The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1897-06-04
RAILROADS AND JUSTICE.

hAALhOADS AMI JGSIlAfs
when Shelby ~ Cullom, United state
senator from Illinois. during his maide
term of service in the upper house Q
congress, secured the approval. Fehruar
I, iSS,. OF the celebrated interstate com
merce act, he little dreamed that he wa
placing upon the statute books one o
the most famous Legislative enactment
Of modern times; nor had lie the slighr
est idea that the effect Of that act woul,
be in she main just the reverse Of wIra
was promised for it; neither did he fore
see that ne was preparing the way for :
renowned decision OF the supreme court
declaring that the simple association to-
gether OF railroads by means Of an agree
ment TO maintain the legal tarif rates
provided for by the act OF 1857 would bc
construed as a trust" detrimental TO
the interests of the people. and therefore
to be annihilated.
True. the immediate effect of the act
was to break up existing railroad pools
curtail the issue of passes Ia good thing
for the roads,. and prevent the hauling
OF freight or passengers for long dIs-
tance at less rate than for the shorter
distance No provision, however was
made in the act for the protection Of the
railroads against impositions OF dishonest
shippers. nor was there any method sug-
gested whereby stock and bondholders
could be assured a fair return on the
millions OF invested capital. largely the
savings OF thousands Of widows ana or.
phans throughout the land Competition,
always keen, soon became a double-edged
sword driven to the wall. the railroads
formed numberless rate associations" IN
an effort TO keep revenues above expen-
ses. No longer able to meet conpeti-
tion openly, associated lines and indivii-
ual roads resorted to thousands Of de-
vices to beat the law and undermine a
competitor. Every railroad agent soon
became a master in the art OF lying and
deceit-all without the knowledge Of the
managers. Of course-and the very prac-
tices sought 10 be abolished by the COM
merce act became the more abusive be-
cause of the insidious methods intro
duced 10 overreach it. The law was
framed to meet the demands Of the gran /
ger constituents Of Cullom, who had JUST
been defeated in their efforts to float the I
crazy greenback scheme. 1t made no pro
vision for its enforcement, but was out
wardly observed by all the roads, result
ing. however in disaster to the corpora
tions and public alike Already depleted
railroad earnings became less, stock and
boudholders lost their capital, bankrupt
cy followed, injustice was done as be-
tween communities in the matter Of rates
and shippers and agents WED with each
other in their efforts to get around the
law. Circumstances made the creature.
Granted that there were many failures
and determinations under the old pool
ing system, and that railroads ~ariably
charged AL the traffic would bear" yet
it must be admitted that railroads have
their rights, as well as the dear public
the largest business in the world today.
upon it hinges all branches Of COM
merce. That the public may be equit-
ably and reasonably well served the roads
must make some profit. This can only
be attained by a pooling Of issues un-
der some sort of legal protection. The
law as it stands today is monstrosity. :
And now. just as the roads, after ten
years hard work, had evolved some kind
OF protection for themselves through rate
associations, comes the decision OF the
supreme court in the trans-Missouri rate
association case, declaring that such as
sociations are violations of the anu-trus,
act and must. forsooth, cease At once,
like lot of frightened sheep the usually
eool-headed railroad managers lose tha.r
nerve and abolish existing associations.
Soon realizing their folly and the fact
that rates cannot be cut without their
orders. and that the law can be tested
as to its constitudonallty. they gather
up the reins Of their scattered senses ana
agree to wait Again, down in Tennes-
see, the government announces its iuten-
ton OF testing the antitrust law and its
application TO the Joint Traffic Associa-I