New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-03-13
TILE INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW.

A remarkable symposium oil inc views OF rail-
road men and Legislators concerning the work
ings of the Interstate Commerce law is published
by 1.-THE Chicago Tribune which has made this
widely importqnt measure the subject OF a search
ing investigation. The defects and drawbacks
50 often and so vigorously criticised are once
moro exhibited in their true light; and the friends
of the law will find cold comfort In the general
verdict. The only reasonable deduction, that the
law needs such radical revision and amendment
as 10 amount to a practical reconstruction, was
long ago arrived at by impartial Observers; and
On this point the opinions collected from many
states and representing all shades Of Interest IN
the railroad business emphatically concur.
Not "a single benefit which the law was de-
signed to confer seems to have been achieved.
Its provisions are Systematically evadcd. Re
bate, aIe granted 10 large shippers by the West
ern railroads t. 0hc extent often OF from 10
10 cents on 100 pounds, and the most ingenious
devices are employed to avert detection. Ac-
cGrding to one witness, a common practice is 10
place a favorite shipper on the railroad payroll
at a salary equal to his probable rebate, which
also permits him to receive free transportation.
Or cash rebates are paid on the presentation OF
expense bills made cut with each shipment ac-
cordng to the regular published tariff, that
not a scrap of written evidence exists Of any
imDropiety. In Kansas and Nebraska grain
shippers and bankers declare openly that the
railroads Surnptitiolsly quote rates that enable
their favorites to control their field absolutely
and the long and short haul violations are 50
common and so notorious as TO have ceased to
excite surprise.
All this of course, docs not Of itself prove the
theory of the law at fault. Indeed, the general
condemnation Of its operation is leavcncd with
some strong commentator of its principle and
intent. But the Commissioners themselves, in
their annual reports, have reiterated the demand
for amendments, without which their actual
power 10 rectify abuses is altogether defeated.
The secrecy with which violations are conducted
necessarily renders the collection Of evidence
extremely difficult. large number OF railroad
officials and shippers are at this moment under
Indictment The absence, however, of provisions
making criminal remedies clearly applicable to
corporations and bringing them under the juris-
diction Of the courts. and the narrow restriction
Of the Commissions judicial and executive func-
TONS hOpelessly thwaIt speedy and effective
action BY common confession it seems clean
that the radical mistake OF ATTEMPTING 10 pro-
hibit pooling arrangements, instead OF regulating
them, has resulted in exact accordance with the
adverse predictions, while judicial delay. equivo-
cal decisions and the Commissions lack Ct power
have apparently furnished direct incentive to
tho perpetraton Of fresh wrongs.
As to the remedy, it is instructive to compare
the recommendations Railroad men want the
law abolished, insisting that unrestricted pooling
alone is needed and picturng themselves as the
mock victims of arbitrary shippers. Shippers
and public officials suggest that legalized pool
ing. under the Commissions control and super
vision, would perhaps meet the case, ex-Gov-
erncr Anthony Of Kansas, an expert authority,
proposing "vast pool of all railroads, with the
control Of that pool in the hands Of the Gov
crnment." Other widely divergent views prove
that opinion on this phase of the question has
vet TO crystalline. Senator Cullom, one of the
fathers of the law, himself confessed to uncer-
trinity, and nany other Senators and Representa-
tives are apparently in the same position. Mean
time, the measure as ii stands satisfies nobody.
and Mr. Cullom's suggestion that the Commission
has not always pursued happy policy at least