their work. Every thing is systematized and managed
with a view to producing the best results in efficiency and safety with
the least waste of material and labor. And while the improvement in
safety and convenience is all for the benefit of the public, a large
part of the saving in expense effected by consolidation has likewise
come back to the patrons of the roads in the form of reduced rates of
fare and freight.

It is difficult, however, for any one not familiar with the technical
details of the railway business to fully appreciate the importance and
necessity of the consolidations which have been effected, and the grave
results that would follow the realization of the mad proposition to set
us back a half century by cutting up our railroad systems into short
local lines. It must be plain to every one, however, that while the loss
of all the benefits of consolidation would be certain, the gain in
competition could affect only the few junction points; and as we shall
now see, the effect even on them would be small.

Assuming that the total number of railway junction points in the United
States is 3,000, we find, on examination, that at about two-thirds only
two lines meet, and at more than half the remainder only three lines
meet. It is plain that in the vast majority of cases where two roads
intersect, and in many cases where three or four come together, the
lines meet perhaps at right angles and diverge to entirely different
localities. The shipper bringing goods to the station, then, may choose
whether he will send his goods north or east perhaps; but only in the
few cases where two lines run to the same point does he really have the
choice of two rates for getting his produce to market. Practically,
then, there are not, and never can be, more than a few hundred places in
the country where shippers will be able to choose different routes for
sending their goods to market. We say there never can be, because the
building of a line of railway to parallel an existing line able to carry
all the traffic is an absolute loss to the world of the capital spent in
its construction, and a constant drain after it is built in the cost of
its operation. This fact is now, fortunately, generally appreciated.

But what of the competitive traffic which exists between commercial
centres, like the trunk-line traffic between Chicago and the cities on
the seaboard, or between the former city and the collecting centres
farther west like