Railroads: Rates and Regulations

by William Zebina Ripley

[Facing page [364]]

The revised system provides in theory for an absolutely constant rate per ton mile. It is a rigid mileage tariff in every respect. The original MacGraham scale had been so in theory, but not in practice. As amended in conformity with a sound economic principle, it had, moreover, one important practical advantage over the original scale. It yielded more revenue at all the intermediate points.[409] Local rates would be higher as thus calculated than they were originally. It would be unjust to ascribe undue importance to this motive on the part of the roads in the adoption of the new system. That the plan yielded additional revenue, while obviously more just in theory, was naturally no objection to its acceptance.

The fruits of all this process of adjustment are depicted upon the accompanying diagram. Viewing it in a large way, and reserving details for later consideration, we may compare it to a topographical contour map. The several rate zones are thus analogous to a series of levels or steps rising from east to west. Our cross section of these along a line from Pittsburg to Burlington, Iowa, makes this relation plain. Another cross section at right angles to the first from Louisville, Kentucky, to Lansing, Michigan, and beyond, shows how these levels are arranged in a plane from north to south. These steps form a sort of irregular amphitheatre opening toward the east, with its main axis lying in a direction slightly south of west toward St. Louis. Or, more correctly, these rate zones, pursuing our analogy to a topographical contour map, indicate a broad valley opening toward the east. Along the bottom of this freight-rate valley lie the great direct trunk lines converging from Chicago and St. Louis. Throughout the State of Illinois the valley opens up onto a plateau, somewhat grooved in the middle at Peoria, where the direct lines from the west cross a neutral field tributary neither to Chicago nor St. Louis exclusively.

CROSS-SECTION THROUGH LOUISVILLE AND LANSING

CROSS-SECTION FROM BURLINGTON TO PITTSBURGH

This general description harmonizes with the apt figure used by that master mind in railway economics, Albert Fink. Speaking of this situation, he says, "The trunk lines are nothing but great arteries of commerce, like rivers, only with this difference: the rivers never run across each other, the territory from which they draw their supplies is distinct and well defined." Since his time, by reason of coöperative action for a generation, the confusing maze of railway lines has now been reduced to a single comprehensive system. Cross-currents of trade hither and thither have been united or articulated in such a way as, speaking in terms of freight charges, to cause the great internal commerce of the country to flow downhill toward the seaboard in an orderly and reasonable way. The inequalities incident to commercial competition have been modified, or, to revert to our original figure, eroded; so that one may literally speak of the products of the country as flowing, like rivers, in more or less natural channels over the railway lines from the great interior basin towards the Atlantic seaboard.

The mathematical precision of the method of computation heretofore described, while theoretically applicable to a series of parallel roads in a flat country, free from either water competition, the competition of cross railway lines, or the competition of towns and cities of unequal size and importance, obviously requires modification to suit the actual traffic conditions in this densely populated trunk line territory. The process of adjustment has been gradual and necessarily tentative. Every influence brought to bear has been subversive of systematic arrangement, tending, that is to say, to amend the scheme out of all semblance to mathematical order. After reading volumes of the Proceedings of the Joint Rate Committee, filled with petitions of railways, towns, and individuals for exception to the general rules, one is surprised to find that, after all, the scheme is so well ordered as it is. It has been held true only by rigid adherence to the rule that by the shortest "workable and worked route" no intermediate place shall be charged more than is charged to any point beyond. In other words, the long and short haul principle is consistently observed. Space does not permit a discussion of all of the factors which have tended to modify the original simple scheme. Three alone may be considered as illustrative of the rest. These are: (1) the effect of railway competition at the important junction points; (2) the influence of the independent cross lines of railway; and (3) commercial competition between producing or distributing centres.