THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 93 



Illinois and New York, laws forbidding the consolida- 

 tion of competing lines were in force, and all the roads 

 were carrying on operations in one or both of those 

 States. At the meeting in question, it was decided to 

 'pool' the earnings of the colored lines to all competing 

 points ; in other words, all receipts from that business 

 which was supposed to receive a peculiar benefit from 

 competition, were to be paid into a common fund, com- 

 petition was immediately to cease, fixed rates were to 

 be charged, and thus, at last, all the great trunk lines 

 were to be practically consolidated, in so far as the 

 business community was concerned. This arrange- 

 ment was agreed to, but broke down for the moment 

 because of quarrels among certain of the individual 

 contracting potentates. The irreconcilables were 

 Messrs. Gould and Vanderbilt, two New York men, 

 who represented two New York roads ; and yet the 

 New York statute-book contained a recently enacted 

 law intended to prevent and render impracticable any 

 combination like the one agreed upon. Not being able 

 to effect the desired arrangement there, certain of the 

 same parties went to Chicago, in a State where a simi- 

 lar provision to that in force in New York had been 

 made a part of the Constitution, and there they actu- 

 ally did enter into an agreement, under which all the 

 roads between Chicago and Omaha ' pooled ' their re- 

 ceipts between those points, and this contract went 

 into effect. . . . 



'' The failure of the New York negotiators was, how- 

 ever, only temporary; and, moreover, it is by no means 

 clear that its failure was not a disaster to the commu- 

 nity. In this combination would at least have been 

 found some degree of certainty and of responsibility. 



