The Pitt Coupler The illustration above is a cross section through the head of the Pitt coupler immediately in front of the locking pin, and illustrates the mechanism of the coupler with the knuckle closed and locked showing the relative positions assumed by the locking pin, the lock-set, the knuckle-opener and the tail of the knuckle in the coupled position. Watch This Space Next Month We will give an illustration showing the operation of the "Lock-Set." MANUFACTURED ONLY BY The McConway & Torley Company PITTSBURGH, PA. The RAILWAY Vol. XXII. CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA, MARCH, 1905. INTERSTATE COMMERCE LEGISLATION. David Willcox, president of the Delaware and Hudson Company, expresses the following views: The recommendations of the President's Message in reference to railroad legislation cover two subjects; first, rebates, unjust preferences or rate-cutting, and second, authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix future rates. FIRST. As to the matter of rebates, preferences or rate cutting, the existing statutes fully cover the subject. Nothing is needed except their enforcement. The Elkins law, passed in 1903, gave the Commission power to obtain injunctions in such cases, and, of course, the courts are authorized to enforce obedience thereto by contempt proceedings. Upon this subject the Interstate Commerce Commission said in its annual report for 1903: "In its present form the law appears to be about all that can be provided against rate-cutting in the way of prohibitive and punitive legislation. Unless further experience discloses effects not now perceived, we do not anticipate the need of further amendments of the same character and designed to accomplish the same purpose." In its annual report for 1904, the Commission says: "As to that branch of regulation which deals with the publication and invariable application of tariffs, the Elkins law appears to be operating successfully as applied to carriers subject to its provisions." As the statutes now stand, they provide that any one may file a complaint; No. 3. the findings of the Commission shall be prima facie evidence of the facts found; the court shall act on as short notice as it deems proper, and shall proceed speedily as a court of equity without formal pleadings or proceedings; the constitutional protection from self-crimination has been removed by statute, so that any one can be compelled to testify; cases arising under the statute have been given preference over everything; individuals and corporations violating the act are subject, whether shippers or carriers, to heavy fines; the provisions of the act may also be enforced by decree in equity, with subsequent contempt proceedings in case of disobedience involving fine and imprisonment, and appeals lie directly to the Supreme Court of the United States. In reference to no other subject matter does such drastic procedure exist; the lawmaking power has acted fully; it has no further resources. Upon the subject of rebates and rate-cutting nothing further can be done except to enforce the statutes now existing. That is the duty of the executive branch of the government; it is idle to make its own failure to enforce existing laws the ground for urging further legislation. SECOND. As to the power to make future rates, this can be granted only upon the ground that (A) existing rates are unreasonable in themselves or (B) discriminations exist between (a) individuals or (b) localities or kinds of traffic. A. There is no basis to seriously claim that rates are unreasonable in themselves. The average for the entire country in 1903 was .763 cents, or seven hundred and sixty-three thousandths of a cent, per ton per mile. Although prices generally had greatly risen, this was only thirty-nine thousandths of a cent above the lowest point ever reached, which was in the depression of 1899. The rates are about one-third of the average in England and France and about one-half of the average in Germany. Since the Interstate Commerce act was passed no charge that a rate was unreasonable in itself has ever been sustained in the courts. B. (a) As to alleged discriminations or preferences between individuals, it has just been pointed out that the lawmaking power has fully dealt with the subject. In addition to this, it would not be an appropriate or effective remedy to confer rate-making power upon the Commission, as its rates would be as much exposed to such practices as any others. In any case the remedy must be to enforce the law prohibiting the same. (b) As to alleged discriminations between localities or kinds of traffic this claim arises from the spirit of commercial competition. As was said in the annual report of the Commission for 1893: "It is the competition of product with product, of market with market, that has induced carriers, in their eagerness to increase the value of their traffic, to reduce continually their rates to market points. Such competition is the competition of commerce itself; the strife between competing industries which the public interest demands should be left free from fettering laws and uncontrolled by restraining combinations." As the Commission has just said in its annual report for 1904: "Some at least of the most important controversies involving the rates and methods of railway carriers are rather between competing communities as producing regions than between rival lines of railway. Railway development has extended far beyond the point at which any of the greater systems finds its interests so identified with a single com munity as to feel wholly indifferent to the demands and needs of all competing communities. Indeed, there may be entire sincerity in the contention on the part of the officers of a great system, that any adjustment which satisfies the rival communities which it serves can not be seriously objectionable from its own point of view." Such complaints can not be entirely remedied, for some people will always think they are paying too much for what they buy. In states where railway commissions have power over future rates, questions of alleged discriminations between localities or kinds of traffic are as frequent and acute as ever. On the other hand, the most intelligent state is Massachusetts, the most populous and richest is New York, one of the greatest in every way is Ohio, but their commissions have no power over rates; the second state in population and the greatest in industrial activity is Pennsylvania, one of the most prosperous is Indiana, but they have no commissions whatever. Yet in these states, generally speaking, there is peace, and they contain about one-third of the population of the country. One half of the population lives in states where there are no rate making commissions. Indeed, it may be said that the conditions out of which the present agitation arises are unknown save in Chicago and points dependent thereon. Existing statutes are ample to deal with them if they be thoroughly enforced. The President's message expressed the view that it is not desirable to give the Commission general original ratemaking power; but the pending QuarlesCooper bill would not effectually limit the Commission to power merely over rates found unjust after investigation. Its practical effect would be to give the Commission control over all rates. Any person, whether interested or not, may institute a proceeding attacking a rate, and the Commission will then have complete power in the premises. When the Commission assumed to exercise power over future rates the Supreme Court so ruled exactly. It said that if the power existed "it would be within the Illus discretion of the Commission of its own motion to suggest that the interstate