The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-04-28
RAr1ROAD MONOPOLY.
How MIR. Fink Pools His Issues and Reeu.
Iaten Trado,

RAfbROAD MONOPOLY,
HOW hir. link Pools His Issues and Itogu.
Iateh Trado.
From tho Chronicle and Constitntionalist.
Tho outcry against tho great corpor-
ations Is not altogether false alarm.
They may not be dangerous at present,
but the tendency is to opprcss. Every
thing should be done, by legislation,
to encourage and foster thcm, in n
just sense. Everything law ful should
be done also to protect the puoplo
against rapacious cncroachment. Mr..
Fink, tho champion of the consolidat-
ed railway systems, may defend tho
pool with signal ingenuity, but he
cannot successfully answer the charge
that pooling eXtinguishes competition
between inc roads themselves. The
New York Bulletin goes to the mar
row OF the subject when it challenges
hlm to show upon what grounds these
companies can claim the right to earn
good rate Of interest upon double
The amount of capital they have put
into their property; and also on what
principle they can claim right to
exempt themselves from tho natural
law Of mutual competition that regu-
lates oil other interests, and apart
from which there can be neither ins-
tice nor safety. "Thcre arc" the
BuHctln adds, "mattcrs about which
the public have no misconceptions
and they arc tho issues on which tllis
CONTROVERSY must finally turn"
TO show the
REMARKABLE WORKINGS OF TIE POOL.
Western contemporary informs the
public that "somc ten days ago there
was some bad faith in the pool, and
MIR. Fink reduced the rate to 25 cents
per 100 pounds. But o few days
later, having cooked up the trouble,
he, by proclamation, advanced the
rate to 50 cents: During the few days
OF panic freight was contracted in
Chicago as low as 10 cents per 100
pounds. Look ut tho result. Within
ten days the rate fell from 35 to 10
cents per 100 pounds, and is now at
80 cents, and, according to Mr.. Fink,
forty-two railroads have submitted as
SO many slaves to his peremptory Or
der to exact the highest rate. Did the
water routes control his action, and
is he not by these proceedings con-
Tossing that under the despotism and
slavery Of which he is the dictator the
country is plundcred and robbed
whenever his bosses direct and COM
mand? If 90 cents per 100 pounds be
IL fair and profitable compensation for
the transfer Of grain from Chicago to
New York, then every cent eXacted in
excess of that sum is as clearly stolen
from the public as if the cars were
opened on the road and an equivalent
Of the merchandise taken out and
divided among the plunderers."
These are emphatic words, but they
have legs to stand upon. 1t is this
kind OF action that rouses popular in
dignation and brings the Whole sys-
tenn into odium. The innocent arc
whclmed with the guilty. We do not
blame Mr.. Fink or any railway con-
troll lcrS for making all they can for
the interests they manage. but neither
would we blame the people for having
State Commissioners. of honesty and
probity, who would stand between
them and their would-bc orpressors.
When four men in California, not
worth 1925, 900 twenty years ago, can
divide $3.50, O,OO0, 900 between them by
Government subsidies and defy the
Government itself when demanding
back dues, it is time to call q halt, or
ut all events to understand whether
this c9@ntr!x !hst rasigGd1 TIE 6"HsG6,
Is powerless to escape the clutches Of,
few corporation magnatcs-made
mighty by its largesS-in 1881.