure the largest
possible amount of tonnage for trans
portation at the minimum of expense.
Formerly, to travel from Albany, \. Y,
TO the extreme western limit of the State.
one had to pass over six independent lines
OF railway, and freight, of course, had to
follow the same order. These independ-
ent connecting lines could not return even
reasonable profits, while the difficulty OF
shipment through so many hands was
with great vexation and costly, and loca-
ton of responsibility for delays was some
thing next to impossible.
In that case, as in about all others,
operators have found not only their own
convenience and economy in joint owner
ship, but also the comfort, convenience
and economy of the public. No one at
this day will deny that the people have
been infinitely the gamers by the change
which created the New York Central and
the Hudson River railways. The same
proved true in the case of the PennsyI-
vania Railway Company, which is the re-
suit of the consolidation under one control
ofmany small lines. Without this consoli-
dation no such great success in transporta-
ton could have been achieved. To-day
1t is conceded on all sides that the result
OF railroad amalgamation in New York
and in Pennsylvania has been of highest
importance and greatest benefit, both to
the people and the promoters of these
great industries. They serve the people
infinitely better than it was possible for
the fragmentary roads to have done, and
at the same time the returns to the invest
ors are larger and better. The effect of
such consolidation has been, and will
continue TO be, the bringing of transpor-
tation rates down, and lessening practi-
catly the distance between producers and
consumers in their relations. 1t is only
when rate-cutting prevails that the con-
ditions of these great lines change for the
worse.
Mr.. Huntington is certainly precise
and fully warranted in his declaration
that the great mass of people view rail-
road wars and unhealthy competition be-
tween the companies with disfayor. It is
only the man with an ak to grind and
personal and selfish ends to serve who
controverts the proposition, and will ad-
Nocate policies that invite capitalized en-
terprises to bankruptcy. All unwise, un-
healthily stimulated competition between
great railway transporters always has
and always viii affect the public disas
trously as well as the immediate parties
to the strife, unsettling values, disturbing
vested interests and checking develop
ment.
Mr.. Huntington discerns that we have
passed out of that state of distrust of cor
porations into the broad light of the truth
that they are the best and most effective
means of enabling the multitude to com
bine for mutual protection and benefit.
There remain, it is true, a few who re-
gard corporate industry with distrust i:
still less a number who would convert il
into Governmental and paternal condi-
tions, and who would abolish utterly the
one means by which the people can com
pete, as the essayist puts it, with vast
capital concentrated in the hands of "a few
individuals" He believes, and we think
that he is not too sanguine in his faith.
that the time is very near at hand when
the community demand viii be for the
same treatment of corporate property
that is afforded private possessions.
He holds that it is possible, or should
be, for railroads to transport products OF
farm and mine at small advance over
cost of operating train, and thereby de-
velop interests, and give employment not
to be looked for under system by which
the law arbitrarily fixes the rate, and
thus prevents the bringing of soil and
mine products to the market where they
can find takers. The fixed charges con.