Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 29: May to October, 1886
The different requirements are to a certain extent in con ict with one another. This con ict can only be understood by studying the history of railroads, and the principles which underlie railroad business management. These are quite imperfectly known at present. There is probably no subject of equal importance on which public enlighten ment is so much needed. The capital invested in the railroads of our country is eight times that of its banking institutions; the tonnage carried by rail is four times that carried by water; the abuses in inter nal commerce come home to most of us far more directly than those in foreign commerce. Yet, for every man who has studied the political economy of railroads; there are a dozen who have studied that of ship ping and foreign trade, and a hundred who have studied that of bank ing. The complications of the subject are hardly recognized. Railroad reformers are far too ready to blindly pursue one specific object or com bat one specific abuse, regardless what other objects may be sacrificed, or what other abuses fostered by their policy.
From 1830 to 1873 the main object of nearly every community was to secure rapid development of railroad facilities - the first of the four requirements we have named. The railroad proved so much superior to other modes of transportation, that the country which had railroads prospered; that which had not railroads fell behind. Legislation was everywhere devised to favor this end. Where capital was ready to invest, every encouragement was o cred it. If the removal of obsta cles was not enough, a subsidy was generally to be had for the asking.
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