The Louisiana populist., 1897-06-04
DEPEW' CONFESSION.
TRUSTS ARE BUILT UP BY DIS
CRiMINATION.
Boss Monopolist Depew's Premises Are,
4 OF Course. Right, but His Conclusions
Are Faulty--The Populist Solution Of
the Question.

Chauncey M. Depew, general man
ager of the Vanderbilt railroad inter.
ests. in discussing the recent Supreme
Court decision against railroad pools
freely admits that the trusts which
control the markets and factories OIL
tEis country owe their power to lille.
gal Determinations in freight rates
for the benefit of large concerns and
against their small competitors. He
makes the absurd claim that this dis
crlmlnation would be done away with
II all Of the railroads of the country
were allowed to enter pool or trust
with one general management. But
hear Mr.. Depew:
The smaller shippers and the ship
pers who are confined to the other
lines pay the usual tariff for the car
rage OF their traffic. The result is that
the DIG shippers on the weak line have
an advantage of a discriminating
freight rate in their favor under the
law. The rate makes them stronger,
and l have known it to give to one
c0ncern the whole of the business in
that product. In other words, the
freight rate has made trust.
i will give an instance. When the
interstate commerce law went into ef-
fect we formed this association for the
purpose OF carrying into effect the in
terstate commerce law, which said that
there should be equal uniform rates to
everybody and reasonable ones. Now,
there never has been any complaint by
Shippers against the rates in the Joint
Iraftic Association since it was formed.
whenever we have presented a pool
Dill at Westinghouse presented one
three years ago-there is a curious
partnership to fight it. The partner
snip is between the manager OF the
trust and the populist.
The Populist fights it because he
doesn't know anything about the
transportation business The manager
OF the trust fights it because he knows
all about transportation.
The populist comes to me and says,
MT. Depew, am going to fight you
because you are trying.to form a great
railway pool. which is a great railroad
trust, and he honestly believes it.
The manager of the great trust,
however. says to me, 'Depew, I am
going to beat your pool bill because if
you get a pool bill then you railroads
will agree with one another, so that
everybody who starts In this business
which now contro, can get the same
rates do, and that will break us up af-
ter while. That is our strong point
We can get rates, because we shin
heavily. that the general public can't |
get
When we formed this association
the rates were agreed upon that should |
be charged on west-bound freight from
New York. That means high-class
goods to merchants. One of the great
merchants of the west promptly said.
I never have paid within 25 cents a
hundred OF tariff rates, and won't do
It now.' His business was on what We
call one of the weak lines. He took It
on that line and put it on one Of the
strongest lines. That left the weak
line without any west-bound business
II there had been a pool we could
nave transferred to that line enough
weSt-oound business to compensate II !
or we could have given it money
enough to make up the loss"
It is doubtless true that the trusts
as well as all other interests except the
railroad interests. are opposed to rail-
road pooling; but that does not prove
Mr. Depew's contention that the pop-
ulists, in opposing a railroad trust. are
working In the interest Of other trusts
The great trusts Of the country will AL
ways have sufficient hold upon the
railroads to obtain for themselves spe-
cial rates; but If the railroads were all
under one management that manage
ment would extort more from the big
trusts, more from their small competi-
tors and more from everybody else
than at present. Thus the trusts would
be hampered in business and would
make less money, but their small COM
petitors would be still worse hampered
and the trusts would remain as fully In
control OF the markets as ever.
Mr.. Depew is an able confuser OF
lact and falsehood. but he will have to
be more adroit than this il he is to
muddle the populists.