Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/138

Rh the powers to fix the actual rate would disappear. It is a question whether we are not even going too far in the direction of regulating for the best expansion of trade. Our neighbor Canada encourages its railroads so much that to-day products of the United States factories are reaching the Pacific Coast via Canada in constantly increasing quantities, because the Canadian roads can and do make rates which the American roads cannot make without being charged with violation of the Interstate Commerce Law.

The rule that the inland proportion of the rate necessary to move products between the United States and foreign countries be published, is a restriction that hampers the American roads in the efforts to expand trade and increase foreign commerce. What good does it do any one in the United States to have car-loads of manufactured articles delivered at Seattle, for instance, by way of the Canadian Pacific, when the United States labor, United States coal, and United States railroads could haul the product all the way? What harm does Rh