One of the most drastic laws ever placed upon the statute books of America will come into effect on May Land already ripples of the industrial war that must ensue can be noted.
The law in question is aimed at the railroads and prohibits these great common carriers" from carrying "iron, coal or other products owned by themselves" except to supply their own needs. The penalty for disobedience is heavy. Fines not exceeding $5,000 can be assessed against every individual employee for every offence, and each new shipment can be considered separately. This law was passed in 1906 and the transportation companies were to arrange matters. They, abalering that such an Act would be enforced inst them, took no steps whatever, but are growing nervous now that May in approaching, as word has been sent out that compliance is actually expected.
The law is the direct outcome of the investigations of the Inter-state Commerce Commission which discovered that the big coal-carrying railroads actually controlled the price of that commodity as they owned the largest mines and could make rates, for competitors, actually prohibitive. Independent companies lived at their pleasure—hence the new law.
Railroads are not alone in their fear.
For some considerable time past men building switch tracks to con-neet their businesses with the main lines, have been incorporating these petty extensions into companies to the end that they might obtain a larger percentage of through rates; these are now under the ban, Suppose an oil company, controlling one of these side lines, ships its own oil in its own cars over its own lines, it is committing gaged in the transportation, in whatever capacity, is liable to the $5,000 fine. Railroading has been one of the most lucrative enterprises in the States up to the present time. The great companies control 94 per cent of the mileage of the country—giving them total of 212,000 miles of tracks. They count well over a million and s half navies on their pay-roll severe retrenchments daring the past months of stringency have paid out thousand million dollars in salaries in the last yea
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.