DISCRIMINATION IN RAILWAY RATES. 501 



switched off at various points and consigned to various parties. The 

 Commissioners of Railroads of Massachusetts, in considering a com- 

 plaint which was made on this ground of discrimination, not only jus- 

 tify the principle of quantity in reducing rates, but affirm that any 

 other rule would be unjust. " One fact exists," they say, in reviewing 

 a case, " which furnishes strong ground for criticism on the rates which 

 are the subject of complaint. The Boston and Albany does not estab- 

 lish a lower rate for cargoes or large quantities than those fixed for 

 car-loads. . . . The other great roads of the State do have one rate 

 for car-loads and another and lower rate for cargoes, or for some large 

 amount, generally fixed at one hundred tons. The principle on which 

 this difference rests is founded on common sense, and is well recog- 

 nized in railroad law ; and it is recognized by the managers of the 

 Boston and Albany Railroad in some other branches of traffic. Whole- 

 sale transactions furnish a reasonable ground for a reduction of rates ; 

 and, as the car-load rates of the Boston and Albany must be held as 

 against that company to be reasonable as car-load rates, it follows that 

 as cargo rates they are unreasonable." * This opinion is affirmed by 

 the same company in their report for the year following, when in re- 

 ferring to the first case they say, " The meaning of the opinion was, 

 that it was reasonable to fix a lower rate for large quantities than for 

 single car-loads." f The principle here applied to cargoes and car- 

 loads is generally applied to car-loads as compared to smaller quanti- 

 ties, and as the " car-load rate," though lower than the rate for smaller 

 quantities, has been generally approved, it amounts also to an approval 

 of the principle of lower rates for larger quantities. 



The difference in rates on the same thing justified in the difference 

 in quantity is generally charged by those shipping in small quantities 

 to be a discrimination against them as individuals, and so as unjust. 

 But we find a denial of this in the fact that the rule affects more fre- 

 quently things which are shipped in large quantities than persons who 

 ship large quantities of the same thing. Grain, provisions, and coal 

 usually form the largest items of tonnage and have the lowest rates, 

 and it is in favor of these things that the greatest discriminations are 

 made. To deny the fairness of the principle would require not only 

 that the various quantities should all take tne same rate, but that 

 things themselves should take the rates charged on other similar things 

 which are shipped in smaller quantity. This is a result which some 

 newspapers and politicians imagine would be beneficial ; for instance, 

 I read in a daily paper that it is an " outrage " that wheat is carried 

 from the interior to San Francisco at a lower rate than castor-beans. 

 But it is a result which, in the opinion of the Railroad Commissioners 

 of Massachusetts, " would work mischief in some sections, would divert 

 business from the State, paralyze industry, drive away capital, and 

 injure our great interest — labor. " J 



* " Report," 1881, p. 212. f " Report," 1882, p. 100. | " Report," 1883, p. 26. 



