t
owners, but to permit any individual or company to run, upon the payment
of a fixed toll, trains and cars over it, under the control of a
train-dispatcher stationed at a central point. This train-dispatcher is
to be notified by telegraph of the movement of each train, and is to
give his orders to the officers in charge of each train, as to what
points they are to go, where to pass one train and where to wait for
another. Each transportation company is to own, load and forward its own
trains; it is to be required to run its regular train on schedule time
or to have it follow another train as an extra. They are to be liable to
their shippers as well as to the railway company for all damages caused
by their neglect, while the railroad company is to be held responsible
for the condition of its track. It will not be necessary to go into the
details of Mr. Hudson's plan. Suffice it to say that he proposes to
establish free competition in the railway business by making the use of
the railway track as free as that of the turnpike or canal, subject only
to such control on the part of the public train-dispatcher as the
paramount considerations of speed and safety may require.

The adoption of Mr. Hudson's plan would simply be a return to the first
principle of railroad transportation. It has already been shown that the
first English charters permitted the public to use their own vehicles
and motive power upon the railroad track, but that shippers and
independent carriers could not avail themselves of these provisions of
the early charters because it was in the power of the railroad companies
to make their tolls prohibitory. There is but little question as to the
practicability of Mr. Hudson's plan from a purely technical standpoint,
and its adoption might be advisable if it should be demonstrated that a
monopoly of the track is inconsistent with the operation of the railways
for the public good. It is seriously doubted, however, whether such
ideal competition as Mr. Hudson desires to bring about could be secured
except at the expense of true economy. Concentration, or, rather,
consolidation in the railroad business has, under proper legal
restriction, always resulted in a saving of operating expenses, and
usually in a reduction of rates. Any step in the opposite direction,
whatever other merits it may possess, is in the end not likely to give
lower rates. If it is a settled principle that railroads are only
entitled to a fair c