The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-21

vessel owner may charge as much as he
pleases for the services he gives and in
asmueh as it costs him much less to rem
der than like service costs the railway
he can depress his rates and raise them
with impunity so IS to seriously affect
the trend and r-ovement of traffic.
Not True Competition.
This is not, however, competition in
the true sense. 1t produces such results
as these: In the region north of Paris.
which is the great Industrial section of
France, a very large proportion of the
traffic is carried by canals, which you
abandoned long ago in this country as
out of date which are slow and subject
to all manner of hindranees from the ne
ces sity of repair the jam of ice in the
winter, and what not. In southern
FRI nee. a very large share of the freight
between Marseilles and Paris. for exam
pie moving in either direction, goes
around the coast line instead IF directly
by rail. You can easily see the effect of
this. The people are practically deprived
of the more efficient means of transporta-
tion in the interests of the less efficient.
This would of course mean much more in
the United States than 1t does in France,
even, for your great middle west, espe-
cially
What you ask. Is the cause of tbs?
III Is mat the government Will not alOW
the making of railroad rares that will
take the traffic off the canals, and its
refusal to allow this is due to political
pressure sometimes. to the jealousy OF
one community toward another. to the
powerful influence of the vessel owners
to whom the present arrar cement is of
such vast financial benefit. to the diff
Guilty of ever getting governmental ma
chine to reverse its action or to modify
its mechanical methods. The inelasticty
that government ownership or close gov
eminent supervision invariably brings
makes II impossible that French railroad
rates should go below the point at which
the boats on the waterways do business.
Not only does the government never
give its consent to the raising of rates.
as might be expected, but also extraor-
binary as 1t may seem to Americans, who
have had no experience with govern
mental control of such things, it fire.
quently withho1ds its consent from lower
ing them Our only protection is that
our contracts with the government have
fixed maximum charges so long as the
present agreements are In force. We
would be only too glad to adopt the
American system of fixing the lowest
rates proper and making up the loss of
profit on each shipment out of the in
creased volume of business they make
the railways available to. which is the
only economically and commercially right
and sensible way of doing. We would be
glad to build up our territory as the
American railways do. by encouraging its
industries by opening it's markets. by
enabling it to compete with other terri
tory contributing to the same markets
Put we cannot do that: the state con-
trolled rates prevent It. however strong
our desire or the peoples may be-
Distance Is Basis.
THE basis on which freight rates are
made in France is generally that of dis
lance. In fact, it is impossible that any
government or government commission
should make rates on any other basis
This tape-measure basis is the easiest to
defend against charges of discrimination,
in spite of its real injustice and its alb
solutely unsound economy, which a mo-
ment's thought will show 1t avoids
trouble and affords excuses and your
government officials chief thought Is to
avoid trouble for himself, for he is first.
last and all the time a politician, what
ever he Is.
Railroads under government supervis-
ion must set their rates close to the
maxima, then, and maintain them there
for their own salvation. There are many
times when, If it We're possible we would
like to lower freight charges to meet
some special emergency, such as the
necessities of a district suffering from
a crop failure, for example. That is not
philanthropy but commercial sense, to
help the man who creates business for
you, when he is hard pressed, and to in
crease the volume of traffic that is fall
ing because people have not the money
to pay the price they have been accus-