bled in Mr. Fink's office. It struck me as somewhat of a funereal gathering. Those composing it were apparently at their wits ends; they evidently felt, one and all, that something had got to be done, yet no one knew what to do. Everything had been tried and everything had failed. Mr. Fink's great and costly organization was all in ruins, and no one felt any faith in any new experiments, yet if events were allowed to take their course unchecked, the result was inevitable. They all reminded me of men in a boat in the swift water above the rapids of Niagara. They were looking at each other in blank dismay and asking 'what next,' and no one could tell what next." If ever there were a word picture of more abject weakness and pitiable helplessness made, and made too, of those who have been and are still acknowledged to be among the brainiest men of the nation, we have failed to see it. We will drop the curtain upon this humiliating exposure by one of their own number, after introducing one more scene. Mr. Adams testifies that one of the main reasons why these presidents and general managers of our railways do not stand up to their agreements with each other, and so often break their plighted faith, is because they cannot control their inferior officers— their freight agents, and that in order to secure business to their respective roads they will secretly cut the rate agreed upon by the pool, or agree to give drawbacks in some way or another. The living of the agent depends upon his success in securing business for his road. If he goes out to work for this, and adheres firmly to the agreements made by his superior officer with presidents of other roads, and gets but little or no business, he is soon called into the general office and told that his services are not wanted any longer. Mr. Adams then gives this picture on page 1211 of the same report: "Some time ago Mr. Fink was one day asked for what purpose he had called a meeting of the presidents of the trunk lines. He replied that he had called them together for the purpose of inviting them to resign their offices and put the general freight agents in their places. The freight agents he said really controlled the companies, and they ought to be in their proper position. He was entirely right," continued Mr. Adams. Here is portrayed in the most masterly manner the futility of all efforts to control traffic and rates by what is known as pooling devices as now managed. Presidents and managers of roads have found it utterly impossible under the complications in which their freight agents involve them, to keep their agreements with each other, and they are thus forced into the attitude before the public of men whose word cannot be trusted. Confidence thus destroyed, is it any wonder that the inequalities-discrimination, real or apparent-and the burdens imposed upon the people are laid at the doors of these same presidents and managers? That the reasons given by them for such and such rates, of this and that discrimination are not the real ones, but mere excuses for crowding on all the rate that the traffic will possibly bear and still exist even only for a short time? If it is thus so freely and publicly admitted by railway officials that any combinations, agreements or pools thus far tried have utterly failed to protect railway property from the trickery and dishonesty of railway managers, and that the general public is also a great sufferer thereby, what more is there to try other than some national law which can reach all inter-state commerce? A wise combination or pool (if that word can be used without giving a wrong impression in this connection) by which railroad properties and the general public interest could at the same time be conserved when formed, should have the sanction and the strength of a national law, so as to hold men to the contracts they make, or when broken, visited with a penalty commensurate with the vast public interests concerned. Competition must be preserved and allowed to have the beneficial effects natural to it. It never can be, as the history of railroad combinations in the nation for the last twenty years has proven, unless it has the strength of law to enforce and control it. If allowed to go on unchecked, the result will be that in a few years, as Mr. Adams has abundantly shown, the law of the survival of the fittest will have allowed the greater corporations to swallow up the lesser and weaker ones, and we shall have a very few enormous monopolies controlling the entire carrying trade of this nation. We see on every hand the tendency is rapidly leading to concentration and consolidation. Unless by national as well as by State laws some strength is given to these combinations and agreements, by which they can be enforced so as to allow small roads to live, and act as checks to the grasping greed of the greater corporations, we must in a short time be at the mercy of these enlarged and powerful monopolies. We confess that the outlook is not at all promising. It is a time calling for the most calm and deliberate thought and wise statesmanship. May the overruling of Infinite Wisdom work out for the general public that good which man's wisdom has failed to accomplish. SUNDAY TRAINS. The position of the Board upon this matter is well understood from former reports. It is for the people now to say whether the command in regard to the Sabbath shall be respected or not. HAND-CARS ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ROAD CROSSINGS. There have been complaints arising from the fact of section men leaving hand cars on the highways at crossings and at private road crossings. The proper officers of the several roads have been seen relative to these complaints, and strict orders have been given to abate the nuisance, and we trust there will be no further grounds for them. Should, however, any trouble arise from this cause to any one, a report of the same to this office would receive prompt attention and be referred to the proper authority and remedy. FLEXIBILITY OF RATES. We use the word "flexibility" in reference to rates of freight carriage. The term is chosen advisedly. Underlying all that is said and written upon the subject of rebates, discrimination and special rates by those outside of railroad interests, and in one sense antagonistic to them, is a commendable desire for fair and equal treatment by railroads of all its patrons, but the trouble is there is a misapprehension on the part of many as to the true meaning and intent of these terms. The general idea is that everything especially in its class shall be carried the same distance for the same price, no matter what the conditions might otherwise be. Hence legislation is asked fixing rates and with severe penalties attached for violation. To our minds this is an impossibility, and at the same time the very thing the people themselves do not want. There is scarcely a community in our State where there are not diverse and varied enterprises that must have different treatment from railways, in order to live, and the best good of these communities demand their continued existence. Indeed, the great agricultural interest of the State, that on which our prosperity depends, demands and receives at the hand of transportation companies discriminating and special rates. There are a thousand and one industries and enterprises among us which go to add to our general prosperity, which could not have come into existence or been sustained at all only by special rates given them by carriers. These special rates injure no one else or any other industry; they are a help to the men engaged in them, to the railways and to the people at large. In our opinion the time will come when the people will see that the true rule by which to treat railways will be to give them the widest and freest liberty to adapt their rates to the ever varying circumstances of the growing and constantly changing conditions of the people; that all the special rates made in accordance with the necessities of the cases demanding them be as public as their time cards, and whenever this broad liberty is prostituted to the favoring of places and persons as against others, such abuse or complaint of some shall be subject to the investigation of a competent commission, having the general supervision of the railways. Attest: E. G. MORGAN, Secretary. PETER A. Dey, Commissioners. |