Railroads: Rates and RegulationsRipley, William Zebina
History
Railroads: Rates and Regulations
Ripley, William Zebina
Railroads -- Freight -- Rates -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
The entire puzzling class of cases dealing with the southern basing
point system are primarily concerned with such issues as these.[95]
Three distinct classes of cases arise. There is, first, the competition
between cities of equal size, be they large or small, such as Memphis,
Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark.; Danville, Va., and Lynchburg; or
Cleveland, and Cincinnati, Ohio: secondly, the rivalries between large
cities and what may be called secondary local centres in the same part
of the country,--such as Seattle, Wash., _v._ Spokane; Chicago _v._
Burlington or Dubuque, Iowa; or Atlanta, Ga., _v._ Macon: and thirdly,
the intense rivalries between the great first-class cities, like New
York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and the rest of the field, big and
little.[96] The mail order houses, the express business and the parcels
post intervene at this point. But in all of these issues, series of no
less than three separate transportation costs have to be totalized and
kept more or less on a parity. The intricacy is increased by reason
of the fact that shipments must be made, first at wholesale to the
jobbers, and thereafter usually in less-than-carload lots to retailers.
If the carload rate be relatively too low, with reference to the rate
on small lots, the jobbers near the market will be upbuilt and the
jobbers at a distance cannot compete. If the opposite relation obtains,
the jobber in a distant great city will be able to ship out small
orders cheaper than the local dealer can obtain them by carload and,
breaking bulk, peddle them from his own town. So narrow is the margin
of profit on staple goods that a difference of a fraction of a cent per
pound may exclude a dealer from the field entirely. This question of
carload ratings is, however, treated elsewhere; impinging, as it does
upon matters of freight classifications.[97]
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