RAILROAD POOLS. 
ALGIE MARTIN SIMONS, B. L. 
District Agent , Bureau of Charities , Chicago. 
WITH PLATES II AND III. 
A pool may be roughly defined as an agreement between com¬ 
peting carriers for the apportionment of competitive traffic, or 
of the receipts therefrom. 1 They maybe divided into three gen- 
1 The Century Dictionary gives the following as a definition of a pool: 
“ A combination of the interests of several otherwise competing parties, 
such as rival transportation lines, in which all take common ground 
as regards the public, and distribute the profits of the business among 
themselves equally or according to special agreement. In this sense 
pooling is a system of reconciling conflicting interests, and of obviating 
ruinous competition, by which the several competing parties or com¬ 
panies throw their revenue into one common fund, which is then divided 
or redistributed among the members of the pool on a basis of percent¬ 
ages or proportions previously agreed upon or determined by arbitra¬ 
tion.” This definition seems to me to possess several palpable defects. 
In the first place the words “distribute the profits” could strictly 
be applied only to a “money pool,” thus excluding both “traffic” 
and “territorial” pools, the former of which at least is far more im¬ 
portant both in extent and numbers than the “money pools,” being 
almost the only kind known in the United States. Then it is doubtful 
if the words “all take common ground toward the public” is strictly 
true, as it probably expresses an ideal rather than a fact, as it is cer¬ 
tainly true that under the most perfect pool that has yet been formed, 
some residual competition, at least in facilities, has been retained. The 
latter part of the definition is simply an argument for pooling, as is 
shown by the words “ reconciling conflicting interests and of obviating 
ruinous competition.” That it has been so recognized by the pooling 
advocates is shown in an editorial of the Railroad Gazette for May 25th. 
1894, p. 372. See Hudson, Railways and the Republic, pp. 196-7 for 
definition of pooling and a division into traffic and money pools. Also 
Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 75-76. 
