The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-02-27
Pools a Failure.

Even railroad men must nave tne
conviction forced on them that the
railroad pools which they have spent
so much time in piecing together are
failures. The notice served by the
Grand Trunk of its intention to with
draw from the east-bound pool from
Chicago is only the latest of innumer-
able evidences of this truth. 1t is now
reported from New York that Com
missioner Fink, heart and body sick
of his inability to hold the railroads
under his charge to their agreements,
is about to give up in disgust. Every
device that the ingenuity of railroad
men could devise for making their
considerations permanent has been
tried, but the main items of railroad
news continue to be the reports of the
bursting up of one after the other.
In a pamphlet recently issued by
Mr.. Nimmo, the Chief of the Bureau
of Statistics, the pools are defended,
and the benefits which they have con-
ferred on the country in preventing
fluctuations of rates and discrimiDa-
tions between individuals and places
are dwelt on at length under nine
heads. But the fact is pressing itself
forward that these pools do not pool.
Granting that we have reached stage
in our railroad development where the
country is more concerned with stabil-
ity and equity of rates than with secur-
ing the benefits which have come in
the past from the competition of rail-
roads, and that the evils of competition
are now so great that they must be
controlled, it is certainly manifest that
this result cannot be reached by the
pools. They have tried and failed.
The remonstrances addressed to the
Trunk Line Executive Committee by
the merchants of New York against
tho practice of the pools of sending
goods by whatever route the agents of
the pool prefer, regardless of the or
ders of the shippers, is an instance OF
how completely the pools override the
public, and any railroad column Will
show how entirely the railroads disre-
gard their agreements with each other.
The pools are a failure, and the sooner
the railroadmen acknow edge what
some of the wiser of them already adj
NIT, the sooner will it be possible to
bring order out of the chaos into which
the railroad world is rapidly plunging.
The pools are failures because rail
roadmen, no worse in this respect than
other men in the same circumstances
would be, will not keep faith with each
other. The average railroadman is
not developed 10 the point where he
can keep such agreements when he
sees a chance to make something by
"cutting." Pools are a failure be-
cause there is no adequate means of
enforcing their regulations and peual-
ties. Their practices of diverting
freight from one road to another or of
taking from one money it has earned
and giving it to another are illegal and
can not be enforced in the courts, nor
in the face of opposition. In other
words, railroadmen are not good
enough or strong enough to work their
pools successfully. Unlimited compe-
tition in railroading means such dis
tuTbance of values and vacillation of
all prices as to be equivalent to finan-
cial anarchy; but it is not from railroad
pools that we can expect relief, Ii |
the pools were successful public opin-
ion would never tolerate the exercise |
of such momentous powers by an
in,periuns of railroad corporations
within the republic. To gain toler-
ance for the pools the public must be
admitted to representation in them,
and the pools must be given such pub
lie powers as will enable them to en-
force their rules. When the railroads
are properly regulated the arm of the
aw can reach into the innermost re-
,esses of the most powerful corpora
ion in the country, and drag out of
is shelter and into court any official,
10 matter how powerful, who violates
IN agreement or gives special or
preferential rate to one shipper that is
efused to another. Chicago Tribune.