Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1887 — REGULATING RAILROADS [ARTICLE]

REGULATING RAILROADS

First Annual Report cf the Interstate Commerce Commission. Many Abuses Corrrected—Liability of Express and Steamboat Companies. Suspension of the Long and Short Haul Clauses of the Law— Recommendations. The first annual report of the Inter-State Commerce commission has been laid beiore the (secretary of the Interior, says u Washington telegram. It is a printed document of nearly fifty pages, and bears tue signatures of all the Commissioneis Under the beading, “The Carriers Subject to Its Jurisdiction,” the commission says that some of tbe railroad practices which the act undertakes to bring to an end have been common among carriers by water also, and if wrong in th mselves might justly be forbidden iu their case as well. It does not, however, intend to intimate an opinion that these things are common. The commission is of opinion that the express business, done by the railroad companies themselves, is within the act. Whether the express companies, which are independent of the railroads, are within the contemplation of the act is more doubtful. In regard to the skeping-car companies, live-stock car companies, and oil companies which transport in tank-cars, the Commission says they are as much subject to the temptation to discriminate as the railroads are, and the fact is laid before Congress for such action as it may choose to take in the premises. The long and short haul clause is exhaustively discussed, toget her with the reasons of the Commission for temporarily suspending the provisions in certain sections, and it says, iu part: “The considerations which were influential in determining when these temporary orders should be granted were not more the relief of the carriers from danger of loss than the prevention of threatened disturbance of business interests in certain localities, which by its reflex action seemed liable to embarrass seriously the entire country. " Its final conclusion, as announced in the Louisville & Nashville case, and the general acceptance that it met with are recited, and the report adds: “The commission takes pleasure now in being able to report that in large sections of the country obedience to the general rule of the fourth section is without important exception.” Reviewing railway operations during the period which has elapsed since the act took effect, the commission feels warranted in saying that, while less has been done in the direction of bringing the freight traffic into conformity with the general rule prescribed by the fourth section than some persons perhaps expected, there has, nevertheless, been a gratifying advance in that direction, and there is every reason to believe that this will continue. The commission, after quoting that part of the twelfth section which empowers it to “inquire into the business of all common carriers,” says: “This is a very important provision, and the commission will no doubt have frequent occasion to take action under it. It will not hesitate to do so in any case in which a mischief of public importance is thought to exist and which is not likely to be brought to its attention on complaint of a private prosecutor. There is every reason to believe, however, that some of the most serious evils which were notorious in the railway service before the passage of the act, and were in the legislative mind as reasons for its enactment, have now almost ceased to exist. One of these was the giving of special and secret rebates. Complaints of unjust discrimination and the giving of undue and unreasonable preference by the open rates are still frequent, and it is not to bo denied that in the existing tariffs there are many rates which, as compared with others made tjy the same carriers, seem to be unfair and oppressive. But ever as regards this species of injustice the good effects of the law are manifest.” Being now compelled to justify their rates when called on the commission finds makes managers more cautious about doing an injustice.

The report further says : “The pooling of freights and of railroad earnings, so far as the commission has knowledge or information on the subject, came to an eud when the act took effect. But as pooling was only one of several purposes had in view in forming railroad associations, the leading associations have not been (dissolved, but have been continued in existence for other objects." Upon the subject of rateslthe report says: “The public interest is best served when the rates are so apportioned as to encourage the largest practicable change of products between different sections of our country and with foreign countries ; and this can only be done by making value an important consideration, and by placing upon the higher classes of freight some share of the burden which on a relatively equal apportionment if service alone were considered would fall upon those of less value.” This chapter is concluded with the following, under the sub-heading, “Competition:” “A study of the act to regulate commerce has satisfied the members of the commission that it was intended in its passage to preserve for the people the benefits of competition as between the several transportation lines of the country. If that shall be’done the towns which have great natural advantages, or advantages acquired by large expenditures of money in establishing new thoroughfares of commerce will have cheaper rates than can ordinarily be obtained by towns less favorably situated. It might possibly be within the competency of legislative power to prescribe for the several inter-State railroads equal mileage rates for the whole country, but this, if enforced, would put an end to competition as a factor in making rates, and to a very large extent deprive the great business centers of the country . of their Several natural advantages, and also of the benefit of expenditures made by them in creating for themselves new channels of trade. It would, in fact, work a revolution in the business of the country, which, though it might be greatly beneficial in some directions, would be fearfully destructive in others, Congress has not by the existing legislation undertaken to inaugurate such a revolution. The competition by water is the most important factor in forcing rates to a low level' at the points where the lines of land and water transportation intersect. The experience of the country has demonstrated that the artificial waterways cannot be successful competitors with the railroads on equal terms. “The railroads long since deprived the great canals of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois of nearly all their importance, and the Erie Canal is only maintained as a great channel of trade by the liberality of the State of New York in making its use free. In their competitive struggles with each other towns cannot ignore the effect which the existence of natural waterways must have upon railroad tariffs : the railroad companies cannot ignore it, nor can the commission ignore it if competition is still to exist and be allowed its force according to natural laws. Neither can the great free Erie Canal be ignored ; it influences the rates to New York more than any other one cause, and indirectly, through its influence upon the rates to New York, it influences those to all other seaboard cities, and indeed to all that section of the country.” The Commission finds that the operation of the law has in general been beneficial; that it tends to increase railroad earnings, while at the Same time the tendency of rates has been downward. These facts are attributed to the increased movement of materials induced by faith in the stability and fairness of the charges. On the subject of amendments to the law the report says: “The Commission has not seen occasion for recommending any considerable changes in the act under which its work is performed. It has seemed to its members that the law for the regulation of interstate commerce should be permitted to have a growth, and that it would most surely as well as most safely attain a high degree of efficiency and usefulness in that way. The general features of the act are grounded in principles that will stand the test of time and experience, and only time and experience can determine whether all the provisions made for their enforcement are safe, sound, and workable. When they prove not to be so, experience will be a safe guide in legislation to perfect them.