Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/16

Rh freight schedules were slashed to the bone. In one memorable case a transcontinental railroad reduced its passenger fare from Chicago to California to $1.00. Whereupon its rival retaliated not only by cutting its rate to $1.00 likewise, but also by furnishing free meals to its patrons en route.

Naturally, such unorganized, competitive conditions played into the hands of Organized Labor and made its fight easier. If the unions tied up a road the other roads usually left it to its fate. They seldom gave it any practical assistance, instead they grabbed what they could of its business. The consequence was that the companies were reluctant to enter into strikes, and comparatively more eager to settle them when they did occur.

But now things are altogether different. This is the era of railroad monopoly. Competition has been almost entirely eliminated. On the employers' side the railroad industry is practically united into one country-wide organism. National ownership has been concentrated into the hands of a few magnates, keenly conscious of their mutual interests; the national rate-making power is wielded by the tractable (to the companies) Interstate Commerce Commission rate wars are now merely a matter of history; the national administration of labor matters is looked after by the Association of Railway Executives; and the national technical problems are handled by the American Railroad Association. Everywhere is system, organization, standardization. And now it is proposed in powerful railroad circles to secure legislation fusing all the railroads into one gigantic system of ownership and operation. This is the logical outcome of the ceaseless tendency towards combination.