Railroad Transportation; Its History and Its Laws (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 Excerpt: ...February, 1884, makes this a ground for urging that arbitration should be employed in all these cases as a matter of public necessity and public right. Each year brings into greater prominence the necessity of a spirit of common action between the company and its employees. We have not space to enter upon the various means adopted with this end in view. See Charles Paine: "Elements of Railroading," New York, 1885, chap. xiii. M. M. Kirkman: "Railway Expenditures," Chicago, 1880, chap. viii. It is part and parcel of the same question which presses itself more and more forcibly upon all business men as the organization of industry becomes more road regulation has centred around a problem more pressing, and in some respects more difficult than any of these--the control of railroad charges, and especially of railroad discriminations. The first attempts to control railroad charges had been as crude as the legislation concerning liability or taxation. The courts began with a blind reliance on free competition. This may do very well as a regulator of railroad profits; as a regulator of rates it is a failure. Yet our courts have been extremely slow to see thai: it is a failure; and where they have seen it, they have gone to another extreme which is quite as bad. They have in these latter cases tried to base rates forcibly upon cost of service; but this has been done with so little understanding of the railroad business as to make their standards either useless or impracticable. There have been many efforts to supplement the action of the courts by legislation. The earliest laws of this kind attempted to prescribe maximum rates like the oldfashioned tolls on roads or canals. This was carried through systematically in England. There have been occa...