The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-09
COMBINATION AND COMPETITION.
Judge Cooley Discusses These Topics in an
Instructive and Suggestive Manner.

Judge Cooley Discusses These Topics in an
Instructive and Suggestive Manner.
Boston, Jan. S.-The annual dinner of
the Boston Merchants Association. which
took place here this evening in the Hotel
Vendome, proved an occasion of unusual
significance. Among the invited guests
were the following: Hon. T. NJ. Cooley, of
Washington, chairman of the Interstate
commerce Commission; Prof. Richard +.
Ely, of Johns Hopkins University; Francis
B. Thurber, Governor Ames. President Ca
pen, of Tufts College, General Francis A.
Walker, Josiah Benton, jr., and Gen. n. T.
Banks. After dinner, Coordination and
Competition" and allied subjects. was an
nOunced as the topic for discussion, and
while upon his feet Judge Cooley, of the
interstate commission, substantially said:
Il believe am expected to say something
on the subject of combinations and cOncen-
tratlOnS of interests, with special reference
to the business of transportation OF persons
and property by railroad. do not under
stand that the question of the repeal OF the
lnterState-cOmmerce act Is to be discussed
at this time, and if it were do not know
that should care to speak upon it. may
say, however, that the act has good pur-
pose in view. 1t was intended to correct
enormous abuses previously. existing; but
they cannot be corrected without cutting
off some sources of improper income. The
urgent call for a modification of the act
which comes from railroad circles has
sprung up recently. There were, indeed,
some objections 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 disaster to the railroads from 1t,
that the disasters did not follow. desire
to call attention to this fact: That the pc
Rod during which the law operated most to
the benefit of the railroads was precisely
that during which its provisions were best
observed. think that to be an undeniable
fact; and, If it is a fact, 1T is deserving OF
received from the managers 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 for
bids greater charge on the shorter haul on
the same line in the same direction, where
the circumstances and conditions are sim
liar and that which makes pooling unlaw-
full. The aforementioned clause en-
In large sections of the country
the roads have come into conformity
with it, and have not suffered loss from do
ing SO. In Others it was not practicable to
do so, at least, Immediately. But the diff
Guilty will dimish as the managers come to
a 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 con-
trivances that are clearly opposed to the
law, if not to it's terms. Now, when parties
are thus busy in continuing methods for
rendering the law of no effect, and their
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 the roads. l must
pooiins 'na is 'ne radically unsound and
vicious, because it rests upon an
assumption that violation of law by one
is justification for violation by another.
The sentiment in railroad circles on this
morality, but it necessarily tends to the
perpetuatiOn of the very evils under which
the roads are now suffering. For very
large proportion of railroad controversies
voluntary pooling cannot possibly be
they concern matters which have to be set
tied before there can be any pooling. They
concern the sub-structure. so to speak.
Pooling with legal sanction would nave
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 had been incurred o while 1t EXISTED;
ment of balances. With lega1ized
pooling there might be power to do this
The difference between trust and a pool is
almost as great as that between a despOt on
the throne and the player who mlmlcs him
on the stage Pools are things to be feared.
They antagonize a leading and most valu-
able principle of industrial life in their at
tempt, not to curb competition merely, but
to put an end to it. All these things go to
show that something else needs reforming
besides the law. 1t is poor reformatory
work that the law can do in any line of
business 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 railroad dis
orders will be surprised to find how many
of them, though plainly opposed to the spir
it 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 company as to cut
rates of another without the other being
participant otherwise than it suffers from a
| fraud practiced upon it. A crying evil in
railroad service is the combination between
the scalper and the INSCRIPTIONS 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 in
| terests. If the combination in the same
person of the two characters of railroad
managers-in whatever official position
and of speculator In railroad stocks, should
| be rendered impossible, we might hope to
| see the time when the question of 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 eya-
sion of the law, without encOuntering its
penalties, q good deal more infrequent."