76 
Simons—Railroad Pools. 
This occurred, notwithstanding the fact that the Western Traffic 
Association was backed up by the Central Traffic and Trunk 
Line Association in its endeavors to secure justice to the rail¬ 
roads and shippers. But, say the pooling advocates, had there 
been a pool covering this territory with a pre-determined 
assignment of traffic, there would have been no incentive for the 
weaker roads to have yielded to the demands of these concerns, 
and the rate fixed by the association would have been main¬ 
tained. 
But it is doubtful if even this latter form of discrimination 
marks the final stage in the process of union between common 
carriers and producing concerns. There is another and a still 
closer form-—that of joint ownership. This, it is claimed by 
many, will be the last step. That it is at least a possible one 
is seen by the fact that it has already been taken in the case of 
many coal mines, grain elevators and cotton compresses, 16 as well 
as the Union Stock Yards, of Chicago. This union may take 
either of two forms — that of absolute ownership by the corpora¬ 
tion as a corporation, or the same men may hold a controlling 
interest in both concerns. In the former case I can see no way 
in which the pool or any other remedy could affect the case, but 
where, as is so often the case, the subsiduary business is used 
as a means of defrauding the small stockholders in the railroad 
by placing rates upon the subsiduary product so low as to yield 
no returns to the railroad while piling up the product of the 
outside concern, the influence of the pool would certainly assist 
the smaller stockholders in maintaining remunerative rates. 
Other phases of the question which merit attention, but whose 
consideration would exceed the limits of this paper, are the rela¬ 
tion of pools to railroad laborers, to the stock market, to rail- 
Standard Oil Company and the big packers have been successful in their 
efforts to get exemption from the 6 mills rate agreement and secure a 
higher rate for their cars. They did not effect this by legitimate means 
but they prevailed upon certain weak-backed managers to make long¬ 
time contracts with them at % cent per car per mile run with the Union 
Tank Line Company (Standard Oil), and at 1 cent per mile run with 
certain packing companies.” 
16 See Message of Governor Hogg, of Texas, March 8,1893. 
