The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-26

Railway traffic associa tons the
length and breadth of the country are
dissolving voluntarily or going sudden
ly to pieces by the withdrawal of their
members. The railroad world is in a
state of uncertainty. and alarm, and
the break in the stock market shows
how seriously investors regard the
situation that grows out of the decision
of the supreme court declaring such
associations illegal and in restraint Of
trade. Never has the outlook been as
uncertain or the minds of men so agi-
tated since the passage of the Interstate
commerce law. Even that did but ex-
tend, by law, a regulation. already
recognized by the courts; and the prac-
teal effect Of the long and short haul
clause, problematic at the time, was
the only really exciting topic. Now the
roads are confronted, not with a con-
tingency rising from the possible inter-
probation to be put upon a statute,
but with an actual situation, defined
and announced by the highest judi
cial authority in the country While
the Eastern Joint Traffic association
has decided that it will not disband
formally, but will remain in the field
long enough to test the scope and effect
of the late decision, the minds of men
generally are made up to face the stu
alton as a finality. Associations and
agreements of railroad representatives
Tor the purpose of fixing rates
and maintaining them are barred by
the supreme court, under the anti
trust law. The danger to the roads,
and to a large extent to the public as
well, is that this may involve the re-
stcration of the regime of indiscrimi-
nate rate cutting that once prevailed
in the railroad world. Business men
have learned that the shipper is injured
by this as much as the stakeholder.
Certainty in rates is the next thing to
be desired after reasonabIeness When
freight rates skip up and down dav
by day or week by week, no man can
adjust his business to correspond to
them, and the consumer is as likely to
strike a period of unjustly high rates
as of unreasonabIy low ones.
The best thing for business and the
best thing for everybody is stability of
industrial conditions. The problem
which now confronts the railroads is
how to work out a stable schedule of
rates without oattiDor into oo,,a4o4 -~-..,
the law and the courts. We believe,
as we hope sincerely, that this can be
dore. Railroad property in this coun-
try has suffered in the last ten Years
more than any other kind. While If
is desirable that the people should re-
ceive transportation facilities at the
minimum cost, it is not desirable that
the railroads, as a whole, should he
driven into bankruptcy. The necessity
for some restraint upon the agrees
sions of capital has passed, in too many
cases, into desire to do Injustice to
capital. Injustice profits no one. A
war upon capital works out to the ruin
of the average man as surely as a wal
upon labor. Live and let live is the
motto for every community. It will
be, therefore, to the best interests OF
the whole people if the managers OF
railroads can at last, under pressure
of dire necessity, bring themselves f.
keep faith with one another. That
seems to be the main thing needed te
take the place of the broken associ-
atoms. 1t would probably facilitate
this if congress were to pass the law
against ticket scalpers that is now
pending before it. We have been very
doubtful heretofore of the ACCESSIBILITY
of prohibiting scalping, but since this
decision of the court it seems only fail
that the roads which are compelled tc
agree among themselves should not be
subject to tina disnrganizing influences