The evening times., 1898-10-26
PLANS TO EVADE THE LAW
Railroads Plotting to Escape
the Anti-Pooling Decree.
SCHEME TO MAINTAIN RATES
Verbal agreements to Be Substi-
tuted for Written Ones-Uniform
Rates TO BE Ffxed-Precedent in
the West-Attorney General Griggs
Not Likely to Prosecute.

The thirty-three trunk lines comprising
the Joint Traffic Association will virtual
ly ignore the decision of the United States
Supreme Court declaring railroad pooling
to be Illegal
A technical compliance with the court s
order will be made, but the organization
will continue to do business, though Tn
der another name.
There will be no agreement between the
managers of the organization, but uni
form rates will be fixed and recognized
by all the parties to a verbal agreement.
1t will be more difficult to hold men,
bers of their agreements under these cir
cumstances as there will be no power to
enforce the recommendations of the COM
mittees, but there is no doubt that the
organization can maintain itself.
The exact arrangement whereby the
law is to be evaded has not yet been de-
termined. The Western Railroad Asso-
citation of traffic pools reorganiZed when
the Trans Missouri Association was de-
clared Illegal by the Supreme Court in
March, 1897. The plan adopted by them
may be followed. In the West they have
bureaus of information which gather sta
tistics; that is, the rates that each road
I
freight. The tabulated rates of statistics
are discussed by the railroad managers.
| Then the managers agree that the rates
are fair and reasonable Each one goes
back to his road and fixes his rates ac-
cordingly by tacit agreement. Every step
is just as IT was under the old Illegal
agreements, but there is now only a ver-
bal agreement to bind the members.
The Western railroads do not consider
hay in affa nv ba
recent decision.
When Attorney General Griggs was
asked whether proceedings will be insti-
| tuted against other corporations, on the
| strength of the decision rendered by JUS
tice Peckham, the Attorney General
! evinced no disposition TO declare war up
on the alleged violators of the antitrust
law. Without committing himself 10 any
fixed line of policy in the future on this
subject, he said:
This office is not looking for jobs. 1t
! has all the work on hand 1t can stagger
under now. l have not seen the text of
| the opinion rendered yesterday, and we
! have no means Of knowing officially how
| It strikes the railroads Interested. The
railroads probably realize that they will
have TO go to Congress for redress, all
! though | have no means of knowing
whether they intend TO seek further
| legislation on the subject at the next ses-
! sion Of Congress"
The Attorney General cautiously re-
! Trained from commenting too freely on
/ the effect or the merits of the decision.
preferring TO reserve any statement on
! the subject for his annual report TO the
| President His attention was called TO
| the statement that the members of the
Joint Traffic Association, before enter ng
! upon their business combination, have
secured the ablest legal talent in the land
| TO guide them and prevent them from
| coming In conflict with existing law. In
reply TO the suggestion, Attorney General
! Griigs said, good-naturedly:
1T lust shows that the best legal tai
! ent with a strong emphasis on the best
! legal talentD is not always proof against
! a decision of the Supreme Court OF the
/ United States"
John Sherman, who, when senator from
| Ohio, was the author. OF the ANTITRUST
/ law, said today:
II am. of course, much gratitled that
| the Supreme Court has again sustained
the law as 1t did in the Trans-M Missouri
/ Freight Associations case. There Is no
doubt th.t all combinations which are in
restraint of trade are Illegal. This who
| matter has been debated at length III ali
the parliaments and In the courts OF near
ly every civilized country. When uh-
! dertook to draft the antitrust law 1
struggled with 1t a long time and even
as completed | was not absolutely salts
| fed with il. But the law, short as ii IS,
is sufficient to cover the subject.