it may be said that industrial consolidations and the working arrangements made for the more
industry in America. It is and baa for a long lenn of yean been obvious Ihat, a very comprebensive uaiScatinn or consolidalioii, in respect of the mechanical work to be doue by the railway system, lb emtnently desirable and feasible, — consolidation of a scope not only equalling, but far outreaching, Lbe coalitions which have lately been effected or attempted. There is do hazard in ventoring the assertion that several hundreds of men who are engaged in lbe mechanical work of railroading, in one capacity and another, are conversant with feasible plans for economizing work and improving the service by more comprehensive and closer correlation of the work ; and it is equally obvious that nothing but the diverging interests of the huaineas men
1 concerned binders these closer and larger feasible correlations from being put into efTect It is easily within the mark to say that the delay which railway consolidation has suffered up to the present, from business exigencies as distinct from the mechanical circumstances of the case, amounls to an average of at least twenty years. Ever since nilroading began In this country there has been going on a process of reluctant consolidation, in which the movements of the business men in control have tardily followed up the opportunities for economy and efficient service which the railroad industry has offered. And their latest and boldest achievements along this line, as seen from the standpoint of mechanical advisability, have been foregone conclusions since a dale so far in the past aa to be forgoiien, aod taken at their beat they fall short to-day by not less than some tifty per cent, of their opportimlties. Cf. Report of the Induitriai Commitaion, vol, XIX., "Transportation," especially pp. 304-348.
Like other competitive business, but more particularly such business as has to do with the interstitial adjustments of the industrial system, the