THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 91 



great centres of commerce. Then, when men are com- 

 pelled to use the roads, the corporations advance the 

 rates. Complaint is useless. The directors know that 

 goods and grain must be carried over the road, and 

 they fix the rates at an extravagant figure, and the 

 shipper is forced to submit to the extortion. 



The " through rates," as they are called, are high 

 enough, but they do not affect the majority of shippers 

 as much as the local rates. It has become a maxim 

 with railroad men that if in the war of competition a 

 loss is incurred in the " through rates," it must be 

 made up in the amount received for local freights. It 

 is always possible to ship a case of goods or a sack of 

 grain from New York to Chicago at a proportion- 

 ately cheaper rate than is charged for the same 

 article from New York to Syracuse. Often times 

 the amount charged for local freight is double that 

 charged for through freight. The reason is that in 

 the through freight transportation, the competition 

 of a few great lines keeps the rate down to a compara- 

 tively lower figure; while a given road, enjoying a 

 monopoly of the local business, can charge what it 

 pleases. It is utterly irresponsible, and the shipper is 

 at its mercy. 



This irresponsibility leads to continual change, espe- 

 cially in the through freight business, and introduces 

 an element of chance into mercantile transactions 

 which sound business men find it hard to contend 

 against. Merchants find it difficult to regulate their 

 purchases, and producers are sometimes utterly at sea 

 in their efforts to- calculate their profits, when the 

 tariff may be changed in a day, and all their calcula- 

 tions destroyed. " Just this fluctuation took place in 



