ve on the revenues of a
road, even courts are forced to admit that an actual trial of the tariff
is necessary to establish its merits or demerits.

If the complaining company were as anxious to give the new tariff a fair
trial as it usually is to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the court
that it is devoid of every principle of justice, such a test might be
accepted by the public as a reliable basis of judicial procedure. But
railroad managers are not only striving to perpetuate their own high
rates, but to show to the public that freight tariffs not emanating from
a railroad company's office are of necessity crude and unjust to the
carrier. They know that if they should succeed in convincing the public
that administrative boards are incapable of dealing with that question,
they might for years to come be left in undisputed possession of the
power to make their own rates. This is certainly for the railroad
manager a prize worth contending for, and no sacrifice is too great for
him to make when there is any hope of ultimate victory. Being absolutely
uncontrolled in his action, he finds it an easy matter, by temporarily
diverting business from his line, by the increase of operating expenses
and by repressing growing industries, and in many other ways, to curtail
the business of his road and diminish its revenues. He can court losses
in a thousand different ways discernible neither to the courts nor the
general public. In short, it is in the power of any railroad manager to
manipulate such a trial in his own interest, and, if determined, to
obtain a verdict against any tariff not of his own making. This policy
was pursued by several Iowa roads subsequent to Judge Brewer's decision
that the alleged unreasonableness of the Iowa commissioners' tariff must
be established by an actual trial, and was persevered in until the suit
was withdrawn.

But even if the competency of the courts to properly determine such
questions were admitted, there would still exist one serious objection
to their jurisdiction. Courts necessarily move slowly, while all
differences arising between the public and the railways, and especially
those concerning rates of transportation, require prompt and decisive
action. There are no fixed conditions in commerce. It is a kaleidoscope
constantly presenting new phases. Competition at home and abroad, tariff
duties, the condition of the crops and a thousand other influences
affect it and may require a prompt