TRANSPORTATION--RAILWAYS AND RAILWAY ORGANIZATION; PUBLIC HIGHWAYS
In the United States and western Europe, in spite of the low cost of
water transportation, the railways have almost wholly monopolized the
transportation of commodities. This is due in part to the saving of time
in transit--for under the demands of modern business, the only economy
is economy of time--and in part to prompt delivery at the specified
time.
Into a large centre of population like New York, London, or Berlin, many
millions of pounds of perishable food-stuffs must be brought daily for
consumption. Now these food-stuffs must be delivered with promptness,
and no delay can be tolerated. A shipper having half a million pounds of
meat or a hundred thousand pounds of flour or a car-load of fruit to
deliver can take no risks; he sends it by rail, not only because it is
the quickest way, but because experience has shown it to be the most
prompt way; as a rule, it is delivered on the exact minute of schedule
time.
Cargoes of silks and teas from China and Japan might be sent all the way
to London by water, but experience has shown a more profitable way. The
consignments are sent by swift steamships to Seattle; thence by fast
express trains to New York; there they are transferred to swift liners
that take them across the Atlantic to European ports. And although this
method of shipment is enormously expensive as compared with the
all-water route, the saving of time and certainty of prompt delivery
more than offset the extra cost of delivery.
In the last half of the nineteenth century the cost of haulage in the
United States by rail decreased so materially that in a few instances
only--notably the Great Lakes and the Hudson River--do inland waters
compete with the railways.[12] This is due in part to better
organization of the railways, but mainly to the substitution of Bessemer
steel for iron rails and the great improvements in locomotives and
rolling stock.
The use of a steam-driven locomotive became possible for the first time
when Stephenson used the tubular boiler and the forced draught,[13]
thereby making steam rapidly enough for a short, quick stroke. In 1865 a
good freight locomotive weighing thirty tons could haul about forty
box-cars, each loaded with ten tons. This was the maximum load for a
level track; the average load for a single locomotive was about
twenty-five or thirty cars. Heavier locomotives could not well be used
because the iron rails went to pieces under them.
The invention of Bessemer steel produced a rail that was safe under the
pounding of a locomotive three or four times as heavy as those formerly
employed; it produced boilers that would carry steam at 250 instead of
60 pounds pressure per square inch. As a result, with only a moderate
increase in the fuel burned, a single locomotive on a level track will
haul eighty or ninety box-cars, each carrying nearly seventy thousand
pounds.[14]
The application of the double and the triple expansion principle has
been quite as successful with locomotive as with marine engines in
saving fuel and gaining power--that is, it has decreased the cost per
ton-mile of hauling freight and likewise the cost of transporting
passengers. Enlarged "fire-boxes," or furnaces,[15] enable steam to be
made more rapidly and to give higher speed.[16] Only a few years ago
forty-eight hours was the scheduled time between New York and Chicago;
now there are about forty trains a day between these two cities, several
of which make the trip in twenty-four hours or less.
=Railway Development.=--The railway as a common carrier, having its right
by virtue of a government charter, dates from 1801, when a tramway was
built between Croydon and Wandsworth, two suburbs of London. The rails
were iron straps, nailed to wooden stringers. The charter was carefully
drawn in order to prevent the road from competing with omnibus lines and
public cabs.
When the steam locomotive succeeded horse-power, however, there
followed an era of railway development that in a few years
revolutionized the carrying trade in the thickly settled parts of the
United States and Europe. Short, independent lines were constructed
without any reference whatever to the natural movement of traffic. There
seemed but one idea, namely, to connect two cities or towns. Indeed, the
absence of a definite plan was much similar to that of the interurban
electric roads a century later; local traffic was the only
consideration.
At first an opinion prevailed that the road-bed of the railway ought to
be a public highway upon which any individual or company might run its
own conveyances, on the payment of a fixed toll; indeed, in both Europe
and the United States, public opinion could see no difference between
the railway and the canal. The employment of a steam-driven locomotive
engine, however, made such a plan impossible, and demonstrated that the
roads must be thoroughly organized.
At the close of 1850 there were nearly four hundred different railway
companies in England; in the United States about a dozen companies were
required to make the connection of New York City and Buffalo. A few of
these paid dividends; a large majority barely met their operating
expenses, defaulting the interest on their bonds; a great many were
hopelessly bankrupt.
=Consolidation of Connecting Lines.=--Between 1850 and 1865 a new feature
entered into railway management, namely, the union of connecting lines.
This was a positive advantage, for the operating expenses of the sixteen
lines, now a part of the New York Central, between New York and Buffalo
were scarcely greater than the expenses of one-third that number. The
service was much quicker, better, and cheaper. In England the several
hundred companies were reduced to twelve; in France the thirty-five or
more companies were reduced to six in number.
