Assuming that the total number of railway junction points in the United States is 3,000, we find, on examination, that at about two-thirds only two lines meet, and at more than half the remainder only three lines meet. It is plain that in the vast majority of cases where two roads intersect, and in many cases where three or four come together, the lines meet perhaps at right angles and diverge to entirely different localities. The shipper bringing goods to the station, then, may choose whether he will send his goods north or east perhaps; but only in the few cases where two lines run to the same point does he really have the choice of two rates for getting his produce to market. Practically, then, there are not, and never can be, more than a few hundred places in the country where shippers will be able to choose different routes for sending their goods to market. We say there never can be, because the building of a line of railway to parallel an existing line able to carry all the traffic is an absolute loss to the world of the capital spent in its construction, and a constant drain after it is built in the cost of its operation. This fact is now, fortunately, generally appreciated. But what of the competitive traffic which exists between commercial centres, like the trunk-line traffic between Chicago and the cities on the seaboard, or between the former city and the collecting centres farther west like St. Paul, Omaha, and Kansas City? Here, indeed, there is competition; and it is of great importance because of the enormous bulk of the traffic which traverses these few routes.