, 1881-04-17
THE. RAILROADS..
Lower Rates Followed BY an In
crease in Eastern Freights.
The Increment Due to grain
Provisions Show De-
crease.
Discrimination Of the Southwestern
Pool Against Chicago.
The Railroad Pool at New York Puts
Rates Back Again.

FREIGHT BUSINESS.
The reduction of grain rates to the East
Anil ]. anu again April II, has had tile e1-
feet Of stimulating this business to Such al
extent rs to prove the correctness OF Tue
arguments heretofore made. that low rates
1lo no: necessarily imply reduced earnllss'
Int the railroads make I'D for what they LOSE
IN rates III Increased tonnage. The increase
in east-bound grain shipments during the
last week when tile 2}cent rate was hsst ap-
,,,jrl amounts to no less than 81 tons. life
tntai grain shipments for tile week previous
o,,1y amounted to - $50 tons. This should
teach The Eastern roads the lesson that II IS
fo their interest to maintain as low freiSfit
rates as possible, us they make more
,nouey by pursuing such course
u,ansby maintaining high and proscrlpt1ve
.o,es The present grain rates On the basis
,fo5 cents per lU9 pounds, Chicago TO Ne"
York are s cents lower than the lowest
eate that prevailed at any time during last
hummer. 1t is quite certain that no ad'ance
giIl be made again during the summer
while still further reduction may lecome
necessary 1t is generally conctueo tlat
HE summer season, and will give the rail-
:0ads Il fair proportion Of the business golns
East. no matter how energetic the lake COM
petition may become, yet the temper among
fhe various roads is such That me 1e?St @ plo.-
rates down to unprotitable figures. Every
effort is being made BY. Commlssloaer
Fink and the trunk line Presidents
10 fix up the difficulties uhat
threaten the further existence OF tle Eastt!a .t
pool. but it is not by any means certain thas
they will succeed. It Is understood that
me1tiug Of the trunk line Presidents was
held III New York yesterday, for tfe PUT
pose Of considering means ny Wnlcn uie
Eastern pooling arrangement can og nlaue tas
more effective and further red ducilou III rates
be ayoided. In Mr.. Fink's opinion there IS
but one way by which pooling arrangements
ran be made effective and undue compellllon
between the various lines stopped, ana tMls
is By not only pooling the business from tne
various Eastern gateways, where the busl-
ness has TO be rediyided among other roaus.
To do this, however. will be no easy JOB. as
new lines are being continually toriaed,
and some OF these are I'LL uil"ai1ihs VI, ,hs
ground that without competition the o!dcf
trunk lines would get the cream of the bnsl-
ness, willie only the skim milk would DC left
for them. The most dangerous among those
lines are those now beinE. formed Dy Jay
ing us long as lie has not sufficient power TO
control the business. He has never Yet
maintained pooling arrangement any long
er than was necessary to protect HIS inter-
ests.
The trunk line Presidents were also to con-
slider at their meeting Yesterday what Is 10
be done in regard to reduction i'll PROVISION
rates. Tile rule has always been observed
that provision rates should be but
five cents higher than grain rates.
When the last reduction in grain rates.
was made there WAS no corresponding re-
duction in provision rates. thus making lae
difference between provision and grain rates
10 cents. Whenever this was the dlfterence
it has been found that it worked badly, and
it could never be upheld. The same difficulty
sagain experienced. and provision shippers
clamor for reduction Of five cents III pro-
vision rates. While g1ain shipments nave
almost doubled during the past week, pro-
vision shipments have dwindled down to al
from this city combined carried only 5,6s7
tons. which is less than any one OF the lead
ing lines used to carry alone less than Q
month ago. Some Of the railroad officials
claim that the rates have nothing to do with
the present light provision shipments, be-
cause there is no demand for provisions
in the East yet it is quite certain that II pro
vision rates are made to correspond With
grain rates shipments will double at once.
The total shipments of grain. Hour, and
provisions By all the Eastern lines for the
week ending April 16 amounted to oo.0os
tons, against 4s691 tons for the week pre-
yious, IN incsease Of 11,37l tons. all of
which is due to the increase in grain ship
ments, the -four and provision shipments
showing a decided decrease:
The following statement shows the amount
Of business done during the past week by the
various lines leading East from this city: