326 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The fact seems to be clear that if railroads are a grinding monopoly they 

 are grinding themselves worse than the public. But it may be they are grind- 

 ing themselves at the expense of the public. When a bank fails it is not the 

 bank nor the bank officials that suffer but the depositors, and it may be so 

 "with the railroads. Though they are clearly committing financial suicide, and 

 the public along their lines apparently gaining all they lose, yet the fact may 

 be that one portion of the public is simply living on another, llailroad bonds 

 are quite as likely to represent the saving of poor people as any investment, 

 and when their value is ruined suffering is as likely to follow as from the 

 breaking of a bank. 



It is little to be wondered at that our roads cannot meet all their obb'gations, 

 but "when nearly one half of tlie roads cannot pay anything more than oper- 

 ating expenses it would seem that there must be some defect in the method of 

 conducting them. This state of affairs may be brought about by two things, 

 — lack of business or by too low a rate. There are a few roads in our State 

 that are built in positions where no road could pay ; these roads are usually 

 uncompleted parts of through lines, and consequently are receiving a very small 

 amount of business. The true cause of this condition is doubtless to be found 

 in tlic low rates at which tlirougli freight or freight from competing points is 

 carried. This is a result of the railroad war which has been referred to, — and 

 it is a fact much deplored by tlie railroad managers, that the through freight 

 rates are fixed utterly regardless of cost. The railroad wars are wars for busi- 

 ness, and no effort, honest or dislionest, that will bring business to the line is 

 spared. It soon leads to discriminations between individuals. Tiie published 

 schedule of rates is adhered to only in rare cases, many of the sliippcrs practi- 

 cally make their own rates. The result is that different shippers pay different 

 prices for the same class of feights, and legitimate business interests are demoral- 

 ized and converted into an uncertain s})ecuhition. For the non-competing places 

 no mercy is sliown. The rates are made just as high as is possible without 

 driving the traffic away from the railroads. If business from non-competing 

 points is sufficient, it prevents the railroads from losing even though they carry 

 through freights for notliing. These facts are well known ; no town has felt 

 itself safe from railroad discrimination or extortion unless it possessed at 

 least two indej)endent and competing lines. It has been the case in the past, 



