Railway Tariffs and the Interstate Commerce Law

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Page 46 - agree on certain prices less than which it shall be unlawful to ask or take. Adam Smith already said : " People of the same trade hardly meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Even then the movement had begun ; to-day it has become well-nigh universal. There is scarcely a trade throughout the land without its
Page 22 - in favor of those rates and places which are nearest or least expensive, where the varying charges of the companies now create competition. In like manner, the New York commission concludes, after a comprehensive review of the whole subject, that pro rata charges are
Page 39 - points. This, it must be remembered, is allowed by public authority and in the public interest. 1 In Germany, where the railways are almost exclusively owned by the state governments, and interior competition thus minimized, there is likewise no hard and fast rule. The short-haul principle, or Princip der
Page 58 - Speech on bill of 1844 (Hansard, vol. 76, pp. 480-509). Gladstone adds: " I would no more trust the railway proprietors on railway matters than I would Gracchus speaking of sedition. I know of nothing more chilling than the hope which railway directors hold out from competition." The whole speech may be found in full in Gait, Railway Reform, its importance and practicability considered
Page 38 - Railroads should not as a general rule charge more between a terminal and an intermediate point, for a like class and quantity of freight, than is charged between such terminal and a more distant point, even though at such more distant point there may be railroad or water
Page 22 - (a) It would prevent railway companies from lowering their fares and rates, so as to compete with traffic by sea, by canal, or by a shorter or otherwise cheaper railway, and would thus deprive the public of the benefit of competition, and the company of a legitimate source of profit. (¿) It would prevent railway companies from making perfectly fair arrangements for carrying at a lower rate than usual goods brought in
Page 43 - First. That the prohibition in the fourth section against a greater charge for a shorter than for a longer distance ... is limited to cases in which the circumstances and conditions are substantially similar.
Page 45 - situation ; the method of operation requires unity and harmony of management ; the production can be largely increased without a proportionate increase of capital. This is true not only of docks, waterworks, and gasworks, but of all media of transportation — turnpikes, canals,
Page 45 - show why the law of competition is not applicable. Certain characteristics are common to them all. The industry demands a large amount of capital ; it supplies a necessary of life ; the article furnished is local ; the industry occupies a peculiarly
Page 39 - The Seehafen-AusnahmeTarif, and a large number of other special rates permit charges in derogation of the short-haul principle. Even the earnest defenders of state railways confess that numerous exceptions are indispensable.

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