Note 392 — Chapter XXXII · REMEDIES.

See the powerful statements of President Ingalls, President Fish, Paul Morton, Professor Seligman, Commissioner Prouty, etc., Ind. Com. vol. iv; and statements of Professor Ripley, Morawetz, Fordyce, etc., Sen. Com. 1905. It is absurd to forbid co-operation for the maintenance of reasonable rates and prevention of superfluous transportation, or any other honest purpose. Traffic agreements may secure a co-ordination of service approaching that which would be attained by unity of management. The fetish-worship of competition is one of the prime curses of our economic ignorance. We might as well worship destruction, injustice, and inefficiency. Moreover, competition of the kind that protects the public from oppressive rates cannot be maintained in the railway world. Let the railways unite, and then control them, insisting on the dominance of the public interest so far as necessary to accomplish justice.