Finally, an abnormal disregard of distance, which is always possible in the making of special rates to meet particular cases, may bring about a certain inelasticity of industrial conditions. This may occur in either one of two ways. The rise of new industries may be hindered; or the well-merited relative decline of old ones under a process of natural selection may be postponed or averted. The difficult problem of fairly adjusting rates on raw materials to finished products in order that the growth of new industries may take place, while at the same time the old established ones shall not be cramped or restricted, has already been discussed. It is equally plain that at times there may be danger of perpetuating an industry in a district, regardless of the physical disabilities under which it is conducted. One cannot for a moment doubt the advantages of a protective policy on the part of railways; safe-guarding industry against violent dislocating shocks. An inevitable transition to new and perhaps better conditions may perhaps be rendered easier to bear. To New England, constantly exposed to the competition of new industries rising in the West, this policy has been of inestimable value. On the other hand, it is incontestable that in the long run the whole country will fare best when each industry is prosecuted in the most favored location, conditions of marketing as well as of mere production being always considered. If Pittsburg is the natural centre for iron and steel production, it may not be an unmixed advantage to the country at large, however great its value to New England, to have the carriers perpetuate the barbed wire manufacturers at Worcester. If California can raise a finer or more marketable variety of orange, and at a lower cost, than Florida, it would be a backward step to counteract the natural advantage of the western field by compelling the southern railways to reduce their rates to an amount equal to the disability under which the Florida grower works. The principle laid down by the so-called "Bogue differentials" in the lumber trade[136] bears upon this point. In order to equalize conditions between a large number of lumbering centres sending their products to a common market, certain differentials between them were allowed under arbitration, "to enable each line to place its fair proportion of lumber in the territory." Did this mean that the disability of any place in manufacturing cost, should be compensated by a corresponding reduction in the ensuing transportation cost? This was the view of some of the carriers who were zealous to keep the market open to all on equal terms. Yet it is evident that, carried beyond a certain point, such a policy would not only nullify all advantages of geographical location, but it would also reverse the process of natural selection and of survival of the fittest, upon which all industrial progress must ultimately depend. Each particular case, however, must be decided on its merits.