osed to know as well as the railroad
companies what classification is to their common interest. Railroad
managers are naturally despotical. They do not wish and do not tolerate
any outside interference with what they obstinately term their private
business. Even if the general policy of the companies designed the
greatest good to the greatest number, the opportunities and temptations
of their agents to pursue selfish ends or take advantage of individuals
in the preparation or application of their tariffs are such that in the
practical execution the evil will always outweigh the good.

It is not within the scope of the present inquiry to review in detail
the various classifications in force, or to point out the unjust
features. The author will confine himself to showing by a few
characteristic examples that the power now in the hands of the railroad
companies to classify the various commodities of commerce for the
purpose of rating is greatly abused and is a potent means of railroad
extortion. And that it may not be charged that abuses have been cited
which are a thing of the past, the examples will chiefly be taken from
cases which have come before the Interstate Commission for adjudication.

A complaint was filed with the commission in 1887 by T. J. Reynolds
against the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, from
which it appeared that that company charged a greater price for the
transportation of railroad ties from points in the State of Pennsylvania
to points in the State of New York than was charged at the same time
for the transportation of lumber between the same points. The commission
held that this was a case of unjustifiable discrimination and ordered
the company to place railroad ties in the same class with other rough
lumber. Many Western roads for years have been guilty of the same
discrimination. The reasons for such a policy are obvious. A high tariff
on railroad ties prevents their being shipped, depreciates their market
price at home, to the sole benefit of the discriminating company, which
is thus enabled to buy ties at a low price. Prohibitory rates on ties
and rails are also often maintained by railroad companies to either
delay or render more costly the construction of new lines which threaten
to become their competitors. The Union Pacific Railroad Company several
years ago even went so far as to make prohibitory rates on steel rails
intended for the construction of a road which promised