rates on all roads of the country were unjust and unreasonable, notify the several roads of such opinion, direct a hearing, and upon such hearing, make one general order, reaching to every road and covering every rate." trations of this are that the Import Rate case, decided by the Commission in 1894, involved the rates on all shipments from abroad to any interior points throughout the country; the Maxiimum Rate case, decided in 1894, involved in one proceeding practically all rates on Southern business east of the Mississippi River, and the Business Men's League case, decided in 1902, involved substantially all rates from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. As the Commission has frequently said, the matter of rates is extremely intricate, and the principles upon which it would act by no means definitely settled. But every one will realize that any large business, in order to succeed, must be treated as a whole. Its prosperity would be greatly jeopardized if it should be subjected to a process of dissection according to abstract rules, and its earnings be cut down by piecemeal by parties having no interest in or responsibility for the general result. The proposed changes would be merely a step forward toward general governmental control of all commerce. Congress is not given by the Constitution any special power over the carriers. The provision is that it shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states. But the shipper of goods is engaged in interstate commerce equally with the carrier of the goods shipped. The shipper and his business are, therefore, quite as much within the power of Congress as the carrier and its business. Rumblings are already heard of a purpose to subject to federal control all persons engaged in interstate commerce. * In ad dition to this, if rates were to be settled by litigation before a commission, instead of by natural processes, a condition of rigidity would ensue, which would be intolerable to shippers. Those persons who are engaged in the present agitation should seriously consider these aspects of the case. Ever since the Interstate Commerce act was passed there has been continual agitation for further legislation enlarging the powers of the Commission. As already pointed out, the provisions for enforcement of its present rules are the most drastic known to the law. the past record indicates that the conditions have been exaggerated and that the Commission's action in contested cases has had little effect. Yet From the time of its creation in 1887, until October, 1904, the Commission rendered 297 formal decisions. This was a period of seventeen years, and the decisions, therefore, average about seventeen and one-half per annum. Action favorable to the complainants was taken in 194, or about 55 per cent of the cases decided, so that the complaints coming before it which the Commission held to be well founded averaged eleven and one-half per annum. Since 1886, only forty-three cases have been instituted in the courts to enforce orders of the Commission, or about two and one-half per annum. Only thirtytwo of these cases have been brought to a final hearing. In one of them the Commission's order was partially sustained by the Supreme Court, and in one its order was sustained in the Circuit Court and there was no appeal. In thirty cases the order of the Commission was reversed. This, therefore, shows that, in the seventeen years which have elapsed, about 93 per cent of the orders passed upon by the courts were held to be erroneous. The two cases affirmed were not of unreasonable rates, but of alleged discriminations between localities. In *Since the above was written, the Commissioner of Corporations has published his report suggesting substantially that it shall no longer be a right to engage in interstate commerce, but a privilege to be enjoyed only by those possessed of a license upon such terms as the government shall see fit to establish; in other words, that governmental control shall prescribe the manner in which the citizens of the country shall be allowed to use their constitutional rights of liberty and property. view of this past record it seems doubtful whether any new expedient will. have effect, save possibly to lead to some temporary embarrassment. Certainly the record does not indicate that the Commission's orders should be effective before the courts have passsed upon them. The Commission has done very useful work in promoting settlement between the parties of complaints which have been presented to it. In this way it has apparently disposed of over 90 per cent. of the complaints which have come before it. The remedy lies in the working out of natural laws, better understanding between the parties, and probably in more effective effort to enforce in the courts the laws which now exist. There is no branch of governmental power exercised by a board prescribing future conditions. By reason of constitutional rules settled by the Supreme Court, every decision of the sort would necessarily be subject to litigation upon the question of its reasonableness, and upon other questions as well. Under the decisions of the Supreme Court, the Commission has no judicial character, and it is a rule of the American constitution that administrative and judicial functions can not be exercised by the same officials, still less the legislative function of making rates sought. The present delay in the proceedings arises from the protracted hearings before the Commission, which, legally speaking, have no result. As has now been seen, in the courts every possible provision has been made for expedition. If, therefore, the Commission would continue its useful work of settling controversies between parties and, when it is satisfied that a meritorious case can not be settled in this manner, would resort directly to the courts, which alone can pass effectively on the rights of the parties, probably the best results would be reached, the usefulness of the Commission would be greatly increased, and the public interest would certainly be served. The most serious aspect of the matter is the possible effect of conferring upon a government board without experience in operation, interest in the properties or responsibility for results, the power to cut down their earnings, otherwise than as they are affected by natural causes. This concerns not so much the railway corporations as those who are dependent upon them as employes, security holders, small quite as much as large, life insurance policy holders, depositors in savings banks, merchants and manufacturers who sell supplies to them, and the communities which they serve. To all of these it is a most serious question whether the railroads are to be controlled by the vigorous policy of private enterprise which has heretofore prevailed, or by the rigid governmental methods which have in other countries kept up the rates and kept down the service. ADDRESS DELIVERED TO MEETING OF CONDUCTORS BY MR. LUCIUS TUTTLE. President of the Boston & Maine Railroad. The subject to which I shall ask your careful and temperate attention is one that is now being widely discussed in the highest official circles, by the newspaper press, and by eminent leaders of thought in political, commercial and economic investigation; a subject of vital interest not only to the customers of railroads, and to every investor in railroad securities, but of paramount importance to the million persons, more or less, who are engaged in railroad work, and who derive the means of their livelihood therefrom. I refer to the specific proposal that railroad rates shall be arbitrarily fixed under congressional supervision and authority. For a better understanding of the sources |