The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-01-11
A Railroad Pool, as Explained by q
Railroad 0fIicer.

Mr.. E. p. Alexander, Yice-President
OF the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
IN recent argument before q commit
tee of the Alabama Legislsture- gave the
following explanation of pool, as it is
understood by railroad men:
A pool is really an agreement be-
tween competing lines at any given
point about to this effect: That II all !
will agree to maintain the equal rates.
which have been generally arrived at by
long struggles between the competing
markets, in which each has had all the
benefit of its geographical position and.
advantages, then any line which does
an excess of business, above the average.
seem its natural share of the business,
shall compensate the line which is def,
cient in some satisfactory manner. It
is hard to explain how such an effort to-
prevent Determinations and fluctuations
should become 50 generally misunder-
stood.
"No man can study the railroad prob
lem intimately without becoming con-
vinced that by far the greatest good of
the greatest number would result from
what the railroad managers attempt in
their pools. The misrepresentation of
their policy and efforts doubtless comei
from individuals who had been able to-
turn railroad wars 70 their individual,
advantages. In such wars large shippers
always have an advantage over small
ones. Their business is sought by re-
bates and private concessions, while
small shippers are disregarded. The.
large shippers in those markets where,
railroad wars have been common are
therefore often 10th. to See any arrange.
ment by which rates viii be maintained,
however low those rates may be. lnl
fact, large shippers seldom care straw
whether rates are low or high their
profits for the handling are the same.
| In .any case. Their whole care is,
to secure rates for their markets lower
than for those for competing markets,
or rates for themselves lower than their
neighbors. The large shippers, too, are
men of infusnce and ability, and it Is.
they who usually cry out against the
pool. So the position of the Failroad
managers is that between the upper and
the neither millstone. The public cry.
out, and justly, against fluctuations,
| rebates and unjust Determinations
| There is no power on earth to prevent
| fluctuations, rebates and unjust discrim-
| nations but to remove the temptation to.
commit them. The only way to remove
| the temption Is to make some arrange,
ment equivalent to what is called pool {
but against the pool, the large shippers
have an especial sntipathy. The pool
| cuts off their rebstes and special rates.
No law could cut them of, because they
can always be made by some part of the
line which lies out of the State, so that
State law can never reach it. And even
general lsw by Congress can be
evaded in a hundred ways,
ssThere have doubtless been com
| plants of the wrongs made by pools,
but these complaints are universally
| that the rates are not positively high,
but only comparatively high, as con-
| trasted with the rates from some other
| places. s,f 4. s.5e....,
"Questions of this sort are of the
greatest delicacy and difficulty of ad-
| justment. The twelve apostles them
selves could probably never give salts
faction if they had TO adjust the rates
between twelve competing markets.. 1t
is in fact, to my mind, rather 3 doubt
| full question whether there Is any such
thing as Justice in settling such . ques-
tion. To Illustrate by an example away
from home, in which none of us have
any interest or feeling:
Il
i Chicago than New York Is. Now,
should the principle ever be adopted of
making all rates 9 pro rata per mile, the
rate from Chicago to Boston would be
so much higher than. the rate from
Chicago to New York that all the foreign
trade now going through the former
| port would be diverted TO the latter.
This, of course, would be an enormous
injury to every interest of Boston. In
fact, no, such principle ever could be
enforced, for the lines injuriously at
fected by it, would never submit to 1t,
but would work at rates far below the
cost of transportation for years rather
than give up their through business for
ever.
"But whstever criticism may be made
upon either the purposes of the railroad
pools, or upon the practical operations
which have taken place under them at
any point, they have been resorted to by
the railroad managers as the only solu-
| ton which their experience in these mat
ters has been able to suggest; and
any imperfections or abuses have been
the result of neither carelessness nor in
difference, but of the inherent difficult
ties of the problem itself.
And as an earnest of their honest
intent to correct the abuses, and to
arrive at Just and fair solutions of ques-
| lions between conflicting interests, the
principle of arbitration of such questions,
by the most disinterested and competent
tribunals obtainable, Is universally
recognized and adopted; and If either
the State or the National Governments
would provide such tribunals the railroad
managers would be only too glad to
avail themselves of their services"