Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-05-26
The "MOther of Trusts"
philadelphia Inquirer.l

uiOSb poSlGlNo UtIllS GiotO pIoOcC1-
ion is the mother of trusts" They
would get at the trusts by ruthless
ly smashing the tariff schedules.
OF course, if you smash tariff
schedules and aim at the trusts,
you bring down at the same time
every independent concern. In
other words, you produce general
business ruin, and the trusts, being
the stronger, would be the first to
pull out from under the wreck
That is not the way to do it.
Judge Gayner, of the Supreme
Court of New York, apparently
does not agree with the favorite
Democratic prescription for the
cure of the evil. He says that
"freight favoritism is the mother
of trusts. The first trust was built
up wholly by discrimination on the
part of the railroads"
He refers to Standard Oil, and
he has history to back his content
ion. Listen to him:
When the oil of the man or set of men,
for instance, and speaking appoxi.
mately, was carried to the market by
the railroads for one dollar barrel
when all competitors had to pay two
dollars, the latter were ruined and had
to quit. They could dig wells and re.
fine oil just as we'll as their rivals, but
when such rivals got reduction or re-
bate in freight rates which enabled
them to ruinously undersell all others,
that was the end of rivalry.
He goes on to remark that it is
said that rebates by railroads are
no longer paid in cash, and then
tells a story of the Boston and
Albany line, which was once shown
to have billed cars for a certain
trust of having a capacity of
twenty-four thousand pounds,
whereas the capacity was fifty
thousand. This story he tells as
an instance of how discrimina-
tion may be managed.
But what is Judge Gaynor's
remedy? He holds that the law is
too slow; that the Interstate Com
merce Commission is too unwieldy,
and that complaints brought before
it meet with all sorts of delays.
So he would at one stroke settle
the whole question. He would
have the general freight agent of
every railroad company appointed
by the government.
We can follow and agree with
Judge Gaynor through his asser-
tion that freight determinations
were really the breeder of original
trusts. There is no doubt of that.
But it will be a little difficult for
most thinking men to agree with
him that the government has right
or should acquire the right to con-
troll the general freight agency. If
the Judge would advocate the
national requirement of all public
carriers, that would be quite legi-
innate, at least for naturalization
is standard topic of the day.
But to depend upon general agent
appointed by the government for
private corporations would be to
confess that there is no law that
amounts to anything, and that is
the very last thing which d Judge
of high standing should do. He
knows better.
And what would be gained by
such an appointment, even if it
could be made? Who is going to
guarantee the strict integrity Of
the agents? He is one individual
and he would be under very
grave temptations if the road were
inclined to be crooked-whereas
there are several members of the
Interstate Commerce Commission,
with ample law back of them to
make searches and lay bare any
underhand work. After the Com
mission, and supplementing it's
work, comes the Attorney General
of the United States.
The Judge complains of the
slowness Of the law, but he should
remember that it has only been re-
Gently that the Supreme Court has
interpreted existing law so that it
can be brought to bear upon com
binations organized to restrain
trade. The way is now clear, and
all that is necessary is the willing
mind. He have had the Northern
Securities case, and it may be an
ticipated that all other corporations
that are engaged in conspiracy
will be brought to toe the mark.
| The law properly applied against
discriminating railroads will be far
more potent for good than the APP
pointment by the government of
freight agents, for who is going to
guarantee that every freight agent
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