Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-01-15

ulOW dL tS OWu lACeIeSS. IL III
crease the number of persons and the
aggregate of wealth and business in
it's tributary territory is It's first con-
dition of successful operation and the
payment Of dividends. Not all rail-
road arrangements have acted by this
rule in the past. y 1t is, nevertheless,
indispensable to healthy progress; and
it is the law on which Mr.. Hill lays
greatest stress. t&
Another aspect of the same truth is
that railroad rates depend upon VOL
ume of business, and vary with it.
This is an axiom Of the railroad world
not now to be denied by any one; for
1T is exactly the same principle that
rules in mercantile operations. The
big retail store can prosper on a small
er margin Of profit than the small con-
arr in the suburbs, and the whole
saler thrive on a still smaller rate, be-
of the larger volume of business.
1t is the same with the railroad. The
investment is a fixed quantity. The
increase of traffic requires only a
slight addition to operating expenses.
AS business multiplies, dividends may
climb at the same time that rates de-
cline; and this has been the experience
of the whole country. The marked
decrease in the cost of transportation
everywhere, east and west, has not
followed or been consequent upon the
construction of parallel and competing
lines, but upon growth of business.
Every such additional line built, as is
shown by traffic between New York
and Chicago, and between Chicago and
st. Paul and Minneapolis. represents
but so much more fixed capital on
which the same amount of business
must pay returns. And the process
Of railway consolidation, which is no
new thing, which has proceeded &C
lively for nor han twenty years, has
been coincident with the increase in
volume of traffic for existing lines and
the reduction of rates to the shipper.
1T appears clearly from this, which
is not anybody's ipse dixit, but the
fact as shown by all official reports of
railway operations in this country,
that the esource and the safeguard of
the public is not unlimited competition
in the railway world, but increase of
business, Joined with the protective
power of the state as a regulator of
rates. These alone have been effect
i've. Competition has not, because the
railroad business has inherent in it
certain elements of monopoly; because
the state, for this very reason and be-
cause it is charged with a public util-
ity, reserve the right to dictate it's
rates; and therefore the reliance of the
public upon competition alone, so eff
fective in other fields where private
enterprise has free scope, has always
been disappointed. It is another d.
rection that the interests of people and
railroads will be found to meet and
harmonic. - g
APPLY these principles to this great
Northwestern field. We need, first OF
all, ample and growing railway connec-
tions, and we have them. Next we
want good service and low rates. Rates
will not be lowered naturally by in
vesting more money in more roads,
every dollar requiring an added charge
on the public, but by increasing the
business done and the profits with ex-
listing facilities to such an extent that
rates must come down. That this is
no idle dream is proved by the statis-
tics of railroad rates in this country
for the last thirty years. And the
dangerous element of practical mon
opoly which this involves, the PROPOSE
ton that the fewest and most efficient
railroads instead of the largest num-
Der are best for a community, is an
swered by the absolute regulative au-
thority of the state; the power to put
a bit in the mouth Of oppression, and
to secure at all times a reasonable ser
vice. These are the main ideas of
Mr.. Hills address. They deserve
candid treatment. The honest man
is he who does not proclaim himself
for or against the railroads, but
holds that this, like any other ques-
ton, should be considered %dispassion-
ately and decided on it's merits as they
may appear. We have welcomed as
one Of the great advances of the open
ing century, even those who are most
rabid on one side or the other of the
railroad CONTROVERSY. have welcomed.