Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-10-13
Regulating Railroad Rates.

The merchants of Charleston are great
" exercised over the determinations
which they allege are being made by the
South Carolina railroads against that city.
On Monday last delegation of bust
ness men visited the County Democratic
Convention, then in session, and laid
before that body their grievances. They
claimed that nearly every railroad in the
State is now owned or controlled
by the Richmond and Danville
Railroad, and that corporation is using
every means at its disposal to direct cot
ton that legitimately and naturally be.
longs to Charleston, to Richmond, Nor
folk and other ports. These gentlemen
denounce this as a crying injustice, and
appeal TO the convention, individually
and collectively, to exert their influence
to prevent such ruinous determinations
against the welfare and best interests of
the State.
The anxiety of the business men and
residents of our sister city on this sub
ject can readily be appreciated, but the
problem of State regulation of railroad
rates 50 as to prevent determinations
in favor of points outside such State,
is an. exceedingly knotty one. All
that State can possibly do is to appoint
a State Railway Commission such
as we have in Georgia;
but though commission
of this character be endowed, as is ours,
with plenary powers. its authority can
not extend beyond the confines of the
State which created it. 1t cannot, there
fore, prevent a railway with connections
outside that State from making such
through rates as the interests of the
railway may dictate, and if it be to the
interest of the road to offer inducements
to shippers to send their products to
points outside rather than inside the
State. the shipper will. in turn, consult
his interests. and so ship. This we
do not see how any railway com.
missfCn can prevent. If it places
rates within the. State on articles TO be
shipped outside her ten ;itory so high as
to be prohibitorY, the roads will then
either be satisfied with what money they
can make under those rates, or they can,
by lowering rates on connecting lines,
strike such an average as they desire,
while if the commission lowers
rates within the State to a
point at which the roads cannot
prosper, they must sooner or later be-
come worthless and go into bankruptcy.
Even if commission, or State Legis-
lature, could figure it down 20 so
fine a point as to establish rates by
which the roads might barely make a
living within the State, the latter could
still continue to offer sufficient induce
ments to shippers to send their produce
in the direction the roads desire, since
they could make up their losses on ship
ments outside the jurisdiction of the
commission.
By a recent decision of the Illinois
Supreme Court it is held that State has
a right to regulate passenger fares and
freight rates beyond her limits, and that
when a State establishes a rate
within its borders the railroads
of such State must observe those same
rates over all their connections, even
to the point of destination. 1t is very
much to be doubted if this position is
tenable, but even if it were, it affords no
satisfactory solution to the problem. at
is a poor rule that will not work
both ways" and if a State can
regulate freights from her territory
to points outside her limits, then she
must also begoveTned in freights coming
into her territory from outside by the
rates established at the other end of the
lire. 1t is plain that no one State can
assume to regulate rates in another with
out yielding to that other the same
right. For instance, if South Carolina
assumes that she can establish rates for
freights from her territory to Virginia
ports, then she must admit that Virginia
has an equal right to establish such rates
az she chooses from her territory to South
Carolina ports.
Thus it may easily be seen how very
difficult the solution of this problem of
the State regulation of through railway
rates becomes. Our railway systems are
not now what they were formerly. Then
the various lines were local and indepen-
dent. Now they are national and con-
tinental, and their traffic cannot be gov
erned by laws established ty the various
States through which they pass. Com
petition and increc sed facilities are what
must now control This is the plan
which Savannah has adopted, and with
her present unexcelled transportation IA
cilities-tO which she is constantly add
ing-she can pretty safely defy any COM
bination which may be made against her.
If the City by the Sea will follow her
example she will perhaps soon find her
self in the same fortunate condition.