Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-12
TIE GAZETTE: FORT WORTH TEXAS SATURDAY JANUARY H.

TO be discussed at this time. and if it
were do not know that should care e.
speak upon it. I may say, however
that the act has a good purpose in view
1t was intended to correct enormous
abuses previously existing; but they can
not be corrected without cutting off some
sources of improper income The urgent
call for modification of the act, which
comes from railroads, has sprung up re-
Gently. There were indeed some objec-
tons made to it Immediately after its
passage as well as before, but when it
was given effect it was found, quite to the
surprise of some who had prophesied dis
aster to the railroads from 1t that disas-
tiers did not follow. / desire to call
special attention to this fact: That the
period during which the law operated
most to the benefit OF the railroads was
precisely that during which its provisions
were best observed. I think that to be
an undeniable fact; and if it is a fact, 1t
is deserving of more attention than up TO
this time it has received from the mana
gers of railroads. 1t was also the period
during which the law was complained of
least. There are very
VIGOROUS COMPLAINTS
now. They relate mainly to the clause
of the act which forbids the greater
charge on the shorter haul on the same
line, in the same direction, where the
circumstances and conditions are similar,
and that which makes pooling unlawful. .
The first mentioned clause embodies a
principal right in itself. In large sections
of the country the roads have
come into conformity with it, and
1an+ dot,
In others it was not practicable
to do so, at least Immediately. But the
difficulties viii diminish as the managers
come to better understanding among
themselves. The law intends that the
railroad business of the country shall be
done openly and with full publicity
This equal and just purpose of the law is
defeated by contrivances that are clearly
opposed to the intent of the law if not to
its terms. Now, when parties are thus
busy in contriying methods for rendering
the law of no effect, and their evasions
of its purpose are seen to have a
direct tendency to diminish the corporate
revenues, they are hardly the parties to
put themselves upon the stand to prove
that the law is injuring their roads. 1
must insist that the argument now made
for pooling is radically unsound and
vicious, because it rests upon an as
sumption that violation of law by one is
justification for violation for another.
The sentiment in railroad circles on this
subject is not only opposed to sound pub
lie morality, but it necessarily
tends to the perpetuation of
the very evils under which the
roads arenow suffering. For a very large
proportion of railroad controversies vol
untary pooling can not possibly be
remedy, for the very obvious reasons that
they concern matters which have to be
settled before there can be any pooling
They concern the sub-structure, so to
speaJ. Pooling with a legal sanction
would have all the elements of weakness
that attended the old pooling, except
one. When the pool as it used to be
formed, broke up, there was no enforcing
such obligations as had been incurred
while it existed; there was no compelling
payment of balances. With a legalized
pooling there might be power to DO this.
''The difference between a trust and a
pool is almost as great as that between a
despot on the throne and the player who
mimics him on the stage. Pools are
things to be feared They antagonize a
leading and most valuable principle of in
dustrial life in their attempt not to curb
competition merely, but to put an end to
it. All these things go to show that
else needs reforming besides
the law. 1t is poor refOrmatory work
that the law can do in any line of bust
ness unless the moral forces in the same
business come to its support.
have spoken of the want
of reformatory power in the
law. One who investigates rail-
road disorders will be surprised to find
how many of them, though plainly OPP
posed to the spirit of the law, may still
be practiced legally. Rate cutting in
passenger service is very largely done by
the use of tickets which the law expressly
exempts from its provisions, and coupon
tickets are so manipulated by one COM
pany as to cut the rates of another with
out the other being a participant, other
wise than it suffers from a fraud prac-
ticed upon it. A crying evil III railroad
service is the combination between
the scalper and the unscrupu-
lous general passenger agent This
will be broken up just as soon
as there are applied in railroad matters
the maxims of business prudence which
are expected to control in other inter-
ests. If the combination in the same
person of the two charters of railroad
manager, in whatever official position,
and of speculation in railroad stocks
could be rendered impossible, we might
hope to see the time when the question,
What is right and wrong in railroad
matters? would be heard a good deal
oftener than it is now, and the question,
What can be done in evasion of the law
without encountering its penalties? good
deal more frequently. -
GEORGLA RAILROADS.
Tie Vest Point Terminal Company Takes
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