The Ottawa free trader., 1886-12-25
NATIONAL RAILROAD REGULATION.

try became sufficiently extended to amount
10 rivalry with the waterways in the car
rvinp trade, the feeling has been growing
that their owners and managers should be
subjected TO some control above tha' OF
their own boards of directors. The fee ling
found lis first intensiiiCatiOn In the ontrag-
eous "gouging" TO which the public was
subjected during and Immediately alter
the civil war, in which the railroads cut so
important figure that their managers
lost their heads and acted as If the public
were their servants instead of their being
rightfully the servants Of the public. The
public dignation-Chiety in the west
had its outcropping in the granger" move
ment from about 1866 to 1870, which Ie-
suited In the passage of number OF strin-
gent laws in most of the western states to
regulate" the railroads, - laws which still
remain largely upon the statute books. but
~ which the railroads themselves at no
time paid much serious attention. These
laws were profuse and eloquent in their
damnatory provisions against unjust dis
ordinations" preferences, rebates, pools,
extortionate charges, &c, &c but the rail
roads never reduced their eXtortionate fares
or freight rates an iota and Disseminated
made rebates, extended preferences and Sc
on, the same as If no state laws against
such things were in existence.
Then-about ten years ago-seeing the
folly of states attempting by laws, diverse
in each state, to regulate railroads whose
lines extended across the continent and 10
which state lines were hardly noticeable
incident-Nr. Reagan, a representative in
congress from Texas, undertook to embody
all the salient provisions Of the granger
laws of the western states into general
law to be enacted by congress. To the
railroad "monopolies' such law, of course,
meant serious business, and during the
whole ten years Of the pendency Of the
Reagan bill in congress the railroad
lobby" to fight that Dill has been an "institu-
ton" in Washington. Unnecessarily string
ent and impraCtCable as the Reagan bill
was In many of its hide bound provisions,
1t gained strength year by year, and lat
terly such voice went up from the people
In its behalf, that the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
who really thought some Legislation was
necessary but that the iron clad Regan bill
was not to be thought of-prevailed upon
Senator Cullom, of this state, rs represent
ing region conspicuously infected with
"grangerism," to introduce In congress
measure to cover the whole subject Of fed.
eral railroad regulation
The Cullom bill-as compared with the
Reagan bill-was eminently milk and
watery In It's provisions, and fell SO strongly
under the suspicion of having been die
tated by the railroads themselves that, after
fighting for 1t over year, Mr.. Cullom was
compelled to submit to having engrafted
upon II, by conference committee, Il
heavy proportion of the most stringent pro
visions of the Reagan bill, in which shape
it is now before congress, and has been
about the only important subject that has
thus far engaged the attention of the pres.
ent session.
The salient provisions of the bill in its
present shape are;
t. The "long ana short haun provision
-forbidding higher rates of freight char
ges for short than for long hauls
,. The "anti pooling" provision forbid
ding parallel lines of railroads T. pool
their earnings-that is, make common
fund of their earnings and divide equally.
>. Fortidding preferences, that is,
carrying cheaper for one merchant, set of
merchants, cattle men, grain dealers, &c,
than for another individual, set or comb
nation.
4. Forbidding unjust Determinations"
rebates &c, NC, subjects familiar enough
in granger" yerna.ular to need no enlarg
ing upon.
And 5thly, constructing "a big and high
priced commission" or national Railroad
Board" composed of Is members we be
lieve, TO whom the whole subject of "regu-
latiDg' the railroad business of the coun-
try Is TO be committed under the above law,
which itself, In all its essential particulars,
Is TO be little else then putty in their hands
That a law, the main provisions of which
are as above described, should excite the
most diverse comments, is inevitable. For
example, Mr. Wilson says in western Iowa
corn is cheap and plenty, while In eastern
Iowa the crops failed and corn is scarce
Yet II costs more TO haul corn from west
ern Iowa 10 eastern Iowa than II does to
Buffalo, wherefore the people of eastern
Iowa must sacrifice their cattle because
they can't afford TO buy the corn of their
next door nelghbors. But on the other
hand, IL Is assumed II long and short haul
rates are TO be the same, and the railroads
must carry corn so miles at the same rates