The consolidation of connecting lines brought about another desirable
feature--the extension of the existing lines.[17] The lines of
continental Europe were extended eastward to the Russian frontier, and
to Constantinople; then the Alps were surmounted. In the United States
railway extension was equally great. The Union and Central Pacific
railways were opened in 1869, giving the first all-rail route to the
Pacific coast. Other routes to the Pacific followed within a few years,
one of which, the Canadian Pacific, was built from Quebec to Vancouver.
[Illustration: A TRUNK SYSTEM--THE VARIOUS BRANCHES EXTEND INTO COAL,
GRAIN, IRON, CATTLE, TIMBER, AND TOBACCO REGIONS]
The period from 1864 was one of extensive railway building both in the
United States and Europe. Some of the roads, such as the transalpine
railways of Europe and the Pacific roads of the United States, were
greatly needed. Others that created new fields of industry by opening to
communication productive lands were also wise and necessary; the lands
would have been valueless without them. Not a few lines that were to be
needed in time were built so far ahead of time that they did not even
pay their operating expenses for many years.
Another class of roads was intended for speculative purposes. Thus,
there were instances in which a line occupying a given territory had
antagonized its patrons by poor service, and extortionate charges.
Thereupon another company would obtain a charter--which was then easily
done--and build a competing line in the same territory, the former most
likely having scarcely enough business for one road.[18] The results
were almost always the same; a war of rate-cutting followed; the
stockholders of both roads lost heavily; and one or both went into the
hands of receivers.
=Competition and Pools.=--In many instances the consolidation of roads,
while cutting off disastrous competition in the territory jointly
occupied by the two roads, brought the consolidated road into fierce
competition with another adjacent system. If the roads had practically
the same territory but different terminals the competition was confined
mainly to local traffic. On the other hand, they might have the same
terminals but cover different local territories; in this case the roads
must compete for through traffic. Thus the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
is brought into competition with the Union Pacific in Nebraska, but
inasmuch as the roads have different and widely distant terminals, their
local traffic is easily adjusted. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and
the Northwestern have common terminals at Chicago, St. Paul, Denver,
Omaha, and Kansas City. They must therefore compete with each other, and
with half-a-dozen other roads for their through traffic.
Competition between railways differs greatly from that between two
firms. If one of two firms cannot afford to compete, the manager may
discharge his help, and close doors; he then does not suffer actual
loss. But a railway, being a common carrier, cannot do this; the road
must keep its trains moving or lose its charter. If it cannot carry
goods at a profit it must carry them at cost or at a loss. Even the
latter is better than not carrying them at all, for the operating
expenses of the road must go on.
So between 1870 and 1880 most of the railway managements were busy
devising ways to stop a rate-cutting and competition that was ruinous.
In many instances great trunk lines would have consolidated had not
State laws prevented. They could not maintain rates because one or
another of the weaker roads would be compelled to lower their rates in
order to meet their operating expenses. Therefore they were compelled to
do one of three things, namely, to divide the territory, to divide
traffic, or to divide earnings. Either of the two latter plans is called
a _pool_.
Of these two forms of pooling the division of the traffic is the easier,
but it is often unsatisfactory to the patrons of the road. The second
plan, the division of the earnings, is a more difficult matter to adjust
because each road is usually dissatisfied with its proportion. As a
matter of fact, however, the first plan of pooling is very apt to grow
into the second.
In several instances pools have been declared illegal by the courts,
but, in general, railway service has been more satisfactory under the
pool system than under any other. They have always aroused popular
suspicion, however, from the fact that they increase power of the
railway itself. In various instances important trunk lines have formed a
general company, each having its separate organization, because they
could accomplish under a combined organization what they could not as
independent companies. The restrictions against pooling have therefore
encouraged combination of competing lines.
Because the railway is an absolute necessity, and because it has power
given neither to individuals nor to other corporations, it is a settled
policy that both the State and general Government should have the power
to regulate its rates, and should in every way prevent unjust
discrimination. Both problems are very difficult, however, and the
unintelligent adjustment of rates has frequently resulted in injustice
both to the roads and their patrons.
A rate per ton-mile for each class of freight is out of question,
because a large part of the cost to the company consists in loading,
handling, and storing the goods. Once aboard the car, it costs but
little more to carry a ton of freight one hundred miles than to move it
one mile. The rates per mile, therefore, are necessarily greater for
short distances than for long runs. A mile-rate based on a ten-mile haul
would be prohibitive to the shipper if applied to a run between Chicago
and New York. On the other hand, were the charges based on the long run,
the local rates would be far less than the cost of the service.[19]
As a result freight rates are based very largely on the cost of the
service, and this is particularly true of local freights. This practice
is also modified by charging _what the traffic will bear_, and, on the
whole, a combination of the two ideas gives the most reasonable and the
fairest method of basing charges. Thus, a car filled with fine, crated
furniture, which is light and bulky, can afford a higher rate than one
filled with scrap-iron. Cars filled with grain, lumber, coal, or ore are
made up in train-loads, and form a part of the daily haul; they can
afford to be taken at a lower rate than the stuffs of which only an
occasional car-load is hauled. In order to adjust this problem it is
customary to divide freights into six general classes.
