Our final conclusion must therefore be that the outcome in cases of unequal competition in respect of cost of operation can seldom be predicted with certainty. Everything depends upon local circumstances and conditions. Sometimes the long line and sometimes the short line will dominate. Careful analysis of every feature of the business must be made before positive affirmation is possible. This result is at all events worth noting. A due appreciation of the complexity of the business of rate making may safeguard us against the cocksure statements of the novice, who has never closely examined into the subject. President Taft has recently emphasized the need of expert service in the field of customs and tariff legislation. It is greatly to be hoped that a similar appreciation of the care with which railway legislation should proceed may prevail at Washington during the present session of Congress. FOOTNOTES: [200] Cullom Committee, Report, Testimony, p. 532. _Cf._ instances in Hudson's Railways and the Republic; and Parson's Heart of the Railway Problem as showing popular misunderstanding. [201] Senate (Elkins) Committee Report, 1905, p. 1892. [202] Pp. 116-117. [203] Another instance is afforded by the Savannah Freight Bureau case: 7 Int. Com. Rep., 458. See our Railway Problems, chap. XII. [204] Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, decided May 14, 1903. _Cf._ the extraordinary diversion of traffic over the long route in Troy-Chatham, N. Y. case: 23 I. C. C. Rep., 263. [205] This recalls Traffic Manager Bird's testimony relative to Wisconsin controversies before the Senate (Elkins) Committee, 1905. [206] Using this term technically as described on p. 256, _infra_. [207] Chapter XIV, p. 480, _infra_. The original correspondence setting forth these conditions is reprinted by the Senate (Elkins) Committee, 1905, Digest, App. III, p. 46. 21 I. C. C. Rep., 64, and 17 _Idem_, 335 are analogous cases. [208] 7 Int. Com. Rep., 458: reprinted in our Railway Problems, chap. XII. [209] Brief of Ed. Baxter, Alabama Midland Railway case, U. S. Supreme Court, p. 71; and Acworth, p. 83. Details in chap. XIV and XIX, _infra_. [210] 14 I. C. C. Rep., 299. [211] Details at pp. 245 and 610, _infra_. [212] Interstate Commerce Reports, No. 696, decided June 25, 1904. [213] _Cf._ the opinion in the Savannah Fertilizer case in our Railway Problems, chap. XII. [214] Chapter XI, _infra_, also in volume II. [215] 10 Int. Com. Rep., 111; reprinted in full in our Railway Problems, chap. X. Also the Commerce Court decision in chap. XVI, _infra_. [216] The leading Wichita cases are as follows: 9 I.C.C. Rep., 507, 534 and 558.--10 _Idem_, 460. (Lehmann Higginson Co.).--13 _Idem_, 389. Also 189 U. S. Rep., 274.--Also Senate (Elkins) Committee, 1905, IV. p. 2874 _et seq._ [217] Chapter XVIII, p. 590, _infra_. [218] 8 Int. Com. Rep., 346; reprinted in full in our Railway Problems, chap. XI. [219] Chapter X, _infra_. [220] Chapter IV, _supra_, p. 128.