extremes some wisdom. No one could have foreseen how completely the carrying trade by land would be revolutionized, nor how readily all things would adapt themselves to the change.

§ 15. The science of railroading (for a science it certainly is), no one has more than fairly begun to master, although a very large per cent. of the best talent of the country is engaged in the conduct of the business, in one form or another. Especially is this true of the legal profession. So long as the more knotty railway problems remain partially unsolved there will be more or less clashing between production and consumption, on the one hand, and transportation on the other. But, be it remembered, each is equally indispensable to the other, and a basis of good fellowship is mutually desirable. It is quite conceivable that the interests of all concerned will yet be essentially unified by the adoption of a better method of operating railroads, dictated by railway self-interest, no less than by considerations of public policy.

& 16. Five distinct ways of operating railroads have thus far been recognized. Each deserves special mention.

§ 17. The primitive idea of railway management was borrowed from turnpikes. Examination of an English railroad charter would lead one to suppose that the British railroads were toll-roads. It was originally thought that large aggregations of capital would construct paths for the locomotive, provide station accommodations, etc., then throw the line open to the public, depending for returns on the investment solely upon the tolls received. That crude idea was early abandoned as utterly impracticable. There

must be unity in the management of all the trains that run over a line. This is absolutely essential to safety. Then, too, the expense of fitting out one train, however small and poorly equipped, would be too great to admit of its being done miscellaneously. Any haphazard system would surely work disastrously, and be abandoned.

§ 18. Another method is to have the railroads form a part of the government, state or national. This plan has been tried with success in the management of canals. It proved a failure when the general government adopted it in the case of the Cumberland wagon road. The state of Pennsylvania tried it with the Pennsylvania Central railroad; but after incurring a heavy debt gave it up, either at the dictates of sound policy or at the connivance of a corrupt ring. Illinois has never taken a single step toward that method of railway management. It is being urged in Great Britain, and works well on the continent of Europe, where the governments are conducted by and for the few. Its feasibility for this country is being discussed somewhat, but the subject is now confined to the region of abstract speculation. If adopted at all it would be upon a national scale, yet through the co-ordinate action of the several states and of the United States.

19. A third method is for each railroad company to own or lease all the rolling stock in use on its line. That was the system adopted when the primitive method was abandoned. If it were necessary to the proper supply of facilities for transportation by rail that the owners of the road should furnish all the equipments, then self-interest and duty to the public

would require it; but it was early found impracticable, and was long ago abandoned. The Philadelphia and Reading railroad company alone adheres to it. That corporation, with its numerous branch roads, is complete in itself, while the other railroads of the country, whether long or short, form links in a vast continental chain. The greater part of the business of our railroads begins with one road and ends with another, often passing over many roads. To transfer the consignment from one car to another every time a change of roads was necessary, would be an intolerable delay and expense, besides greatly increasing the danger of damage from handling. This led to a system of railway comity which was some years ago recognized and made binding by legislation. That legislation has been unchallenged in its validity.

$ 20. This necessity of railway comity led, not necessarily, but still naturally, to the formation of fast freight lines and palace car lines. By means of this fourth system all unnecessary delays and transfers are avoided. The expense of palace cars are such that only one, the Pullman line, has attained any considerable proportions. The expense of freight cars is so light that there are many transportation companies, and the greater part of through freight business is carried on in the cars of such companies. There is professedly no discrimination of any kind, and the railroad companies claim to be entirely ready to haul at impartial rates all cars offered them, whether by other railroad companies, by transportation companies, or by individuals.

$21. The fifth and final method is in theory the same as the fourth, and rests upon precisely the same

legal basis; but practically it is altogether different. The fourth has proved a monopoly system, while the fifth, when once fairly in operation, would prove a competitive system. Thus far car owners have allowed the railroad companies to dictate the terms on which consignments should be taken. This servitude has been submitted to because the evils of it fell entirely upon the producer and shipper, while its benefits were shared between servant and master. Usage has now established the right to car-service as an integral part of common law, and one person, or any number of persons, interested in cheap freight, can put into operation the competitive system. This feature of common law exists throughout the country; Illinois alone has distinctly recognized it by statutory provision. The competitive system, once generally established, would unify the railway and the popular interest. It would be alike for the interest of the owners of the highways and of the patrons thereof to have an increase of facilities. Competition would secure more cars and lower freight charges, while the railroad company would derive revenue in proportion to that increase of facilities. The work of legislation and adjudication in preventing extortion would be vastly simplified. It would be necessarily only to establish by law a fair scale of compensation for car-hauling, and competition would take care of the rest as surely as it now does of mercantile charges. Theodore Bacon justly remarks that "to give scope to competition there must not only be large and free demand, but the possibility of supplying by many persons, from many sources, the very commodity demanded." Such possibility would be rendered a certainty by this fifth system. Mr. Adams

was entirely correct in his comment upon competition between railroad corporations when he said: "While the result of ordinary competition is to reduce and equalize prices, the result of railroad competition is to produce local inequalities and arbitrary raise and depress prices." Competition must be of such a nature as to reach every station on the line, else a few points of intersection will enjoy its benefits at the expense of the many.

§ 23. The fourth system is, Regulation by Combination; the true and inevitable system is, Regulation by Competition. This fifth method was first distinctly recognized and rendered attainable by the Illinois railway legislation of 1873. It would be easy to increase the profits of the railroads and lessen the cost of transportation by an equitable division, in accordance with the laws of trade, of the enormous profits now divided between transportation companies belonging to the monopoly ring.

24. The entire nation is becoming profoundly agitated and perplexed over the railway question. There is imminent danger that production and transportation, interests which in their permanent thrift are mutually dependent, will be drawn into disastrous conflict. Statesmen, jurists and economists have seldom been confronted by a graver or more exacting problem. Unless it is rightly adjusted, and that with reasonable dispatch, the antagonism will be fraught with exasperation and peril. To dispel ignorance is the first step towards reconciliation. The aim of this treatise is to set forth those legal principles and rules which admit of no intelligent controversy, and which must guide and condition all successful attempts to effect an equitable and lasting adjustment.