Excerpt from The Science of Railways
Fully five per cent of the number of men permanently employed by railroads are engaged, more or less actively, in work connected with the making and adjustment of rates, and while they are intelligent and industrious in their efforts to prevent reductions they are powerless to do so in opposition to natural laws. And this tendency was marked and uninterrupted until the close of the Nineteenth Century. Thus the reduction from the average freight rate charged in 1863 shows a present yearly saving to the community of nearly five billions of dollars based on the actual business done by carriers in 1903. While this reduction is surprising, it is cited here merely to illustrate the truth of what I say. And it is to be remembered, in connection with this reduction, that it occurred without pressure from without, but wholly in response to those economics laws that govern the free exchange of commodities, of common use, the world over. The shrinkage in rates may be said to represent the effect of enhanced trade; of increase in the volume of business; the rivalry of markets; the greater facilities of railroads for handling traffic, and the active competition of foreign, as well as local carriers.
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