Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/520

506 goods have been lowered, on an average, by 28 per cent; the public have sent 2,700,000 tons more goods, while they have actually saved more than $4,000,000 on the cost of carriage, and the public treasury has earned an increased net profit of $1,150,000.' A further reduction, made subsequently to this statement in 1864, exceeded even these results, and under it the tonnage rose from 4,479,000 tons in 1863 to 6,533,000 tons in 1864."

In this country, an extract from the report of the railroad commisionerscommissioners [sic] of a single State will illustrate the common experience as to the operation of the principle of discrimination in things. The Commissioners of Railroads for Alabama tell us: "A proviso of the first section of the act to provide for the regulation of railroad companies and persons operating railroads in this State, approved February 20, 1881, provides: 'That nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent contracts for special rates for the purpose of developing any industrial enterprises, or to prevent the execution of any such contract now existing.' Whether in pursuance of law, or for the development of their own business, it is usual for such railroad companies to concede such 'special rates' to these 'industrial enterprises' for the purpose of developing and building them up, such as factories, mines, lumber-mills, flouring and grist mills, gas companies, water-works, and other 'industrial enterprises.' These 'industrial enterprises,' as we have stated, have these special rates conceded to them very generally in the different States of the American Union. The products of the labor and skill of these 'industrial enterprises' are in many instances transported to distant markets, and the enterprises themselves are created for the purpose of such competition. Where this is the case, enterprises of this description in Alabama would not enter into this competition with those of other States unless put upon an equal footing with them as is done by these 'special rates'; nor could they maintain their business in competition with those of other States in the absence of such 'special rates.' And where these 'industrial enterprises' do not enter into the competition in other States—many of them do in Alabama—and in the absence of such 'special rates' they would not be on equal footing to compete even in this State with enterprises of a similar character in other States, but doing business in Alabama. And in this class of these industrial enterprises where this competition does not exist at all, yet they furnish employment to larger numbers of persons, and confer public benefits in business upon the localities where they exist. It will thus be seen that in the two classes of these 'industrial enterprises' first above named, what would seem to be, to those not familiar with the facts, a special immunity given to them in these 'special rates,' and not accorded to the public generally, is, in fact, nothing more than putting them on an equal footing with similar enterprises in other States, and enabling them to fairly compete with