COMMODITY TARIFFS. 171 quantities. Nor is the classification by any means always uniform on all lines of road, although, by means of consolidations, despatch lines, and traffic associations, far greater uniformity has been introduced than once prevailed. Sometimes good reasons exist for this lack of uniformity over different lines and in different sections. Thus, where any part of the country produces a great quantity of any particular commodity, as the South does of cotton, for example, and the West of grain, the transportation companies engaged in the movement, on a great scale, of the staple products of the territory which they serve, very properly classify such staples lower than the same commodity may be classified on railroads in other sections, where it constitutes but a small part of the tonnage. But in many cases the difference in the classification of the same article seems incapable of reasonable explanation; and uniformity in the interest of commerce is a great desideratum. It is hardly likely, however, that complete uniformity can ever be obtained on all the roads of the United States. Commodity tariffs, peculiar and necessary to different localities, cannot perhaps with justice be abolished. Sometimes the classification of an article is not only arbitrary and unjust, but absolutely prohibitory of its transportation, and purposely made so. As in the case of railroad cross-ties, which many companies class so high as to prevent their shipment, and thus secure them for their own use, at prices which competition between purchasers can have no share in fixing. "That the classifications now in use have been fairly arranged, with due regard to all the considerations which have been alluded to, cannot be justly claimed by the railroad authorities. In many instances it is difficult to ascertain the principles upon which they have been adjusted, or the reasons that originally dictated the marked differences that have often characterized the rates upon articles of a similar character. Differences have been preserved by custom, for which the original reason, if any existed, has been forgotten, with the result that they now appear arbitrary and unreasonable. "The tariffs of the present day are a great advance upon those of a few years ago; but there is yet ample room for improvement. They have been a gradual growth, modified and improved from time to time as the principles which should govern their adjustment have become better understood, and as circumstances have seemed to make changes expedient, but they are yet too largely arbitrary."" Besides the several methods by which railroad companies may discriminate as between individuals or localities, the same evil is sometimes produced by the existence of hostile relations between different companies, which result in an intentional failure to make proper connections, or to interchange traffic, on a just and equitable basis. The duties of the companies and the power of the public in the matter of a proper interchange of traffic have Report Cullom Committee, pp. 186, 187. 1 INCREASE IN NATIONAL WEALTH. 173 already been considered. No little inconvenience is sometimes experienced from the failure of connecting or intersecting roads to adjust their time-tables in the interest of travellers who wish to transfer from one road to the other. Where the reasonable accommodation of any considerable community, or any considerable volume of travel requires close connection to be made at intersecting or connecting points, and where such connection can be made with due regard for the necessity of making connections at other points, and without imposing unreasonable requirements upon the companies, they may certainly be compelled, in the interest of the public,-even if at some sacrifice of their own,-to make the proper connection. Some writers upon the railway question, notably Mr. Edward Atkinson,' are so impressed with the contemplation of the enormous increase in national wealth, and the vast public benefits that have accrued from cheap transportation by rail, as to ignore or greatly belittle the evil that has been nourished and grown up with the good. And such persons deprecate any interference whatever with the business and the practices of the transportation companies. But that the railways have frequently used in an arbitrary and oppressive manner the great powers which their situation in the commercial world enables them to exercise over so many interests outside their own, is not to be denied; and the facility with which they may do so, and their temptations to perversion of 1 See paper entitled "The Railway and the Farmer." public duty, clearly show the necessity of subjecting their operations to special public supervision and regulation. They should no more object to proper public supervision than the national banks. Each performs a public function, and each should be subject to reasonable public regulation. CHAPTER VII. Methods Adopted or Proposed to Prevent Extortion and Unjust Discrimination-Publication of Rates-Statistical Reports -English "Railway and Canal Traffic Act"-Remedial Statutes Usually of Little Avail-The Commission SystemPower to Fix Rates-To Revise Rates-To Hear and Decide Complaints-To Hear Complaints and Make Recommendations Examples Georgia and MassachusettsTheory of General Unrestricted Competition over the Same Line of Road Reviewed-Destructive of Commerce in Many Necessities of Life-Monopoly Essential to Public Interest -Theory of Public Ownership Reviewed-Would Fail to Prevent Discriminations. -- EXTORTION and some kinds of discrimination are obnoxious to the principles of the common law, but there are other kinds for which it is doubtful if the common law provides, even theoretically, a remedy. And practically, in most cases, the disparity between the parties is so great where an individual undertakes to assert rights of this character against a railroad company that it is seldom attempted.' Accordingly provisions have frequently been incorporated into constitutions and statutes intended to deprive railroad companies, as far as possible, 1 Note See R. R. Co. vs. Lockwood, 17 Wall, on p. 379. |