220 



CONGRESS. (INTER-STATE COMMERCE.) 



And it shall be unlawful for any person or persons 

 carrying property as aforesaid to enter into any con- 

 tract, agreement, or combination for the pooling of 

 freights, or to pool the freights, of different and com- 

 peting railroads, by dividing between them the aggre- 

 gate or net proceeds of the earnings of such railroads, 

 or any portion of them. 



In support of his amendment Mr. Hewitt 

 said: "Mr. Speaker, undoubtedly this provis- 

 ion is based upon the idea that pooling is an 

 evil which ought to be abated ; that it is against 

 the public interest, and therefore should be pro- 

 hibited. Pooling may be an evil, Mr. Speaker. 

 There are a great many evils in this world which 

 are remedies for other evils still greater. This 

 class of remedial evils constitutes a large por- 

 tion of the existing legislation of every civil- 

 ized country. Now, the evil that pooling was 

 intended to remedy became intolerable. It was 

 the evil of competition, of unlimited competi- 

 tion, leading to discrimination, to private bar- 

 gains, to fluctuations in the transportation of 

 goods. Not a single consignment could be car- 

 ried from one point in this country to any other 

 l>oint without a private bargain being necessary 

 on the part of the shipper and the railroad com- 

 pany. Great houses were compelled to employ 

 clerks whose sole business it was to go from 

 railroad-office to railroad-office and make bar- 

 gains. More than that, the companies them- 

 selves who were intended to be the common 

 carriers for the commerce of the country found 

 themselves reduced to the position of huck- 

 sters, and compelled to have a corps of officers 

 and an army of clerks to regulate freight on 

 every invoice of goods which might be shipped 

 over their roads. This evil was so enormous 

 both to the public and the railroad companies 

 that it led to the only practical remedy, which 

 was pooling. 



"Pooling, if honestly conducted, gives sta- 

 bility in the rate of freights and equal terms to 

 every customer, and is in fact carrying out the 

 great right in common carriage of equal rights 

 to all men. But pooling has not always been 

 honestly managed; hence railroad companies 

 in their own interest were compelled to attempt 

 to regulate pooling, and they have regulated it 

 by the appointment of commissions and com- 

 missioners. The evil of competitive and un- 

 certain rates has therefore to a large extent 

 been overcome by a pooling arrangement. 

 How shall the evils of a pooling arrangement 

 be overcome ? 



" The gentleman from Texas tells us by the 

 abolition of pooling, and then he sends us back 

 into the very situation from which the privilege 

 of pooling extricated us. 



" Mr. Speaker, legislation should not be re- 

 troactive. It should proceed upon a careful 

 study of the conditions under which we are 

 trying to do business, and the indications of 

 the situation should be carefully studied. Let 

 uie tell these gentlemen, and I suppose I utter 

 a familiar truth to the legal luminaries in this 

 house, that first we get experience, out of ex- 

 perience comes custom, and out of custom 



comes the common law. So when we are try- 

 ing to legislate let us see how things are tend- 

 ing toward the establishment of custom ; and 

 instead of trying to crush and break it down, 

 let us by legislation enact the coming custom, 

 if we know it earlier, into law. You will thus 

 anticipate what is to be the common law by 

 the common consent of the citizens of this 

 country. Therefore when the railroad com- 

 panies and the public consented, in view of 

 the common interest of all, to the establish- 

 ment of this system of pooling, they did it 

 by a commission, and it should be an indica- 

 tion to us that we should also regulate pooling 

 by the establishment of a commission. A bill 

 brought in here to establish a commission 

 would be one approved by the general judg- 

 ment and experience of men familiar with 

 business. A bill to prevent pooling will be 

 against the experience and general judgment 

 of men familiar with business." 



The amendment was rejected ; and Mr. Hew- 

 itt proposed to amend the third section by add- 

 ing this clause : 



Unless the rates established by such pooling con- 

 tracts shall be reasonable and just. 



Mr. Phelps, of New Jersey, in discussing 

 this amendment, argued in a general way 

 against the bill itself, and said in conclusion : 

 " Managers were never more solicitous for 

 business and never more ready to make sacri- 

 fices to get it. They know that rivals are so 

 many they must themselves create and de- 

 velop it, and in a one-sided partnership, where 

 the customer gets all the benefit, they aid him 

 in its creation or development. I challenge ' 

 contradiction when I say that there never was 

 a time when a company that wished to open a 

 mine or a factory could get better returns than 

 now. It is almost accurate to say that the 

 miner or the manufacturer can fix his own 

 rates for the years of experiment. Nor has 

 the power of public opinion weakened. It 

 controls the management of railways as a 

 management and as individual men. The 

 management knows that the surest path to 

 business is that of public favor; that the pop- 

 ular road makes money, and to secure this 

 popularity they spend money lavishly, they 

 make concessions generously. Nor is gener- 

 ally enough stress laid on the character of the 

 management and their natural desire as men 

 to have the approbation of their neighbors and 

 to secure that good report, that good reputa- 

 tion which is the highest prize of life. 



" Do not confound the managers of whom I 

 speak, and whom I honor, with the great spec- 

 ulators in securities, whom I despise. It is the 

 speculators and the stock exchange that re- 

 ceive the public attention; it is the railway and 

 its managers who deserve it. It is a great in- 

 justice to confound them. The managers are 

 men of high character and great abilities. 

 Theirs is a profession, and they are proud of 

 it. They are sure to spend their lives in its 

 practice, and most of them practice it in the 



