The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-03

| theorize or speculate The process has
been going on rapidly for a quarter Of
| a century. 1t is scarcely possible to find
in the United States today a single rail-
way system that is not a consolidation
| of all the way from half dozen to a
hundred lesser lines. 1t has taken a half
| dozen lines, for example, to make the
ton; while such systems as the Pennsyl-
vania or the Missouri Pacific represent
an aggregation of small lines that would
stagger a man to remember This con-
solidation process has been going on at a
swift rate during the past fifteen years,
and what has been the effect upon rates?
Undoubtedly, the increased economy and
efficiency of management, the natural
| increase in volume of traffic arising from
continuity of transportation routes, to-
gether with the vastly reduced cost of
traftlc handling that comes with increased
traffic volume and extended traffic mile
age, has reduced rates during the past
fifteen years from 10 to so per cent.
The average rate per ton per mile on
the Great Northern, for example, accord
ms to Poor's Manual, was 416 cents in
| 1870, 2.8S cents in 1880, III cents in 1880
and SO of 1 cent in 1899.
The average rate on the Northern Pa
cffc in fifteen years has been reduced
one-half. In thirty years the Burlington
rate per ton per mile has been reduced
from 800 cents to 81 cent.
In twenty years the rate on wheat and
-four from Minnesota to Liverpool has
been reduced over two-thirds Liverpool
is now closer to the Minnesota -four mill
and Dakota wheat field than New York
was fifteen years ago, or than Chicago
was twenty-five years ago Small lines
have become great cnes, ana tie former
large lines have been grouped into grsa5
transportation systems, by which the vast
Industrial proauct of Ameri-a, and the
wonderful intr.cacy of internal commerce
might by the miracle Of modern organ
ization he handed with ease, rapidity,
accuracy, and at the lowest practicable
cost. If we read the future by the past,
we will see in the new Atlantic-Pacitic
extensions only the carrying out on
broader national lines what has been
going on for fifty years in the direction
of transportation efficiency and economy.
The first consolidation was from local
lines to interstate. Instead of great sec
tional systems like the Atlantic, or the
Pacific, or the Gulf, or the Mississippi
valley which we now possess, We Will
r1xt have through lines fitted to handle
transcontinental and international traf-
fic.
The proposed traffic reorganization and
cooperation involving the Northern reads
and the Northwest should be great fac
tor In establishing commercial relations
between the upper Mississippi valley and
the Orient 1t seems to be necessary, if
Puget sound is to be the great gateway
between US and Asia. The vast volume
of freight for export, like cotton and pro-
visions, originating on the Burlington in
the central and lower Mississippi will be
tremendous lever for opening the
Orient to Northwestern traffic. The
Puget sound lumber, which is to find
markets on the prairies Of the Burning
ton corn belt, will likewise work to open
the trade channel via the Northern roads
between the upper Mississippi valley and
the Pacific. If the Erie co-operates with
the Northern Steamship company to aid
by lake and ocean, great strides are GER
tainly made in the direction of making
the Northwest the traffic neighbor of the
Orient. Heavier demands upon the prod
ucts of the farms, mills, diaries, packing
houses, and general commercial and in
dustria1 sources of freight, both for ex-
port to the Orient and shipment East,
is the logical result And the inor2s:ed
volume Of business is the way to secure
improved transportation service at re-
duced cost to the railroad, the producer
and the shipper.