The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-26

whatever advance In rates they may wish. Is C
takers in the state whose schoomaster is Chicago
The time V not long gone when the Illinois Cen.
Gs had credit e 0rs Inc
easier for the agents Of ooo 70 get filled an
narrowing down OF the amenities of corruption
on the finest field possible to railroad ambition :
ought to cut their halter straps and force them
back TO their original Jungle OF competition-the
thicket Of strife 20 win the dollar rival losesthe
| only legitimate, natural field Of safety against
monopoly and extortion And the policy applies
bination OF capital for convenience In handling Is
| no sufficient reason why the Legislature or Con.
gress should assume control over 1t and set bounds
for the butchers or city to comolne for uniformity
and put up the price OF sirOins yet no muni.
down the price OF meats by ordinance. Five hun
dred men OWN and operate separately $40 pieces
Of road each piece mite IA length; each man
hauls che passengers and freight that ofrer over
Ills mile ana halts passengers and freight
500 times. Is there any probability that
Legislatures would interfere with lines of road thus
operated Not bit o. IT. s.. They would say the
owners very large breed OF FOOLS And the Legis-
latures IN that case would show sense. Now, for
the sake of convenience to themselves in lessening
miles and, therefore. for the sake OF cheapness
SDeeu ana COWlOTJ W travellers ana Sllppcr6,
these 500 men agree to consolidate, each owning
an undivided five hundredth part of the entire
line. Then what does the Legislature dol Seeing
500 men working together Tor Q common end It
forthwith assails them as q giant mOnOpoly-an
engine OF extortlon-and dictates to 1t q schedule
OF freIgnts and fares And this In spite OF the in
creased accommodations afforded the public by
the consolidation. 1t seems sometimes that Legis-
iatures forget In their saughterhOuse attacks
upon the aggregated capital that builds and Oper-
ates railroads that
WITHOUT AGGREGATION OF CAPITAL THERE COULD
M
beyond the short lines above supposed; that COM
pelling aggregation by law for railroad building Is
paw Of paternasm, and that therefore, n 1T IL is to
become the settled policy OF State and nation to
organize q special government supervision and
control OF all capital that allies itself with other
friendly capital to develop the railway systems and
the country together, individual capital Is going to
keep out OF corporate hands or get out as last as
possible, old roads are to be ravished and LEFT
wrecked, while new ones and new projects for
more are 10 Die Of abortion And yet this is the
this state, and which some fellows In Congress will
attempt to nationalize Or ese-Or else the State
their honor and the peoples laws up for bids like
second hand furniture, and new and weighty
the iincSpin Of the law. This intemperate CAMPER
ing with the private property invested in railroads
is sure to Kill the roads or increase rates. Which
generatiOn's day to cure It,
have thus far sought to set forth the possible
yes, probable--dangers invited upon the people Of
and the published outline OF
THE RAILROAD BILL LATELY INTRODUCED INTO THE
LOWER BRANCH or CONGRESS
by the Committee on Railways and Canals seems
to be modelled on the Illinois law, with the pro
rata guide to reasonable maximum rates"
omitted. This omission Will simply give the
Commissioners freer swing FOR dlcker." with
the most overawing money dynasty men ever Tell
Now let me turn over to the leaf in this law that
is not puzzled with any possibilities or prob:
abilities to be unsnared but Is full OF actual and
uDSaVOry accomplishments.
The plain letter OF the law demands that the
@ Ss n
travel beginning and ending within this State.
And In the rules Tor construction issued by the
they so held and so enforced 1t for one month.
That was long enough to alarm not only this city,
and the commission itself saw that the burden was
like Gains, and from Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas, Missouri and Indiana came protests
dressed In the most logical and practical form
loss Of seventyfve per cent OF the trade and CON-
merce with those states. They declared the Illinois
they could go elsewhere and do better And the
result, more specifically, was that Southern Wis
consin suddenly discovered that 1t could buy and
stopped for trafic at It's river towns or went down
stream to help Chicago's great rival; Iowa and
the pine districts OF Wisconsin, their dry goods
and groceries from st. Louis, ana shipped their
extortions" Of the Illinois law, while Indiana re.
tanned the products OF her coal mines to warm
wiser heads. AS to commercla! intercourse with
other States, through last July Illinois stood
A BLIGHTED ISLAND IN THE SEA OF SURROUNDING
PROSPERITY.
1t had voluntarily ostracized nearly all its inter-
The Commissioners saw that they must take by
the horns the bull' which the Legislature had
"made." Accordingly they read the law upside
down. and declared that the words "any railroad
corporation organized under State law and doing
Organized under the laws OF any other State, and
doing business in this State" meant except sucn
freight and travel as starts tart or stops outside Of
other place within the State, or from those
places to points over the State line, pass :
tirely through the State, on such terms as can be
arranged between the parties in interest,". And
on this basis OF discrimination" against shippers
that both load and unload within the State the law
operations OF this law through July that special
session OF the Legislature to amend 1t very
but 1t was thought more brilliant and economical
plan to let the Commissioners select what portions
Of the law they would enforce ear ana Go 1t Dnd on
mayhem by the commissioners 1t is very clear tina
the railroads of the State must have lost the great
bulk OF freight and travel accustomed to feed them
from surrounding States Texas steers must have
become strangers to Chicago stock yards. and Chi
cago must have abandoned her ancient Wholesale
relations with the Northwest, while now she only
loses by the law the trade to and from the remoter
half OF our own State-those outlying portions
which can cross the lines and lind good markets in
other States, thus escaping the high state rates.
And yet this IL
THE DESTkUCTlVk PATTERN
by which Congressman McCrary and other scissors
jours' propose to cut railroad strait-jacket Tor
the entire country to wear If hundreds OF towns
in Illinois cry out against this laws destruction OF
their rightful and many times purchased cOmpet-
ton in roads and consequent low freights. and the
whole Northwest, within the trade latitude OF
Chicago. revOlted and event around" when asked
to submit this law on entering this State, is 1t
reasonable to conclude that there exists popular
demand for q similar law covering all the states,
or that similar law covering all the States would
be a national blessing and receive the popular ap-
prevail
1t has been asserted for truism that where
competition is possible monopoly u impossible
But 1t Is clearly potent that where competition Is
impossible monopoly Is not only possible, but
already in practice And 1t is equally patent that
when q Legislature or a Congress imposes upon its
territory
A CAST-IRON SCHEDULE OF PRICES
for railroad service 1t makes compe ttiOn fmpOs-
sble, inaugurates q monopoly OF immense breadth
and movers under the wing OF the state, that the
hawks and owls OF competition may not 'pick its
bones" And this Is precisely what the existing
law OF this State has done for the State, and pre-
cisely what the bill before Congress proposes to do
I