Chapter III: Section II

THE PRINCIPLE UPON WHICH RATES SHOULD BE BASED.

The first condition of any useful discussion of railway rates is that _all_ interests shall be considered--the interests of all traders, and of all consumers, as well as of railway companies. To every proposal this test--the golden rule--should be applied. How would any projected change affect all concerned? Every one cannot get such rates as he would desire; the utmost which is practicable is to fix them in the manner, on the whole, most suitable to the requirements of the community as a whole; and this will be found in the long run to coincide with the interests of the companies. In consequence of not applying this test, and owing to the fact that persons may freely put forward proposals without explaining what would be the consequences of a general application of their principle, little progress is made in the discussion. A second condition of any profitable consideration of the subject is obvious. To argue about the propriety of this or that rate, the question whether this town or that port is badly treated, or this or that industry is made to pay too much, is of little use without agreement as to the principle upon which rates ought to be framed. There is a third condition no less reasonable. When English railway companies are accused of imposing charges at haphazard, and in an arbitrary fashion, what scientific principle, it may be asked, ought to be followed? There is no escaping this question--not even if the task of framing or controlling rates were committed, as has sometimes been proposed, to the Board of Trade or the Railway Commissioners. To this question rarely, however, is any answer given. When one is attempted, very seldom is it made with reference to all interests meriting attention.[3] How often do witnesses before Royal Commissions or in Parliamentary inquiries merely deprecate in general language what they object to as personally injurious, or merely claim what would be advantageous for themselves! How often is their proposal of reform merely a thinly veiled plan for securing _protection_ against competition for some industry or some town or port! How many proposals as to rates, propounded with facility and confidence in Chambers of Commerce, would prove to be valueless or even objectionable if their authors were always obliged to answer in detail two questions. What would be the effect of the proposals on consumers? How would they affect producers and traders generally?

[3] Gustav Cohn, the well known German writer on English railways, while advocating many changes, complains of the limited, one-sided knowledge of the subject shown by the chief English critics of railways.--_Die Englische Eisenbahnpolitik_ (1883), p.88 and elsewhere.