The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-03

man today transports more tops one mile than he did ten, or three years ago. Sars are more heavily loaded. trains s,r are icrss Tse CT. grades and curves are easier. The profit of operating railway increases rapidly with the increase of trahc. The track is there and must be maintained. The Offlce force of the company must pc kept up. In other words. the nxei charges are much the same. whether the amount of traffic be great or little, ana even the actual expenses or moving de- creases in proportion as trafnc increases
 Now. why is 1t that when cost Of trans- portation is decreasing. when tonnage is increasing. when gross revenues are steadily growing larger and net revenues are still more rapidly gaining. the rate itself should also advance? l am not in- quiring into, the justice of the thing. If rates were too low they ought to ad- vance. The question Is as to the reason for the thing itself. AS see 1t. the req son is this: because by various processes way operations of the United States the factor of railway competition.
 It is vigorously insisted that railway competition does not reduce railway rates and that no danger Is to be apprehended from the removal of such competition. Upon the contrary. I undertake to affirm that no important reduction of general import has been made in the published not mainly due to railway competition. l affirm the converse. that DO advance has been made in the published rate. or in the actual rate. in recent years. which has not been effected by the elimination Of some railway competition.
 If you could sit. as do receiving com- plaints from all parts of the country. you would realize in way which It Is i'm possible to state: how the process of gradually advancing the rate is taking place everywhere. and how in almost ev- cry instance 1t is due to the restraint. in one form or another. of railway compe- the strife between railroads for business tended everywhere to reduce the rate. Some terminal privilege was given by one line and followed by other lines' some stopover privilege was allowed. some con- cession in the way of classification made. Today the reverse is true. The terminal privilege is cut off. the stop over privilege Is cut off. the classifica- ton privilege is cut off and just as formerly. the granting of the privilege was due to the competition between car riers. so now the removal of the privi- 1ege Is due to an agreement between carriers.
 If competition has been the regulator of railway rates In the past. and that competition is fast becoming vanish ing quantity. what Is the remedy? The natural answer is. compel competition by law. prohibit combinations by statute. That is the remedy of Governor Van Sant. That Is the remedy of the Attor- ney General. It never can be made an effective one. The Northern Securities Company may be dissolved: if 1t be an be. But what has been gained by its dissolution? A little over capitalization has perhaps been plotted out; nothing else has really been accomplished. Ths Great Northern and the Northern Pacific Railroads are still owned by the same men. They are friends in fact. and no amount of legislation can ever compel them to fight like enemies. What is true there is true in every other case You cannot secure satisfactory railway com petition by law. You may compel it in spots and by spasms. You may even secure it, perhaps. upon the surface. but actual. effective competition. competition which competes, will soon he thing or the past in the railway world The qulck- CT we appreciate this fact the better shall We deal with the problem.
 If the owners of railway property are free to say what shall be charged for tho service of transportation, they will in the long run rob the public. No amount of sophistry can disguise It. sucii a condition Is against common sense, common experience and common decency'
 What. then. Is the remedy?
 The railway Is public servant Its rates are subject to public regulation. The government not only may. but should, compel the charging of just and reason able tariffs. That remedy is perfectly ad- equate. perfectly just and perfectly cap able of application. In that way, and in no other way. can the dangers presented by combinations. by tho elimination Of railway competition, be dealt with. When there is some competent tribunal, clothed with the power to inquire whether d rail- way rate is just and to make it just if found unjust. the danger Of combination largely ceases. You and l might prefer competition, but if in the very nature of the case competition cannot be had, we must take the only remedy available.
 A further reason for the exercise of l,t tNxr hn found in the fact that when it is possible to effectively control the rate it also be- comes possible to permit within certain proper limits the restraint of railway competition One of the most potent fac tors todoay in the building up and the pqrpetuating of these great industrial mo nopoIie,. of the enormous private for tunes, which seem to be menace to our civilization. is the freight rate discriml- nation. These dis:"iminations result largely from competitive conditions. While do not admit the impossibllty or preventing them without the restraint of compctiti 1n. do believe that if that rem edy could be safely applied it would be in many cases the most effective and the most just one. l also believe that the railways should be permitted to form traffic associations for the purpose or agreeing upon and maintaining just and reasonable rates. It is impossible to con duct the railway operations of this coun- try without such agreement Tn fact. To permit reasonable agreements ot tiL'i' kind, under proper supervision. Is the surest way of kepng alive what compe- tition is still left. The traffic association limits materially but does not cxtinguish competition The pooling contract limits it still further. but something is left. Unity of ownership. or community Of in- tcrest absolutely cxtinguishes 1t. IS It not better to reasonably limit than it Is to utterly destroy? ..-.
 It is vastly to it's credit that one pow erfuI company in the East has taken an open stand for the amendment Of the interstate commerce law and has admit ted that there can be no proper revision of tha. law until some measure Of pro lection is accorded to the public. When other railway lines take the position which the Pennsylvania has. who instead of asserting that the law in its present form is ample, they concede its inenect- ivsness, when they are willing to sub init to intelligent discussion the questions involved. they will find the business men of this country ready to consider candiolS these issues and to agree upon some measure which will be just to them ana just to the public. .,,o
 While many thoughtful men hold the contrary view. my own opinion Is that So long as railways are operated by prl- vate capital justice requires that in the
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