lly
marred by a short war precipitated by such members as would think
themselves entitled to larger shares of the spoils. But a readjustment
would invariably follow, and the expenditures of the war would be taxed
up to the public.

After the failure of the gigantic Western pool which had been organized
under the protectorate of the trunk lines, the companies which had
composed it formed such local combinations as their individual interests
dictated. It is doubtful whether during the five years immediately
preceding the passage of the Interstate Commerce Law there was any
junction of two or more roads in the United States which, except during
the period of an occasional railroad war, had any competition in the
transportation business. As has been shown before, discriminations
without number were practiced between places and persons; goods were not
unfrequently carried at a loss; but the general public was, as a rule,
compelled to pay what the traffic would bear, or rather what the pooling
roads thought it could bear.

It is claimed by railroad managers that pools are the only effective
contrivances for checking ruinous competition among railroad carriers,
and that they are therefore justifiable as a means of self-protection.
This might perhaps be a valid argument if any attack were made upon the
railroads which encroached upon their rights or endangered their
existence, but if railroad companies are disposed to cut each other's
throats, the public should not be made to pay the penalty of their
depravity. As long as schedule rates are unreasonably high, railroads
will be tempted to offer to certain shippers low secret rates; but as
soon as all rates have been leveled down to a point where they will
yield only a fair profit with good management, the inducement to cut
below them is largely taken away. Pools, far from being a remedy for the
evils of excessive competition, will in the end only aggravate the
disease which they attempt to cure. The high rates which they maintain
attract the attention of speculative men and lead to the construction of
rival roads. While the traffic remains the same, the proceeds must then
be divided among a larger number of carriers. Thus the construction of
unnecessary roads, which has often been the subject of bitter complaint
on the part of the older roads, is chargeable directly to their wrong
policies.

One of the principal objections to industrial and commercial
combinations is that th