The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-02
THE ILLINOIS RAILROAD LAW.

roads went into effect in Illinois the first
of this month. They had struggle to
force the law through the legislature it
was then decided unconstitutional they
elected judge who is expected to decide
to the contrary; and now, after all, the
machine may not work. Making laws
is like any other trade-it wants previous
roads and not sure to benefit the farmers.
The east and west lines have through
rates which they can prorate, but the north
and south lines have low through rates
now. and cannot reduce them, because if
they do they must prorate them, that is,
they must charge the same rates for short
distances in way business as for long dis
tances in through business.
The trouble with the farmers seems to
I've that on the north and south lines and
their branches the charges are heavy. A
bushel of corn costing ten cents to Chicago
for distance of forty or fifty miles, and
twenty cents thence to Albany where 1t
would bring sixty cents, leaving but thirty
cents, was felt to be grievance, the main
body of which came from the north and
south lines. These were reasonable in
their charges on through freight because
they had competition with east and west
Pvs'"'0.-, $500 ~-"-5-'-' So ID 49, co.-,
make up for small profits on through
freight. While obliged to compete on
through freight with east and west lines,
they could not afford it 80 well, because
north and south lines seldom have so much
business. The great thoroughfares of rail-
road travel and transportation are east and
west, and their stock is generally highest
in the market. The farmers, undertaking
to remedy their grievances, have proceeded
at once to an opposite extreme, and have
undertaken to force freights down where
they will not pay railroads. A wise
medium would have been better on both
sides. The farmers cannot do without
railroads, and should be willing to see
them prosper. The railroads cannot pros
per without the farmers, especially in q
country like Illinois, and should have
striven to encourage the farmers by put
ting freights as low as could have been
afforded.
One of our Vermont railroads showed
the wisdom of which we have spoken.
The superintendent said to the marble men:
LET US sit down and talk this thing over.
We have mutual interests. You want your
marble developed. So does the railroad
company. We will agree upon tariff. "
A price was fixed for white marble, and a
lower price for blue marble. 1t was Just
az difficult, expensive and troublesome to
convey blue marble as white marble, but
at the cheaper rate of freight the owner
could put it at sprice in market that would
insure its sale and would enable him to
give that much more business to the rail
road. Odds and ends of marble were taken
still cheaper for the same considerate rea-
sons touching mutual benefits.
Then again, there was community of
farmers who wanted plaster. They could
not afford high price for transportation,
and 1t was put down very low. II was
brought to the plaster mill, and thence ut q
still lower rate distributed to the farmers.
1t brought up large crop of fine potatoes,
and the railroad got good price for con-
veying those, because, though the farmers
might be timid about expenses for fertili-
zers, there was no doubt about the potatoes.
for men stood at the other end of the line
with the money in their hands, asking that
the potatoes might be sent.
Here and there an abuse has crept in af-
fecting the management of railroads. Too
often, while they are in the hands of very
good business men in other branches of
business, they do not comprehend the de-
tails of management. They fix rigid rules
without consideration of or being able Ia
see or to know of special circumstances,
and are too much accustomed to manage
them sitting in their offices, by writing OF
by telegraph. They do not usually, it may
be, give superintendent as much latitude
as, when superintendents are wise and hon.
orable, it would be well to allow them.
When abuses arise, from whatever cause,
they are not always approached, by those
VINO seek to remedy them, with requisite
wisdom and moderation. For fault COM
mitted by dozen or fifty miles of some
particular railroad, an attack may be made
by legislature on whole system, striving
to regulate by general law evils of which,
and OF the means of remedying which, the
legislators have only vague notion. This
has been one cause of lobbying in the inter-
est OF railroads. 1t has often been meas
ure OF self-defensc, just as an individual
may be driven to unpleasant measures to
defend himself personally.
In the Illinois case the directors of the
various railroad companies In the state have