The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-31
The RniIrond Pooline Rim.

Since the recent decision Of the supreme
court to the effect that no agreement be
tween railroads as to freight IS lawful
! even if the rates fixed are reasonable, con-
siderable work has been done in congress
towards perfecting pooling bill, under
the operations of which railroads may be
permitted to carr fair remuneration for the
services rendered by them. Public opin-
ion has come to recognize the necessity of
some sort Of arrangement which viii en-
able the railroads 10 maintain equitable
and stable rates. not only in their own in
terests. but in the interest Of the shippers
and the public; therefore, Just and rea-
sonable pooling law would undoubtedly
have the moral support Of the whole cOun-
try.
A bill which it is thought would meet re-
quirements ia now in the Senate's com
merce committee. It's salient features are
that it permits pooling agreements for four
years only, and requires that the contracts
shall specify minimum and maximum
rates to be charged. The agreements are
TO be approved by the interstate COM
merce commission. otherwise they are not
to become effective. Besides authorizing
pooling contracts. the bill revises the in
terstate commerce law to meet the chang
ed conditions, the revision being in line
with the recommendations of the inter-
state commerce commission.
Senator Chandler is taking the lead in
an assault upon the bill or any other
bill Of the kind which may be introduced.
He and a few others in congress are men
tally so constituted that they think the
railroads can compete in rates and al the
same time maintain stable rates. They
admit that rate slashng is bad for the
railroads and bad for the shippers. still
they are not willing that there should be
fixed a standard of reasonabIeness in
charges nor that the railroads should be
permitted to enter into an agreement for
mutual protection. If there is
to be no standard of reasonableness, and
the roads are to be compelled, in self de-
Tense, to bid for all the traffic which can
be secured by offering lower terms than
those of competitors, there will be rate
wars and hidden concessions and rebates,
with the inevitable result of bringing
about bankruptcies and receiverships.
When rate wars and secret concessions
are the order of the day, the small ship
pers-small merchants, producers and
manufacturers, the people who really need
protection-suffer and the large shippers,
who do not need protection, reap the bene-
fits. The large shipper secures rebates or
other concessions, which enable him to
push the small shipper to the wall, or out
of competition altogether. The tendency
is towards favoring large aggregations of
capital, thus playing into the hands of the
trusts and monopolies. What is needed by
small shippers and the people as a whole
is not the smallest rates possible, but rates
that are fair and stable. II is desirable
for shippers to know what they can de-
pend upon, and it is necessary to the sue
cess Of their enterprises that the rates be
uniform-the same to all shippers. pool
ing arrangement would have the effect of
making rates stable at least for the length
of time of the agreement. And the rates
would necessarily have to be reasonable
or the pool would not receive the sanction
Of the interstate commerce commission,
without which it would not be legal