[Illustration: THE PROBLEM OF FREIGHT RATES]
In handling through freights the problems are many, and, if two or more
roads have the same terminal points, a great deal of friction of
necessity results. The longest roads must either make their through
rates lower than local rates between distant points, or lose much of
their through business. They cannot afford to do the latter and the
statutory laws may forbid the former. As a result the laws most likely
are evaded, or else openly disobeyed.[20]
The difficulties in adjusting the matter of the long and the short
haul, as has been shown, have caused the formation of pools and various
other traffic associations, the object of which has been to prevent
rate-wars. To this extent they resulted in positive good, for a
rate-war in the end is apt to be as hurtful to the community as to the
railway company. The attempt to settle such questions has also resulted
in a great deal of legislation. Some of this has been wise and good; but
not a little has been hurtful both to the railroads and to the
community. The general result is seen in the great combination of
competing lines and, more recently, of competing systems.
=Passenger Service.=--Passenger traffic is more easily managed than the
movement of freight. For the greater part the rates are fixed by law. On
a few eastern roads local rates are two cents per mile; in the main,
however, a three-cent rate prevails, except that in sparsely peopled
regions the rates are four and five cents per mile. On many roads
1,000-mile books are sold at the rate of twenty dollars; on some the
rate is twenty-five dollars per book.
Long-distance rates involving passage over several roads are somewhat
less than the local rates. These rates are determined by joint
passenger-tariff associations. Each individual road fixes its own
excursion and commutation rates; one or another of the joint passenger
associations determines the rates where several roads divide the
traffic. The latter are usually one, or one and one-third fares for the
round trip.
Except on a few local roads in densely peopled regions the passenger
service is much less remunerative than freight business, and not a few
railways would abolish passenger trains altogether were they permitted
to do so. Rate-cutting between competing roads has not been common since
the existence of joint passenger associations. It is sometimes done
secretly, however, through the use of ticket-brokers, or "scalpers," who
are employed to sell tickets at less than the usual rate; it is also
done by the illicit use of tickets authorized for given purposes, such
as "editors'," "clergymen's," and "advertising" transportation.
In many instances, where several roads have the same terminal points, it
is customary for the road or roads having the quickest service to allow
a lower rate to the others. Thus, of the seven or eight roads between
New York and Chicago, the two best equipped roads charge a fare of
twenty dollars on their ordinary, and a higher rate on their limited,
trains. Because of slower time the other roads charge a sum less by two
or three dollars for the same service. This cut in the rate is called a
"differential."
=Railway Mileage.=--The railways of the world in 1900 had an aggregate of
nearly four hundred and eighty thousand miles distributed as follows:
North America 216,000
Europe 173,000
Asia 36,000
South America and West Indies 28,000
Australasia 15,000
Africa 12,000
In western Europe and the eastern United States there is an average of
one mile of railway to each six or eight square miles of area. In these
countries railway construction has reached probably its highest
development, and the proportion seems to represent the mileage necessary
for the commercial interests of the people.
The railways of the United States aggregate 193,000 miles--nearly
one-half the total mileage of the world. Over this enormous trackage
38,000 locomotives and 1,400,000 coaches and cars carry yearly
600,000,000 passengers and 1,000,000,000 tons of freight. They represent
an outlay of about $5,000,000,000. Owing to the absence of the
international problems that have greatly interfered with the
organization of European railways, the roads of the United States have
developed "trunk-system" features to a higher degree than is found
elsewhere.
In the United States and Canada the farms of the great central plain,
together with the coal-mines, are the great centres of production, while
the seaports of the two coasts form great centres of distribution. Most
of the trunk lines, therefore, extend east and west; of the north and
south lines only two are important. The reason for the east-west
direction of the great trunk lines is obvious; the great markets of
North America, Europe, and Asia lie respectively to the east and the
west.
[Illustration: THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES
THEIR POSITION DEPENDS ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE LAND]
=Railway Ownership.=--The ownership of railways is vested either in
national governments or else in corporate companies; in only a few
instances are roads held individually by private owners, and these are
mainly lumber or plantation roads. Thus, the railways of Prussia are
owned by the state; most of those of the smaller German states are owned
either by the state or by the empire; still others are owned by
corporate companies and managed by the imperial government. In their
management military use is considered as first in importance.
In France governmental ownership and management have been less
successful. Plans for an elaborate system of state railways failed, and
the state now owns and operates only 1,700 miles, mainly, in the
southwest. Belgium controls and operates all her lines, but as the
latter are short and the area of the state small, there are no
difficulties in the way of excellent management. In Great Britain all
the railways are owned and controlled by corporate companies. The great
transcontinental line of the Russian Empire was built by the government,
but the latter does not own it.
