ed by artificial
means there will be bickering and strife for business which legitimately
belongs to others. Mr. Walker then bewails the proscription of the pool,
saying:

"It may be stated without fear of contradiction that if the
carriers had been left free to make arrangements among
themselves upon which each line might rely for eventually
receiving in some form a fair share of competitive traffic,
the temptation for secret rate-cutting would have been in
great measure removed and the country would have been spared
most of the traffic disturbances and illegitimate
contrivances for buying business which have since been
periodically rife."

This argument amounts to this, that, rather than place a law upon our
statute books which reckless railroad managers might be strongly tempted
to violate, they should be permitted to combine and control the highways
and levy _ad libitum_ upon the commerce of the country. It is a most
preposterous proposition.

The article especially condemns the long and short haul clause of the
law. That this clause is injurious to the commerce of the country is,
however, not obvious from his reasoning. Mr. Walker makes the statement
that this clause of the law "has removed from many jobbing centers
important advantages which they previously had, and has enabled interior
communities, formerly of little apparent consequence, to deal directly
with distant markets." If he means by this that this feature of the law
has equalized shipping throughout the country, he is doubtless right. If
he wishes us to infer, however, that it prevents the railroad companies
from doing substantial justice to all, he presumes altogether too much
upon the credulity of his readers.

Another article from the same author appeared under the title
"Unregulated Competition Self-destructive," in the December, 1891,
number of the same periodical. He commences his article with an inquiry
into the pedigree and merit of the time-honored proverb, "Competition is
the life of trade," and arrives at the conclusion that the phrase is
fatherless and insignificant. He says:

"'Competition is the life of trade;' 'Competition is the
death of trade;' one phrase is as true as the other. For all
that appears, it was a toss-up which of the two should
become current as the expression of the general thought."

It is its general recognition that gives a truth a pr