In Italy, differential rates have been the subject of public inquiry, and the representatives of some local interests have asked for their abolition. But they exist; and the verdict upon them of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry in 1881 was: “It is indisputable that the system of differential rates has helped to strengthen and improve the national industries.”[26] [26] Parte II., Vol. II., Sec. 32. The fact of railways in other countries charging special rates for import, export and transit traffic, is, of course, not a proof of their being right in principle. But the foregoing information may correct loose assertions or suggestions that differential rates are unknown or rare elsewhere. It shows that the railway authorities and the Governments who control the rates in those countries, even while professing to charge mileage rates, have considered it necessary, with the view of promoting and protecting the interests of their trade, to charge differential rates. In the United States, where there is much competition for the conveyance of long distance interstate traffic, and where remarkably low rates--“war rates,” as they are called--are charged, charges for intermediate traffic are not lowered proportionately. In that country differential rates have been much attacked; they have no doubt occasionally been imposed without measure or reason. But they still subsist, and are found useful. As an illustration it may be stated that, at the present time, the rates for the conveyance of flour from Minneapolis to Milwaukee, 335 miles, and to Chicago, 420 miles, are the same; while the rate to Duluth, 164 miles, is only 25 per cent. less.[27]