'commissions,' and it was found that the routing
of business might be secured by a slight expenditure of that
nature to a shipper's friend. Other kindred devices were
suggested, some new, some old; the payment of rent, clerk
hire, dock charges, elevator fees, drayage, the allowance of
exaggerated claims, free transportation within some single
State--a hundred ingenious forms of evading the plain
requirements of the law were said to be in use. The
demoralization was not by any means confined to the minor
roads. Shippers were ready to give information to other
lines concerning concessions which were offered them, and to
state the sum required to control their patronage. A freight
agent, thus appealed to, at first perhaps might let the
business go, but when the matter became more serious and he
saw one large shipper after another seeking a less desirable
route, he was very apt to throw up his hands and fall in
with the procession."

Mr. Walker is very severe on the Interstate Commerce Act, which, he
says, might in its present form "well be entitled, 'An act to promote
railway bankruptcies and consolidations by driving weak roads out of
competitive business.'" To remedy the evil which, in his opinion, the
act causes, he favors the granting of differentials by the stronger to
the weaker roads. Such a device is simply a species of pool under a less
offensive name. Its manifest object is to maintain rates through a
conspiracy of rival railroads. Mr. Walker admits this when he says:

"It operates in practice to affect a distribution of the
traffic somewhat roughly, giving rise to frequent
dissensions and bickerings over the 'differentials' which
are allowed; but after all it has enabled the trunk lines
usually to secure a better maintenance of tariff rates and a
better observance of the provisions of the law against
private rebates and discriminations than has been
attainable in other sections of the country where different
conditions make such an arrangement impracticable. It
vividly illustrates, however, the necessity of some plan by
which common business may be divided."

This problem, which apparently causes so much perplexity to railroad
managers, would soon be solved if railroad abuses were done away with.
So long as these abuses exist and rates are maintain