Part 6 (1/2)
Long-distance rates involving pa.s.sage over several roads are somewhat less than the local rates. These rates are determined by joint pa.s.senger-tariff a.s.sociations. Each individual road fixes its own excursion and commutation rates; one or another of the joint pa.s.senger a.s.sociations determines the rates where several roads divide the traffic. The latter are usually one, or one and one-third fares for the round trip.
Except on a few local roads in densely peopled regions the pa.s.senger service is much less remunerative than freight business, and not a few railways would abolish pa.s.senger trains altogether were they permitted to do so. Rate-cutting between competing roads has not been common since the existence of joint pa.s.senger a.s.sociations. It is sometimes done secretly, however, through the use of ticket-brokers, or ”scalpers,” who are employed to sell tickets at less than the usual rate; it is also done by the illicit use of tickets authorized for given purposes, such as ”editors',” ”clergymen's,” and ”advertising” transportation.
In many instances, where several roads have the same terminal points, it is customary for the road or roads having the quickest service to allow a lower rate to the others. Thus, of the seven or eight roads between New York and Chicago, the two best equipped roads charge a fare of twenty dollars on their ordinary, and a higher rate on their limited, trains. Because of slower time the other roads charge a sum less by two or three dollars for the same service. This cut in the rate is called a ”differential.”
=Railway Mileage.=--The railways of the world in 1900 had an aggregate of nearly four hundred and eighty thousand miles distributed as follows:
North America 216,000 Europe 173,000 Asia 36,000 South America and West Indies 28,000 Australasia 15,000 Africa 12,000
In western Europe and the eastern United States there is an average of one mile of railway to each six or eight square miles of area. In these countries railway construction has reached probably its highest development, and the proportion seems to represent the mileage necessary for the commercial interests of the people.
The railways of the United States aggregate 193,000 miles--nearly one-half the total mileage of the world. Over this enormous trackage 38,000 locomotives and 1,400,000 coaches and cars carry yearly 600,000,000 pa.s.sengers and 1,000,000,000 tons of freight. They represent an outlay of about $5,000,000,000. Owing to the absence of the international problems that have greatly interfered with the organization of European railways, the roads of the United States have developed ”trunk-system” features to a higher degree than is found elsewhere.
In the United States and Canada the farms of the great central plain, together with the coal-mines, are the great centres of production, while the seaports of the two coasts form great centres of distribution. Most of the trunk lines, therefore, extend east and west; of the north and south lines only two are important. The reason for the east-west direction of the great trunk lines is obvious; the great markets of North America, Europe, and Asia lie respectively to the east and the west.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES THEIR POSITION DEPENDS ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE LAND]
=Railway Owners.h.i.+p.=--The owners.h.i.+p of railways is vested either in national governments or else in corporate companies; in only a few instances are roads held individually by private owners, and these are mainly lumber or plantation roads. Thus, the railways of Prussia are owned by the state; most of those of the smaller German states are owned either by the state or by the empire; still others are owned by corporate companies and managed by the imperial government. In their management military use is considered as first in importance.
In France governmental owners.h.i.+p and management have been less successful. Plans for an elaborate system of state railways failed, and the state now owns and operates only 1,700 miles, mainly, in the southwest. Belgium controls and operates all her lines, but as the latter are short and the area of the state small, there are no difficulties in the way of excellent management. In Great Britain all the railways are owned and controlled by corporate companies. The great transcontinental line of the Russian Empire was built by the government, but the latter does not own it.
In the United States the railways are now owned by corporate companies.
Some of the western roads were built by Government subsidies;[21] other roads were built by the aid of States, counties, or cities, which afterward sold them to corporate companies. The first transcontinental railways required Government a.s.sistance, and could not have been built without it; nowadays, however, corporate companies find no difficulty in providing the capital for any railway that is needed.
Inasmuch as the railway is a positive necessity, upon whose existence depends the transportation of the food daily required in the great centres of population, the charter of the railway gives the company extraordinary powers. Most steam railway companies are permitted by the State to exercise the power of _eminent domain_--that is, they may seize and hold the land on which to locate their tracks and buildings, if it cannot be acquired by the consent of the owners; they may also seize coal and other materials consigned to them for s.h.i.+pment if such materials are necessary to operate their lines.
Therefore, in consideration of the unusual powers possessed by the companies, the various States reserve the right to regulate the freight and pa.s.senger tariffs. They may also compel the companies to afford equal facilities to all patrons, and take the measures necessary to prevent discrimination.
The control of the railways by the government may be absolute, as in the German state of Prussia; or it may consist of a general supervision, as in the case of the Canadian railways. In almost every European state there is a director or else a commission to act as a representative between the railways and the people. In the United States the various States have each a railway commission, while the general Government is represented by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
=Electric Railways.=--The use of electricity as a motive power has not only revolutionized suburban traffic but it has become a great factor in rural transportation as well. The speed of the horse-car rarely exceeded five or six miles per hour, while that of the electric car is about ten miles per hour in city streets and about twice as great over rural roads. As a result, the suburban limits of the large centres of population have greatly extended, and the population of the outlying districts has been increased from four to ten fold.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ELECTRIC RAILWAY--ROCKY MOUNTAINS]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ELECTRIC FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE--ERIE RAILROAD]
From some of the larger cities the electric roads reach out to distances of one hundred miles or more and have become the carriers of perishable freight, such as fruit and dairy products. These are not only delivered just as promptly as though they were sent over the steam roads, but the delivery is more frequent. Indeed, the marvellous success of the electric interurban railway is due mainly to the frequency of its service.
=Public Roads and Highways.=--Carriages propelled by steam, electric, and gasoline motors have become an important factor in the delivery of goods in nearly every city of Europe and America. They are not only speedier than the horse and wagon, but their keeping costs less. They are economical only on good roads. The bicycle, no longer a plaything, exerted a very decided effect on transportation when the ”pneumatic” or inflated rubber tire came into use. Through the bicycle came the demand for good roads; and several thousand miles of the best surfaced roads are built in the United States each year.
The ordinary highways or roads, the paved streets of the large cities excepted, are popularly known either as ”dirt” roads or ”macadamized”
roads, the latter name being applied to about every sort of graded highway that has been surfaced with broken rock. Most of the roads of western Europe are of this character. They are laid out with easy grades, and a thick foundation of heavy stone is covered with smaller pieces of broken rock, the whole being finished off with a top-dressing of fine material. Once built, the expense of keeping them in good order is less than that of keeping a dirt road in bad order.
Most of the country highways of the United States are dirt roads that are deep with dust in dry weather and almost impa.s.sable at the breaking of winter. Roads of this character are such a detriment that grain farming will not pay when the farm is distant twenty miles or more from the nearest railway. Many a farmer pays more to haul his grain to the nearest railway station than from the railway station to London.
Since it has become apparent that the commercial development of many agricultural regions depends quite as much on good wagon roads as upon railways and expensive farming machinery, there has been a disposition to grade and rock-surface all roads that are important highways.