ore the shippers and buyers of goods at nine-tenths of
the shipping points of the country must always be dependent on the
facilities and rates offered by a single railway. Such rates of
transportation as are fixed, be they high or low, must be paid, if
business is carried on at all. And when we consider the ten per cent. of
railway stations which are, or may be, junction points, we find that at
least three-fourths of them are merely the junction of two lines owned
by the same company. Consolidation of railway lines has gone on very
rapidly within the past few years and is undoubtedly destined to go much
further. Of the 158,000 miles of railway in the country, about eighty
per cent. is included in systems 500 miles or more in extent; and a
dozen corporations control nearly half of the total mileage. The
benefits which the public receive from this consolidation are so vast
and so necessary that no one who is familiar with railway affairs would
dream of making the suggestion that further consolidations be stopped or
that past ones be undone.

There is a great tendency on the part of the public, however, to look
with fear and disfavor on further railway consolidation. And because
this is so, it is greatly to be desired that the beneficial effects of
consolidation should be better understood. The most important benefits
are included under one head, the saving in expense and the avoidance of
waste, and this is effected in very many different ways. Suppose a great
system like the Pennsylvania or the Chicago & Northwestern were cut up
into fifty or sixty independent roads, each with its own complete staff
of officers. Each road would have to pay its president, directors, and
heads of operating departments, would have to maintain its own
repair-shops, general offices, etc., and conduct in general all the
business necessary to the profitable operation of a railway corporation.
A car of wheat or a passenger in going from Chicago to New York would
have to be transferred from one road to another at perhaps twenty
different points, and the freight or fare paid would be divided among
twenty different companies, with corresponding clerical labor. The
modern conveniences of through tickets, through baggage-checks, and
through freight shipments, would be difficult, if not impossible.
Further, consolidation tends to produce vastly better service and
greater safety. The large systems can and do employ the highest grade of
talent to direct