Evening journal., 1911-04-13
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How a Civil Engineer Came
to Invent the Railroad
Pool
BY "HoIIhnd.p

The talk was of the strong political
agitation of the past ten years against
railroad pools, and Senator Chauncey
M. Depew remarked thai he presumed
that majority of people of the United
States were of the opinion that the
railroad pool and cooperation and
community of interest among the rail
roads were modern devices of the able
lawyers employed as counsel by the
railroads and adopted by the railroads
for the purpose of getting around the
decision of the Supreme Court, in
which il declared that agreements like
that of the Trans Missouri Traffic AS
sociation and the Joint Traffic Associa-
ton Of the trunk lines We're in viola
tion Of the Federal statutes
"Curiously enough, however" con-
tinued Senator Depew, "the man who
worked ont the principle of co-opera-
ton and who created the railway pool
was, in the early part of his career
| associated with the railroads only as a
civil engineer ] mean Albert Fink. For
the first twenty years OF his active life
he was a builder of bridges and con-
structor of railway lines, a man Oi
science pure and simple"
In the early eighties I heard from
Mr.. Fink himself the story of how he
came to invent the now famous rail
road pool AZ that time Mr.. Fink was
a man of striking physical character
istics His complexion as swarthy, his
eyes were large and very dark, and the
peculiar tint of them was intensified
by heavy overhanging eyebrows. He
wore beard and mustache, the beard
being no more than a broad chin whis-
ker. His frame indicated great physical
strength. He spoke with a slight Ger
man accent, for he was born i'm Ger
many, and received his scientific edu-
cation there.
Much of my early railroad work
was in the South. and I'm the years
prior to the Civil War" said Mr.. Fink
Il was engaged I'm building bridges
and constructing railroads, and / had
no thought at that time of any other
professional association with railroads.
After the frightful demoralization
caused by the failure of the Northern
Pacific Railroad in 1873. il occurred
to me that the policy of excessive com
petition carried on by railroads was
entirely wrong. ! thought that the rail-
roads of the United States ought to be
able to find some way by which. AL
though earnestly seeking business.
nevertheless they would not attempt to
secure IL through wholesale cutting of
rates. Furthermore, l believed that the
situation in the South at that time was
especially favorable to an attempt to
work out a new policy along this line
! was SO convinced Of the accuracy of
my reasoning that l spent year, per-
haps more, upon the problem and at
last / worked out a method Of co-oper-
alton between the railroads of the
South and the Louisville & Nashville
as the center OF the policy, which
worked admirably,
"All unknown to me. William n.
Vanderbilt of the New York Central
Hugh Jewett of the Erie, John w. Car
rett OF the Baltimore & Ohio. and Col
onel Thomas H. Scot. of the Pennsyl-
vania We're attracted by the introduc-
tion of the cooperative plan among
the railways of the South. but [ did
not know it until I was staying i'm New
York city a day or two awaiting a
sailing of steamship upon which |
had taken passage to Europe. ] was
pretty tired, and was going to take a
brief vacation But these four trunk
line presidents halted me. They asked
for a conference with me: they want
ed to know all about the cooperative
method ] had introduced on SOuthesl
railroads. That was i'm 1877. After I
explained the policy to them. they CON
suited among themselves. and then
asked me to work out a policy for the
trunk lines which would put an end to
cut-throat competition and Ahinous
traffic wars.
81 did so. ! showed them how, by a
pooling agreement. they could appor-
ton the freight fairly to the different
trunk lines. and then divide receipts
proportiOnately and upon that bases
The plan was accepted and these
trunk-line presidents caused an or
ganization to be created having control
of tho apportionmeut of traffic and the
proportionate allotment of income tc
each company. and 7 was placed IN
charge of it.
1T was the first successful attempt
10 end ruinous railway competition.
am certain that il will he the policl
ultimately adopted by the great line.
and with tho sanction of Congress ant
the State Legislatures. For excessiv,
competition, i'm my view is more harm
| ful than even a monopoly would be"
/ II is an interesting fact that botl
! President Roosevelt and Presiden
Taft. more than twenty years after Al
! bert Fink worked out the plan of pool
ing. recommended to Congress that
sanction railway pools. provided thes
pools he subject to the regulation an'
| supervision of the Interstate Com
merce Commission.
! Copyright. 1911. by H. j. Edwards. AL
Rights ReserN ed.
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will ten o
'Thc Speech That Opened Genera
! Druutf- -