Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-12-29


of any act of Congress, will greatly help
it. The process Of gravitation and con-
cerned, was going on fast enough be-
fore, but the Interstate Commerce act
has given to it new impetus. 1t has
done this through process which is I'M
mistakeable to all who make study of
the subject. The practice known as
pooling which the Interstate Com
merce act inhibits, was merely a method
through which the weaker railroad cor
porations were kept alive. To prevent
excessive and unequal competition, bus
mess was so divided that the less fav-
ored corporation had some share of
traffic assigned to it. This practice the
law put stop to; and it further enacted
that rates to competing poiL is should
not be less than rates to intermediate
points.
"These enactments struck at the very
foundation of the business system under
which the railroads in the country, and
the country itself had been built up, and
1t took some time for them to produce
their results. They have Of late been
doing so. Under the operation of the
act the smaller local railroads through
out the country are being ground out of
existence. 1t is the long haul which
brings in the profit. The smaller indie
pendent railroads cannot have the long
haul, and can only be operated profit.
ably IN connection with the larger rail
roads. They are thus, one by one, be-
coming unremunerative, and being
forced, whether they ike it or not, into
the maws of the few great systems into
which the railroads of the country are
rapidly crystallizing.
so much for the practical working of
the law inhibiting pooling. Next came
the long and short haul clause. Just as
the small local railroads are crushed out
OF existence by the anti pooling clause,
SO the local points of distribution and
second-class business tntres throughout
the country find themselves, because of
the long and short hah hl clause, unable
to compete with the ,jgreat commercial
centres. Traffic, ult tler the provisions
of the act, must inevitably seek the rail
road having the long haul to the most
distant and largest centre. The opera
ton of the law in this respect is now be-
ginning to make itself felt upon the
smaller distributing points They are
deprived OF their markets. for those who
fcrrravf3- eorzsia+ { sh~r=- e.a' 'a,r
same goods on bettfr terms from the
larger and more distant centres. The
old local system is troken up in favor CT
the centralized system. This fact is now
making itself apparent to the manufact-
urers and jobbers in the smaller cities or
towns as against Chicago, st. Louis or
[ bIlt f,f
gravitation applies to all places and
works under all circumstances. this
same long and short haul clause will
next make itself felt against Chicago,
st. Louis and Cincinnati, and in favor
of New York. In o,her words, con-
trary to every desigh of those who
framed the act, its provisions have lent
new impetus to just those forces which
it was intended to lat held in check
Instead of building up the local road and
the small distributing center, it is
working the sure destruction of both.
An artificial, but most powerful, impe-
tus has thus been given to the process of
Capitalization.
Under these circumstances it may
perhaps be asked what my view of the
future is and what should now be done.
While | do not care to set up as pro-
phet, the trend of events seems to be
plain enough, nor do | believe that any
act of Congress or of State Legislature
can thwart or greatly change it. The
railroads of this country are moving
rapidly toward some great system of
consolidation. | do not know when or
how it will come about, nor is in neces-
sary now to consider this. Neither do |
believe it will prove an evil when it does
come. Nevertheless, it is a matter of
common notoriety that such result is
viewed with grave popular apprehension.
We have seen what the progress Of the
last twenty years has been in this re-
spect. Capitalization has gone on in
those years, 50 that, while then a rail |
road of 200 or 800 miles was considered
large, one of 5000 or 6,000 miles is now
far from being the largest. As | have |
pointed out, the movement is to-day
going forth more rapidly, much more !
rapidly, under the artificial impetus |
given by the Interstate Commerce act
than ever before. The next move will |
be ia the direction of railroad systems of |
10000 miles each, under one common |
The Inter. State Com |
merce act, acting on the tendency of |
forces, is at this moment driving |
us forward toward some grand railroad |
trust scheme. Even this, from my point !
of view, | cannot regard as a thing to be
dreaded. | am very sure now, as have |
been for the last twenty years, and as | |
long ago expressed myself. that great |
corporation, or even trust,