Morning journal and courier., 1893-01-19

ism to large towns. But more dangerou
 still Is the fact that in their feverish con
 petition for the traffic of firms shippin large quantities of goods the roads giv such firms, secretly, low rates. The firm thus favored are able, like the Stsndsr oil company. to undersell and finally at sorb all their smaller and less fsvore rivals. Yet this vicious favoritism t large shippers, like favoritism to lsrg 1 towns and fuctuation in rates, Is a direc | result of excessive competition. A fe, l years ago congress passed the interstate commerce act. This act was no half-ws measure; it was not a feeble attempt. 1 | was a radical, sweeping, powerful attacl | upon all those abuses which, rightl. or wrongly, were thought to vitiat l our railroad system. To every interstat railroad it pointed out excessively higl rates; 1t pointed out pooling; 1t pointe, | out the cratic fluctuations of rates snt the fsvoritism to large towns and larg shippers, of which spoke a moment ago and with fines and imprisonment to en force obedience, with all the power ant prestige and authority of the governmen behind it-of all these practices not special ly excused by the inter state commerc, commission, it said with an unqualified and absolute prohibition "Thou shalt not. But strange as 1t may seem, Prohibition don't prohibit" in railroad matters. It Ii true the abuses almost disappeared for time, but in @ few months the railroad had ingeniously managed to evsde the law Amendments have been passed to mak' the act stronger, yet the law as 1t stand to-day Is lamentable failure.
 But what more can we expect so long a we confne ourselves to 8 mere prohibition of abuses and leave their csuso untouched We saw moment ago that our most awfu railroad abuses have one and the same req cause, and that cause is excessive comps tition. We saw that prohibition does no prohibit these abuses. Shall we then stil waste our energies by limiting farther thu power of railway corporations" in othel words, piling on restrictions and pro hibitions, without removing the cause oi the sbusesi True statssmanship would gS to the root of the matter and destroy tho excessive competition, in which these abuses live and move and have their being
 His delivery was effective through well timed gestlculstion, and bis address, while not burdened with statistics, embraced 6 variety of creditable literary effort.
 hR. DoNNELLY or YALE.
 Frank Edward Donnelly of Oxford, N Y., was the third speaker on the program and the second man to present Yale's side of the argument. He said it was but nat ural in our first attempt at national legis- lation that some evils should be overlooked and that others should develop and become equally as great as those at which the law was originally aimed. The great loss of life from railway accid dents during the past year was the occasion of considerable sgi. tation in the different legislatures. Seven thousand and twenty nine persons were killed and $500 were injured-a far greater number than in any previous year. Some of this Is due to the old form of heating cars; much to the absence of uni form automatic couplers and continuous brakes, and much to an impeI feet system of danger signals. In February last MT. H. s. Haines, representing two thirds of all the railways in the Unitsd Ststes, urgently recommended congressional &C., tion for compelling the adoption of some automatic coupler. It is evident that 8 proper system of car heating and danger signals should bs acquired by the same means. The fact that complete change in equipment requires a long time for complete success is only a further argument for immediate legtsla- ton. While we deliberate and delay on this legislation we should turn to the stern I6cG hnRt ,UlS IVes or brave men are Oall sacrificed in this dangerous occupation and that yearly an army of men, maimed for life, are turned upon the world, and that the prayers of millions dependent for support upon the efforts of such men are daily offered up for swift and wise legisls- tive action. Mir. Depsw has said in dis cussion of the intsr-stats commerce law: "I do not hesitate to say, after a careful study of the law now in operation, that if 1t continues five years from to day there will not be an independent business man in any large place in the United States"
 This powerful and rapidly growing evil aims at our liberties. Though the economic advantage of enormous concentration of capital for uniform and efficient ssrvice cannot be denied, yet We must, for the ssfety of the nation have at least & control commensurate with its power.
 His oratorical ability aided the delivery of a meritorious address rn ,terially.
 Edward H. Warren, the second Harvard speaker, spoke in an off hand manner giving 8 considerable part of his speech to a re- buttal challenging the accuracy of the Yale mems argument in clever though sstirical manner.
 ARGUMENT OF E. H. WARREN, HARVARD.
 To understand the origin of railroad abuses, we must appreciate to the fu, what tremendous force competition be tween railroads is. If rival should prove failure, then the investors can never withdraw their money, and might as well have cast 1t into the sea. Competition means not only @ sti uggle tor profit, ss ir other branches of business, but it means also matt sr of life or death to the rail road This Hesrorata lk nJu1a fnraaH Sh 10 railroads into practices of giving reduc tions to large firms or towns to secure their traffic, and it is clear that these practices should be broken up, but it Is not clear that tho government is called upon to in terfere. The railroads themselves hej introduced system of rooling, by which every road was assured of just SC much traffic, and hence relieved of the nec essity for making reductions. This sys tenn promised to be the salvation of tht business interests; it was productive o much good and prophetic of much more but 1t was by the inter stats commerce ac as absolutely prohibited ss the very evils i destroyed. This act left the cause and for bede the effect. It was like shouting tc the stseds of Achilles to hold and at tn. game instant plying the whip with re
 
 railroad managers and made them resor again to secret war. When the roads art | bidding for trafaic the large firms SCOUT, the advantage and the small go to th' wall. There Is no more royal roat to monopoly than this unregulstet railroad competition affords. The law ths declares that all firms shall be treated slik is laughing stock, and, worse than that it has intensified the inequality. AS secrec, is now necessary when reductions are mad the railroads are giving such reductions t, as few firms ss possible and these few firm are in complete control of the shipments A hesdlong public, in venting its rage ol the railroads, has sown the seeds of gres monopolies, much more dangerous thai the railroads at their worst. But nor than this-the absence of rools means
 fuotuation in rates, and this brings unceI tainty upon business. The more unssttle
 affairs are the more fife will speculation be come, and speculation is nothing more o less than the perversion of business. Tn evils attendant on the prohibition of pool
 are so marked that thoughtful men in ou
 country are unanimous in calling for rt
 pesl. It is unpsrdonsble prejudice ths
 refuses to recognize what Is good in raj
 road systems. The general who woul
 strip his soldiers of their arms and hui
 them defenceless against their foes, woul
 hold an expectation of victory no more pr
 posterous than the legislator who con
 mences his attack on railroad abuses b
 condemning the one weapon that Is effe
 tive for the conflict. Before our opporen
 can plead for an extension of control the l ont tho hapa6nenoa of tha ,,ra