grows larger and larger. When cars are
few and are only half filled, an increment of traffic entails a very
small increment of expense. When the cars are filled and new freight
requires the purchase of more of them, the cost of this addition to
the traffic becomes greater. When further additions to the freight
carried require additions to trackage, yard room, storage room, etc.,
they cost far more than the earlier additions; and new increments of
freight come, in the end, to cost very nearly as much per unit as the
general body of the previous traffic when all outlays were charged
against it. The railroad approaches the condition of the full ships
referred to, in which further cargoes require further ships, with all
the outlays which this implies. The distinction between different
kinds of costing is gradually obliterated, and railroads steadily draw
nearer to that ultimate state which other carriers more quickly
approach, in which each part of the freight carried must bear its
share of the total costs entailed. Long before that state is reached,
however, combination ensues, and the movement of freight charges
toward their static standard is arrested.

[Illustration:
C
|
|
| HIGHWAY
|
|
RAILROAD |
A-------------------------------B
\ /
\ /
\____ /
\___ __________/
\____/
WATER ROUTE
]

_The Standard of Freight Charges under a Regime of Monopoly._--A
consolidation so complete that it would merge all rival lines under a
single board of control and pool all their earnings would restore the
early condition described in connection with one of our
illustrations--that of the single railroad between A and B, having
only sailing vessels and wagons as rivals. It is able to charge what
the traffic will bear in a simple and literal sense. The consolidated
lines can, if they choose, get for each bit of carrying the difference
between the value of goods at the point where they are taken and their
value at the point where they are delivered. These values are
approximately what they would be if no railroad existed. The carrying
done by the railroad itself does not enter in