A measure of competition would always remain, even if one corporation controlled the entire railway system, because the varying and conflicting demands of different localities and businesses for changes in rates would act as a competitive force; and in the probable system of a division of territory, this competitive force would have still more influence.

But at the same time by far the larger part of the freight and passenger traffic of the country would under such a system be shared by arrangement among the several corporations.

The ultimate share of each of the big corporations would not be determined until the period of building new through routes had passed.

But this period is not likely to endure for more than another generation.

Thereafter additional railroad construction will be almost exclusively a matter of branch extensions and connections, or of duplicating tracks already in existence; and when such a situation is reached, the gross traffic will be just as much divided among the cooeperative companies as if it were distributed among different lines by a central management.