At last, in 1905, the eastern lines from Baltimore south agreed to permit a reduction of five cents in the rates from western cities by lines _north_ of the Ohio river; but they refused to accede to any change in the rates from the Ohio south. This was the exact opposite of the Interstate Commerce Commission's proposition, although both plans were intended to compass the same object; namely, to place western shippers more nearly on a parity with the East. The Commission, in 1894, laid all reduction upon the southern portion of the rate; the railroads, in 1905, placed it all upon the northern part. This obviously afforded no relief to the original complainant, Cincinnati. In fact, it actually operated to its great disadvantage, inasmuch as it let its two powerful rivals, Chicago and St. Louis, into the southern field on distinctly more favorable terms. Such was the outcome as a result of the friction of railroad competition. The reasonableness of some reduction was clear. But to the layman, the fairness of laying the reduction entirely upon the northern locals, already relatively low, instead of upon the extremely high southern part of the rate is not by any means so clear.[234]
One further detail of this adjustment of southern rates raises a question:
"Rates between Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia, are less than the rates between Richmond, Virginia, and Greenwood, South Carolina (an intermediate point). This is due to indirect competition between Richmond and Western jobbing points; and in order to permit the jobber or manufacturer in Richmond to do business as against his competitor in Cincinnati, it has been necessary to fix the rates from Richmond to Atlanta with some reference to the rates from Cincinnati to Atlanta. At Greenwood, South Carolina, we find that the Cincinnati shipper pays a very much higher rate than to Atlanta, and that the rates from Richmond are already sufficiently low to enable the Richmond shipper to compete at Greenwood with the Cincinnati shipper."[235]
Is this not in a measure well described in the passage, "unto him that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath"? This railway argument contains dangerous possibilities. In effect, upon the theory of charging what the traffic will bear, it means that a railway (in this case the Seaboard Air Line) may increase its own local rates, not in proportion to the length of its own haul (from Richmond to Greenwood), but according to the remoteness of that local point from another competing market. The inevitable effect of the general adoption of such a policy must be to erect arbitrary barriers to the free and widespread movement of commerce. The great advantage of the flat rate or of commodity rates is that, placing all competing centres upon an absolute parity irrespective of distance, they encourage the utmost freedom of trade.