In the United States the railways are now owned by corporate companies.
Some of the western roads were built by Government subsidies;[21] other
roads were built by the aid of States, counties, or cities, which
afterward sold them to corporate companies. The first transcontinental
railways required Government assistance, and could not have been built
without it; nowadays, however, corporate companies find no difficulty in
providing the capital for any railway that is needed.
Inasmuch as the railway is a positive necessity, upon whose existence
depends the transportation of the food daily required in the great
centres of population, the charter of the railway gives the company
extraordinary powers. Most steam railway companies are permitted by the
State to exercise the power of _eminent domain_--that is, they may seize
and hold the land on which to locate their tracks and buildings, if it
cannot be acquired by the consent of the owners; they may also seize
coal and other materials consigned to them for shipment if such
materials are necessary to operate their lines.
Therefore, in consideration of the unusual powers possessed by the
companies, the various States reserve the right to regulate the freight
and passenger tariffs. They may also compel the companies to afford
equal facilities to all patrons, and take the measures necessary to
prevent discrimination.
The control of the railways by the government may be absolute, as in the
German state of Prussia; or it may consist of a general supervision, as
in the case of the Canadian railways. In almost every European state
there is a director or else a commission to act as a representative
between the railways and the people. In the United States the various
States have each a railway commission, while the general Government is
represented by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
=Electric Railways.=--The use of electricity as a motive power has not
only revolutionized suburban traffic but it has become a great factor in
rural transportation as well. The speed of the horse-car rarely exceeded
five or six miles per hour, while that of the electric car is about ten
miles per hour in city streets and about twice as great over rural
roads. As a result, the suburban limits of the large centres of
population have greatly extended, and the population of the outlying
districts has been increased from four to ten fold.
[Illustration: ELECTRIC RAILWAY--ROCKY MOUNTAINS]
[Illustration: ELECTRIC FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE--ERIE RAILROAD]
From some of the larger cities the electric roads reach out to
distances of one hundred miles or more and have become the carriers of
perishable freight, such as fruit and dairy products. These are not only
delivered just as promptly as though they were sent over the steam
roads, but the delivery is more frequent. Indeed, the marvellous success
of the electric interurban railway is due mainly to the frequency of its
service.
=Public Roads and Highways.=--Carriages propelled by steam, electric, and
gasoline motors have become an important factor in the delivery of goods
in nearly every city of Europe and America. They are not only speedier
than the horse and wagon, but their keeping costs less. They are
economical only on good roads. The bicycle, no longer a plaything,
exerted a very decided effect on transportation when the "pneumatic" or
inflated rubber tire came into use. Through the bicycle came the demand
for good roads; and several thousand miles of the best surfaced roads
are built in the United States each year.
The ordinary highways or roads, the paved streets of the large cities
excepted, are popularly known either as "dirt" roads or "macadamized"
roads, the latter name being applied to about every sort of graded
highway that has been surfaced with broken rock. Most of the roads of
western Europe are of this character. They are laid out with easy
grades, and a thick foundation of heavy stone is covered with smaller
pieces of broken rock, the whole being finished off with a top-dressing
of fine material. Once built, the expense of keeping them in good order
is less than that of keeping a dirt road in bad order.
Most of the country highways of the United States are dirt roads that
are deep with dust in dry weather and almost impassable at the breaking
of winter. Roads of this character are such a detriment that grain
farming will not pay when the farm is distant twenty miles or more from
the nearest railway. Many a farmer pays more to haul his grain to the
nearest railway station than from the railway station to London.
Since it has become apparent that the commercial development of many
agricultural regions depends quite as much on good wagon roads as upon
railways and expensive farming machinery, there has been a disposition
to grade and rock-surface all roads that are important highways.
Intercommunication becomes vastly easier; the cost of transportation is
lessened by more than one-half; and the wear and destruction of vehicles
is reduced to a minimum. In every case the improvement of the road is
designed to increase traffic by making a given power do more work in
less time.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What have been the effects of Bessemer steel on the carrying power of
railways?--on cheapening freight rates?
What would be some of the effects first apparent were a large city like
London or New York suddenly cut off from railway communication?
What is meant by a tubular boiler?--by a forced draught?--by a
switch?--by an automatic coupler?
Ascertain from a railway official the various danger-signals as
indicated by lights, flags, and whistle-blasts.
Why should not crated furniture and coal have the same freight rate?
What is meant by a pool?--by long haul and short haul?--by rebate?
If the rate on a given weight of merchandise is one dollar and fifty
cents for five miles, should it be three hundred dollars for one
thousand miles?
FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Hartley's Railroad Transportation.
American Railways.
[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETATION]