The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work

Waste Was Built in by Design
The mistaken and foolish things we did years ago are just overtaking us. At 
the beginning of railway transportation in the United States, the people had 
to be taught its use, just as they had to be taught the use of the telephone. 
Also, the new railroads had to make business in order to keep themselves 

---

210  •  The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work
solvent. And because railway financing began in one of the rottenest periods 
of our business history, a number of practices were established as precedents 
which have influenced railway work ever since. One of the first things the 
railways did was to throttle all other methods of transportation. There was 
the beginning of a splendid canal system in this country and a great move-
ment for canalization was at its height. The railroad companies bought out 
the canal companies and let the canals fill up and choke with weeds and 
refuse. All over the Eastern and in parts of the Middle Western states are the 
remains of this network of internal waterways. They are being restored now 
as rapidly as possible; they are being linked together; various commissions, 
public and private, have seen the vision of a complete system of waterways 
serving all parts of the country, and thanks to their efforts, persistence, and 
faith, progress is being made.
But there was another. This was the system of making the haul as long 
as possible. Any one who is familiar with the exposures which resulted 
in the formation of the Interstate Commerce Commission knows what is 
meant by this. There was a period when rail transport was not regarded 
as the servant of the traveling, manufacturing, and commercial publics. 
Business was treated as if it existed for the benefit of the railways. During 
this period of folly, it was not good railroading to get goods from their 
shipping point to their destination by the most direct line possible, but to 
keep them on the road as long as possible, send them around the longest 
way, give as many connecting lines as possible a piece of the profit, and 
let the public stand the resulting loss of time and money. That was once 
counted good railroading. It has not entirely passed out of practice to-day.