Should we oppose the

[Perry E. Metzger]

This has gone on too long -- I'm writing a last reply here in public
and then I would ask that we take this to private mail.

smb at research.att.com says:
> 	 Why did virtually all the railroads in the northern U.S. use the same
> 	 rail gauge BEFORE regulation of the railroads?
> 
> Ah -- you specify the ``northern'' U.S.  The situation in the south
> was very different.

Yes, the south had fewer railroads and they followed a different gauge
-- this is to be expected in such situations.

> And even in the north, the Pennsylvania Railroad
> was so large (they're the ones who billed themselves as ``the standard
> railroad of the world) that other folks had to follow if they came near
> the PRR.  It was near-monopoly that created that situation, not any
> desire for co-operation.

I once read a wonderful account of how enraged J.P. Morgan was one day
when, while relaxing at his country home on the Hudson in upstate New
York, he heard the sounds of a railroad construction gang driving
through a railroad competing with the Penn Central line which he
effectively controlled via the Vanderbilts. No attempt to set up a
railroad cartel or monopoly worked until the ICC was formed, you know
-- a government agency created largely so monopolists would have a
legal way of enforcing rate fixing.

> In Europe, there are still a variety of different gauges, electrical
> standards, loading gauges, etc.

Yes. Such things typically occur for a while when people aren't
geographically proximate and don't interact much -- the north and
south were such an example. However, in regions where people do
interact standards quickly enforce themselves. Look around you at the
computer industry for example.

Perry