The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-11
9aIIy 49, aBW
NJ. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor.
President Ripley on the Freight Rate Question.


of FORTH either guides
restraints abuse will later afford
the remedy for its own recthcatiOn the
Trusts evolve their wrongs, and
sooner ard also more effective penal
hbitory When blind and unreasonng freight rate
competition threatening and annihate all
which poured into railway con-
struction this country and which so beggaring
competing render their service inefficient unsafe
unsatisfactory the public scheme called pooling
which regulating competition did destroy it,
sorted to by the responsible arrangements of these
ties avert impending and inevitable bankruptcy This
system however time work out its
tmates legally annued by congress- and IN response
just popular cry against the latter
day Trusts; pool which to each
line points pay proportion its service the
people were given Interstate Commerce Commission
under regulating law which proved satisfactory
TO either public shipper railroad
ownershps After series of of failure this
commission is now demanding amendments to the law, in
GLIDING questionable additional for the board itself
congressional having matter consid
listening the testimony of boards Of
trade shippers of transportation experts Not only
many affairs together with presidents and
managers of railroads convinced that the abandoned
pooling promises the speedy and
equitable solution of the problem but the chairman of the
Commission after years study and experience
believes same majority of the commissioners
P Ripley president the re-organized the rehabl-
itated again growing expanding
tem and greatest railway properties
the world is man Of conceded experness only
of acknowledged breadth and beray-for he could hardly
have present positonhas been
asked experiences opinions
to the Congressional Industrial Committee aforesaid The
Railway Gazette publishes President Rpleys testimony
full which pretend quote but he unques-
tionably not only way through very
convincing utterances defense of
law recognize regulate pooling"
dependeny of the Interstate
commissioners quotes opinion
parties opposition pool every opinion
declares that there produced it.
not from the ranks railroad officers merchants
shippers. interstate commissioners students
modern political economy and fact almost all
dspassionatey problems surrounding
transportation country
only majority the Interstate Com
mission convinced pooling
public the railway alike, that majority the
commissions shippers country favor
regulation asserting that the statement that rates
country ever too high, per Sc
absolutely without foundation declares
performed by American railroads admittedly the cheap
est world as as the best and no
pool restrictive change the general
competition. No greater economic bunder can
fostering competi-
among carriers by the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the submerging many and that por-
ton unwisey prohibits pool
ing more concentrate business in few hands
the trader have been
complished in a century of the methods"
This is a sweeping statement yet we believe and
held day instituting
of the Interstate Commission abrogation
equitable pool his true
facts of experience for, asserts
"the prohibition of equitable regulation by pooling de-
feats of the interstate pescrb-
ing uniform it thereby contra
possible series of prescbable distance uniformtes
The equal-rate theory the ton-per-rne haul all
for specified crcumscrbed distances what in all
probability the railroads would desire.
conditions the present render
possible The products of Amer
lea the the world at price
competitive products other and nearer countries
cheap longhaus connection longer water trans
portation. therefore. an unaernative necessity
President Ripley concludes presentation with: The
permission to pool asked for not as favor but as
right-as being cure-a as the best-known rem
edy discrimination individuals and localities
which today and always has the pract
caIlv The only evil with which the American railrs ss+a
be charged either present past practice 1t is
evil which be removed by laws however
drastic which be largely away with by re-