"Now a great deal has been said, chiefly on the outside, about the Canadian Pacific Railway seeking by its long, circuitous and broken route to share in a tonnage as against more direct and shorter lines all rail, and I propose to show to you gentlemen that not only have we a precedent on which to claim differentials, many of them, and that we also have numerous precedents to show that there are numerous broken, circuitous water and rail lines operating all over the country that are longer and more circuitous than ours, and still they do operate with more or less success.... In saying this I do not wish to be understood as criticising the right of any road to go anywhere, even with a broken and circuitous line, to seek for business, so long as they are satisfied that taking all the circumstances into account such business will afford them some small measure of profit. * * * "The distance by the Chesapeake & Ohio Road, Boston to Newport News, is 544 miles by water; Newport News to Chicago, 1071 miles, total 1615 miles from Boston to Chicago, against 1020 miles by the shortest all-rail line from Boston, showing the line _via_ Newport News, 58 per cent. longer. The distance by the Chesapeake and Ohio from New York to Newport News is 305 miles, to which add 1071 miles, Newport News to Chicago, total 1376 miles, against the shortest all-rail line of 912 miles, 50.87 per cent. longer. Again the distance between Boston and Duluth by all-rail is 1382 miles, against 2195 miles _via_ Newport News and Chicago, 58.82 per cent. longer by the broken route. "The Southern Pacific Co., or System rather, in connection with the Morgan line steamers, carries business, _via_ New York, New Orleans and Fort Worth, to Utah points at a differential rate. The distance from New York to Denver _via_ water to New Orleans thence rail to Fort Worth is 3155 miles, against 1940 miles by the direct all-rail line, showing it to be longer _via_ New Orleans 62.61 per cent."[273]