The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-12-11
Canal and Rail.

The Panama Canal has had a greater
effect on rail business than was antici-
pated. The all-water freight rate from
coast to coast by way Of the canal is in
many cases quite one-third lower than
the all-raiI rate; and even more than
that ia some cases The voyage is made
in twenty days. Thus, Pacific Coast
freight from as far west as Ohio and
Indiana has been drawn to the canal,
the rate from the interior point to the
Atlantic seaboard and thence by water
being lower than the rail rate from the
shipping point to the coast.
The railroads want to meet this canal
competition by lowering transcontl-
mental rates; but they do not want to
lower proportionately, or at all, the
rates between interior points. Thus the
present discrimination against interior
points as compared with coast points
would be heightened
Already it costs more to ship car
load OF goods from the Atlantic sea-
board to point three hundred miles
east OF the Pacific Coast than to ship it
clear through to the coast. Likewise
it costs more to ship it from the Mis-
sissippi Valley than from the seabcard.
III the roads lower transcontinental rates
still more, in order to meet canal COM
petition, the effect will be to build sort
Of pyramid, with low rates at the bases
representing the two coasts and higher
ones the farther back from the base
one gets.
The roads argue that, unless they
meet canal competition by lowering
rates, the traffic will simply 90 to the
canal, and interior points will be exact
ly where they were before; but we do
not believe people living on the sides OF
the pyramid can be permanently recon
ciled to paying decidedly more for such
universal necessity as freight service
THAI their fellow citizens down toward
the base. Saturday Evening Post.
The above is very clear idea Of the
position the railroads OF the country
have assumed for some time. That the
railroads should have an adequate tariff
schedule to meet the growing demands
OF freight and passenger traffic there is
no doubt at all 10 the minds Of men
who have fair estimate OF business
proportions. But that railroad COM
panies should be sustained in the sys-
tenn Of rate discrimination is absurd.
That they should be allowed 10 make
big central terminals and unmake their
intermediate stations is to undermine
and destroy the very essence OF the
principle OF justice to all and special
privileges to none. For that is what
the railroads are doing under the sys-
tenn Of making freight tariffs much
lower to terminal points than to points
between. That is what they want to do
in this coast 10 coast traffic. II is un-
fair and unjust to the people Of all Sec
tions. The railroad companies con-
strue everything from their own selfish
viewpoint and forget that peoples and
small townships have any right to ex-
pect fair treatment. We heartily agree
with the sentiment that representative
railroad men present when they come
among us preaching mutual interests
and cooperation. That is right. But
are they not playing false when they
ask us to surrender to system OF dis
elimination in the get-together move
mentf A very plain illustration the
Post has made Of this.