THE PRINCIPLE UPON WHICH RATES SHOULD BE BASED.
The first condition of any useful discussion of railway rates is
that _all_ interests shall be considered--the interests of all
traders, and of all consumers, as well as of railway companies. To
every proposal this test--the golden rule--should be applied. How
would any projected change affect all concerned? Every one cannot
get such rates as he would desire; the utmost which is practicable
is to fix them in the manner, on the whole, most suitable to the
requirements of the community as a whole; and this will be found
in the long run to coincide with the interests of the companies.
In consequence of not applying this test, and owing to the fact
that persons may freely put forward proposals without explaining
what would be the consequences of a general application of their
principle, little progress is made in the discussion. A second
condition of any profitable consideration of the subject is obvious.
To argue about the propriety of this or that rate, the question
whether this town or that port is badly treated, or this or that
industry is made to pay too much, is of little use without agreement
as to the principle upon which rates ought to be framed. There is a
third condition no less reasonable. When English railway companies
are accused of imposing charges at haphazard, and in an arbitrary
fashion, what scientific principle, it may be asked, ought to be
followed? There is no escaping this question--not even if the task
of framing or controlling rates were committed, as has sometimes
been proposed, to the Board of Trade or the Railway Commissioners.
To this question rarely, however, is any answer given. When
one is attempted, very seldom is it made with reference to all
interests meriting attention.[3] How often do witnesses before
Royal Commissions or in Parliamentary inquiries merely deprecate in
general language what they object to as personally injurious, or
merely claim what would be advantageous for themselves! How often is
their proposal of reform merely a thinly veiled plan for securing
_protection_ against competition for some industry or some town or
port! How many proposals as to rates, propounded with facility and
confidence in Chambers of Commerce, would prove to be valueless or
even objectionable if their authors were always obliged to answer in
detail two questions. What would be the effect of the proposals on
consumers? How would they affect producers and traders generally?
[3] Gustav Cohn, the well known German writer on English railways,
while advocating many changes, complains of the limited, one-sided
knowledge of the subject shown by the chief English critics of
railways.--_Die Englische Eisenbahnpolitik_ (1883), p.88 and
elsewhere.