"Principal among these are what is known as the 'long and short haul clause,' which prohibits railway companies from receiving any greater compensation in the aggregate for a shorter than for a longer haul over the same line in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; and the anti-pooling clause, which prevents railway companies from entering into any agreement with each other for an apportionment of joint earnings."
If we carefully examine the railroad literature of the last four years, we find that it has concentrated its efforts toward the creation of public sentiment in favor of the repeal of these two clauses of the Interstate Commerce Law. Railroad men are well aware of the fact that, with these two clauses stricken out, the Interstate Commerce Law would be practically valueless, and in clamoring for their repeal they evince a persistency worthy of a better cause. The practices which these clauses aim to prohibit cannot be defended upon any consideration of justice and equity, and it is folly to expect the American people to sacrifice their convictions of right to the selfish interest of a comparatively small number of persons interested in the manipulation of railroad stocks.
The July, 1891, number of the Forum contains an article on the operation of the Interstate Commerce Law from the pen of Aldace F. Walker, formerly a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and now commissioner of the Western Traffic Association. Mr. Walker evidently belongs to the old school of railroad men, who have not yet accepted the Granger decision. Referring to it, he says:
"This decision was not unanimous, and the reasoning presented was not so convincing as to command universal acceptance. It was at once challenged by the corporations, and has been from time to time attacked in the same tribunal; it has not yet been withdrawn, but it has been materially modified, notably in a case from Minnesota, decided in 1890, when it was established that there is a limit beyond which the State cannot go in reducing railway rates, which limit would be passed in case a State should attempt to deprive a corporation of its property, without due process of law, by fixing rates too low to permit of a fair remuneration for its use. A large debatable ground yet remains open, with a possibility that the position of the railway in Federal jurisprudence may eventually be radically modified."
The passage quoted clearly indicates that railroad men expect better things of the court in the future, but Mr. Walker is much mistaken in supposing the court materially modified the Granger decision, as will be seen by referring to the case of Budd vs. the State of New York, decided in February, 1892, by the same court.
Mr. Walker, unlike Mr. Depew, candidly admits the former universality of the evil of discrimination. He says:
"In order to secure traffic, a railway official felt called upon to underbid his rival. He gave the shipper a private rate, a rebate, a free pass—anything in the shape of a concession or a favor. The land was honeycombed with special arrangements of innumerable forms, all secret, because otherwise they would have been useless, and all forced upon the carriers by the exigencies of unbridled competition. Many shippers became wealthy from such gains. Others were envious of like success. At last the public sense of justice demanded a reform."
And Mr. Walker's candor rises to a still higher pitch when he admits that the ingenuity of railroad managers has found ways to evade the Interstate Commerce Law. The following passage from the Commissioner's article will, no doubt, be a great surprise to such law-abiding and confiding managers as Mr. Depew:
"There was nothing in the law specifically forbidding the payment of 'commissions,' and it was found that the routing of business might be secured by a slight expenditure of that nature to a shipper's friend. Other kindred devices were suggested, some new, some old; the payment of rent, clerk hire, dock charges, elevator fees, drayage, the allowance of exaggerated claims, free transportation within some single State—a hundred ingenious forms of evading the plain requirements of the law were said to be in use. The demoralization was not by any means confined to the minor roads. Shippers were ready to give information to other lines concerning concessions which were offered them, and to state the sum required to control their patronage. A freight agent, thus appealed to, at first perhaps might let the business go, but when the matter became more serious and he saw one large shipper after another seeking a less desirable route, he was very apt to throw up his hands and fall in with the procession."
Mr. Walker is very severe on the Interstate Commerce Act, which, he says, might in its present form "well be entitled, 'An act to promote railway bankruptcies and consolidations by driving weak roads out of competitive business.'" To remedy the evil which, in his opinion, the act causes, he favors the granting of differentials by the stronger to the weaker roads. Such a device is simply a species of pool under a less offensive name. Its manifest object is to maintain rates through a conspiracy of rival railroads. Mr. Walker admits this when he says: