Omaha daily bee., 1888-12-03
THE PROTECTED RAILROAD TRUST

The project of uniting in gigantic
trust the corporations owning half Of
the railroad mileage of the country and
occupying territory stretching from
Chicago to the Rocky mountains and
from Wyoming to the uttermo5t bound
| airy OF New Mexico, is the most formid
able scheme in the way of corporate
combination ever presented for the Sc
rious attention of the American people.
There is some doubt expressed as to
whether this project, which contem-
plates the union of some twenty-five
railroad systems, can be made practica
BILE. Railroad men of intelligence
and experience have been quoted
who question the feasibility of the
scheme, whatever they may think of
its eXpediency. But it is not a matter
of doubt that the plan has been scri-
| ously discussed and received the ap-
ayers, and that the conditions under
which it would be carried into effect
have in part at least been drawn and
submitted for consideration. These
contemplate the formation of an i'm
mense pool, to be called the Western
Railroad clearing house, which shall
embrace the railroads in tho territory
bounded by a line drawn through Chi
cago and Milwaukee on the east, st.
Paul and Minneapolis on the north
Colorado, New Mexico and Wyo-
ming on the west, and Arkansas
on the south. The object is
to prescribe the rates, rules and regu-
lations which shall govern in the con-
duct of the passenger and freight traffic
within the territory named, and insure
their strict maintenance by all men,
bers of the pool; also to prescribe the
character of the service and the con-
veniences which shall be offered the
travelling and shipping public. The
control is to be in q board OF managers
consisting of one accredited representa-
tive from each company mepber of the
clearing house"
Such in outline is the project by
which it is proposed to unite in a
mighty trust railroad systems having a
mileage of siXty-siX thousand miles.
The defense OF the scheme IS that the
railroads cannot go on doing busi-
ness under present conditions without
loss and the danger of ultimate bank
ruptcy, and that something of this sort
must be done to prevent rate cutting,
special advantages to shippers to secure
business, and other methods by which
each railroad company seeks its own
aggrandizement TO the loss of its COM
petitors. The public cannot fail to re-
gard it as an attempt on the part of the
corporation TO establish an organized
hostility TO the national control and
regulation Of the railroads so far as
now provided by statute, and a new de-
vice to defeat or override the purpose of
the interstate commerce law. By what
ever term the proposed railroad trust
may be designated, whether as n
clearing house, or something else, it
will be none the less vast combination
that must invite popular distrust as cer-
tain to be inimical 10 the public inter
ests.
Pertinent to this project, and most
timely, are the views submitted by the
Interstate commission in its just pub
lished report. Arrangements between
carriers for the con yenlence of the pub
lie it is reasonable to expect, and in the
opinion of the commission there should
be some means of enforcing among car
riers obligations, moral or legal, grow
ing out of such arrangements. The
tendency to consolidation as the only
means of mutual protection against
rate wars is recognized. But
anything equivalent" says the
report of the commission ''to
the creation of what is now technically
denominated as trust could hardly be
supposed possible, even II the par
ties were at liberty to form 1t at pleas
ure. II the parties could come into
harmony on the subject, an arrange
ment OF the sort would be SO powerful In
its control over the business interests of
the country, and so susceptible to uses
for mischievous purposes, that public
policy could not for moment sanction
1T, unless by statute it were held in close
legal restraints and under public con-
troll" Having in view the menace to