One of the most interesting elements in the history of the Pullman car and the Pullman Company is the story of imitation and competition which for a period after the foundation of the parent company thrived and later disappeared. The success of the Pullman car necessarily brought competition. It was wholesome that such competition should arise. If a car more convenient than the car of Mr. Pullman's invention could be devised, it was right that it should be given the test of public opinion. That no car constructed along different basic lines survived, established the right of the Pullman car to its preeminence. That certain cars patterned after Mr. Pullman's basic ideas, and in most cases directly infringing on his patents, received a degree of popularity again reflects creditably to the Pullman car. Distinct from the innovations afforded by Pullman car construction, the universal service of the Company afforded the public a new service of equal value. Where formerly it was necessary for the traveler to change from car to car whenever and wherever one railroad connected with another line, the uniform service of the Pullman Company created a new and infinitely more desirable situation, for it was now possible to travel without inconvenience or interruption between practically any two points in the country regardless of the number of different railroads over whose tracks the traveler's ticket required passage. By competition, the value of such a service was tested; tested alike by the individual railroads and their patrons. That each and every competing company ultimately retired from the field, and that practically every railroad in the United States has today contracted with the Pullman Company for its standardized service, is tacit recognition to the worth of the service rendered. [Illustration: More ornate interiors. (1) early Pullman parlor car; (2) old type Pullman sleeping car] [Illustration] There are still other reasons why the control of sleeping and parlor service should be delegated to a single company. Due to the vast area embraced by the boundaries of the United States and the wide range of climate which these boundaries contain, there are many railroads which require during certain months of the year a larger number of cars to transport their through passengers than in others. Other roads require an equally great number of sleeping and parlor cars during other months, as for instance those roads which carry the winter tourists to the South and Southwest in winter as opposed to the roads which feel the peak of passenger travel in summer when the vacationists are headed for the Atlantic coast resorts or the northwestern mountains. Again, there are special occasions, like great conventions, when the railroads touching the convention city must have hundreds of sleeping cars above their normal needs.