New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-07-25
ZONES or TRAVEL.

James L. Cowles. Of Pennington, Conn. has
written somewhat curious book entitled "A
General Freight and Passenger Post" to prove
that railways. being public highways. should,
like the PostofCe. charge uniform rates for
freight and passengers. irrespective OF the dis
lance Some attempt. We believe has been
made in Europe to carry out this idea in a
modified form by the establishment OF zones
of travel" the same rate being charged for all
points within certain zone. But. except in
street-railway lines Of cities, we are not aware
that the experiment has been tried In this coun-
try Certainly 1t could not be tried on any gen.
eral scale, on account Of our great extent OF
territory. except possibly in the case Of freight.
It would seem to be out Of the question, for
instance, 10 charge a passenger the same fare
TO Newark as to San Francisco. What might
be done. and probably will be done in time, Will
be the extension to the metropolitan district OF
the zone system for passengers. A low uni
form fare to all points within, say, ten or
fifteen miles Of the city limits would so greatly
stimulate travel that the railroad companies
would find 1t profitable. just as city street-rail-
way companies now do
The argument of Mr.. Cowles Is that railway
trains are post-wagOns, and therefore ought to
be put under the charge OF the POstOffice De-
partment And he tries to strengthen this posi-
ton by the success OF the parcels post system
in England For the last twenty years an In
ternatIona parcels post agreement has been In
existence under which an eleven-pound pack
age may be sent from England to Egypt for
a. cents or to any place in South America for
% cents SO far so good says Mr.. Cowes. But
let the Postofiice now send human as well as
dead freight, as the early English postal system
did And he assumes that If it did so II would
charge q uniform rate for passengers, Just as II
does now for letters and PARCELS The rail
roads, in his opinion, would not suffer. because,
first, travel would be enormously stimulated,
and, second. the cost OF service does not de-
pend. except in slight degree on the length
Of haul Even under the present system rail-
roads carry cans of milk for the same price
anywhere in zone sometimes as wide as $50
miles And he adds that the cost OF hauling
n train 125 miles and 1000 miles Is practically
the same In word, he believes that rail-
roads generally conld proitably adopt exactly
the same system Of uniform rates that are uni
versally adopted by street-railway companies.
Railroad men Will doubtless find many weak
spots I'm the reasoning OF Mr.. Cowles. and, as
we have minated his theory would seem TO
subject Is an exceedingly interesting one for the
travelling public. And as the population OF the
country increases. some modification Of the zone
system may probably be found advantageous TO
both the public and the railroads. One thing
it would certainly do. II would induce many
people in the cities to buy homes In the
suburbs. If. for instance. II cost no more to
go to some point twenty miles from New-York
than 1t does now to reach point ten miles dis
tanf. hundreds. perhaps thousands. OF families
In moderate circumstances would be able TO live
out Of town. whereas now they cannot do so
because land and rents are too expensive In the
ten-me zone. and railway fares are too high
In the twenty mile zone. II the population
twenty miles from the city were as dense as 1t
now is ten miles distant. we cannot doubt that
n uniform rate would pay the railroads. And
the adoption Of n uniform rate would soon bring
about that result.