iii In what I have to say herein in regard to governmental ownership I point out merely what may be termed economic and social objections-the cumbersomeness of such method, its lack of adjustability to conditions and the friction and hardship it entails to the private citizen. I have not attempted to exhaust the subject but merely point out the more glaring objections to such ownership. There are, on the other hand, grave objections of a purely fiscal character that I do not allude to at all. These I refer to in another volume of this series devoted to the subject of Safeguarding Railway Expenditures and to that I would invite the attention of those interested in such matters. In the book in question I have shown that under governmental operation the discretion of managers and their power of initiative are reduced to the minimum, or practically negatived, through the observance of unavoidable formaliities. One of these is the necessity they are under of compliance with foreordained budgetsnecessarily approximate only-of expenditures for specified periods, which budgets must run the gauntlet of ministries and legislative bodies and be molded, finally, by political considerations with perhaps but little reference to the actual needs of the properties; moreover, such forecasts cannot accurately take into account the unforeseen exigencies of practical operation, nor, as a matter of fact, be based on the actual needs of a property. Hence they result in handicapping a management if actual conditions do not harmon ize with preconceived ideas and guesses, or else lead managers to meet the dilemma by padding their estimates and by such subterfuge invite both extravagance and waste afterwards. Indeed, from whatever point of view the subject be considered-whether public, commercial, economic, fiscal or internal - the conclusion cannot be avoided that the governmental operation of railways must be inconvenient to managers, wasteful in commerce, and pedantic, slow, cumbersome and extravagant in administration. Moreover, where governments operate railroads we are never sure that we know the real cost of operation, the accounts being aggregated or juggled to save the face of the government, it being in such cases a political as well as an economic question. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ECONOMIC LAWS GOVERNING RATES, CHAPTER I. The ethics of trade, including that of car- CHAPTER III. Railway rates-their bases and the influ- CHAPTER VII. Necessity and value of pools, CHAPTER VIII. Railway rates and government control. Rates may be too low, they cannot be too high. Rail- CHAPTER IX. Railway rates and government control. Railway growth in the United States. Present status. CHAPTER X. Value of private ownership and interest. Government control-its inadequacy, CHAPTER XI. Government supervision and control-its limitations. The value of private ownership. Further reference to rates-principles underlying them, . . . 227 CHAPTER XII. Governmental control versus private con- ize with preconceived ideas and guesses, or else CHAPTER IV. Railway rates-their bases and the influ- CHAPTER V. Railway rates-discrimination-pools, CHAPTER VI. Special rates and their relation to com- CHAPTER VII. Necessity and value of pools, CHAPTER VIII. Railway rates and government control. Rates may be too low, they cannot be too high. Rail- CHAPTER IX. Railway rates and government control. Railway growth in the United States. Present status. CHAPTER X. Value of private ownership and interest. Government control-its inadequacy, CHAPTER XI. Government supervision and control-its limitations. The value of private ownership. Further reference to rates-principles underlying them, CHAPTER XII. Governmental control versus private con- |