IV. MONOPOLIES OF TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 42 Transportation only a necessity in modern times, 42 The importance of railway traffic, 43 Railway transportation a vital necessity, 43 Shipping points where competition exists very few, 44 Consolidation and its benefits, 45 Intensity of competition in railway traffic on trunk lines, 47 Its inevitable effect, 48 The necessity of pools or traffic agreements, 49 Their history, 50 The Interstate Commerce law, 51 The effect of stimulating competition, 52 The evils charged to railway monopolies, 52 Evils due to wasteful competition, 53 Monopolies in other forms of transportation, 54 Monopolies on natural highways, 56 Monopolies of bridges, 56 The telegraph monopoly, 56. V. MUNICIPAL MONOPOLIES 59 City dwellers dependent upon monopolies, 59 Suburban passenger traffic, 59 Street-railway monopolies, 60 Water-supply monopolies, 61 Competition and monopoly in gas supply, 62 T. M. Cooley on municipal monopolies, 64 Prices, cost, and profits of gas supply, 64 Monopolies in electric lighting and in telegraph, telephone, and messenger service, 66 Other monopolies beneath city pavements, 67 Monopolies in railway terminals, 68 Monopoly in real estate, 69.