erfect kind does not exist in
manufacturing and is far from existing in the department of carrying,
and it is important to know whether with growing business and greatly
tempered rivalry there is any tendency toward the equalization of
charges and the simplifying of the mode of reckoning costs. When a
mill has more orders than it can fill, those it wishes to be rid of
are the ones which yield the smallest profit. They encumber the mill
and prevent the filling of more profitable orders; and the natural
mode of reducing the amount of this undesirable part of the output is
to raise the charges on it. This comes about without much aid from
competition, for when all producers find their capacity overtaxed,
they have no motive for contending sharply for business. Underbidding
has for its purpose attracting business from rivals and is an
irrational operation when all have orders enough and to spare.
Competition is largely in abeyance when the business any one can have
is overabundant.

_These Principles Applicable to Carrying._--What we here assert
concerning goods manufactured by independent mills would be true of
goods carried by independent vessels, if they plied between the same
two ports with no intermediate stops. If their capacity should at any
time be overtaxed, they would not reduce the charges on higher grades,
but they would raise them on the lower grades, and the classification
of freight would lose some of its significance. The lowering of the
charges on the high grades of freight would come when the profits of
the business should attract new carriers, who would naturally seek for
the traffic that paid the best, till all kinds paid about alike. The
mode of reckoning costs might then become simple--a _pro rata_
division of total outlays among all parts of the business.

_The Condition of Uniform Costing never realized upon Railroads._--Not
a single one of the essential conditions of equalized charges and
uniform costing is now realized upon railroads, and there is only one
of them that is approximated. Separate markets for different parts of
the traffic are provided by the nature of the business. Every point to
which goods are conveyed furnishes such a distinct market, and the
service of carrying goods to it is paid for by a distinct set of
customers. It follows, therefore, that some rates can be cut without
affecting others, and they regularly are so. The second condition,
that of bringing the carrying capacity