Discriminations  in  favor  of  through  traffic  as  against  local  traffic  also
constituted  a  most  serious  evil  resulting  from  railroad  wars,  since  the
great  reduction  in  rates  incidental  to  such  contests  applied  only  to
through  traffic.  Owing  the  same  cause  the  most  injurious  discriminations
were  made  in  favor  of  certain  cities  as  against  their  competitors.  The
glaring  injustice  of  these  discriminations  produced  wide-spread  discon-
tent, and  the  result  has  been  that  loud  and  earnest  protestations  have
reached  State  legislatures  and  the  national  Congress.
During  railroad  wars,  the  general  freight  agents,  or  other  executive
officers,  upon  whom  properly  devolves  the  matter  of  determining  rates
invariably  remit  their  authority  to  a  multitude  of  soliciting  agents  and
local  freight  agents  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  the  only  order  promul-
gated for  their  guidance  being  to  grant  any  rate  for  traffic  ivliich  may  be
necessary  in  order  to  secure  it.  Although  this  method  of  procedure  was
obviously  in  the  face  of  good  administration,  of  order  and  of  economy,
it  was  found  to  be  an  inseparable  concomitant  of  a  war  of  rates.
During  the  struggles  referred  to  succes  waited  upon  intrigue  and  false
representations.  The  freight  agents  deceived  the  merchants,  and  the
merchants  deceived  the  freight  agents.  For  several  years  the  railroad
transportation  interests  of  the  country  ran  at  loose  ends.  The  contest
being  carried  on  independently  of  leadership  and  without  method,  lost
the  name  of  competition  and  ended  in  demoralization.
It  appears  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that  such  a  contest,  involving
results  in  the  highest  degree  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  productive
industry,  of  commerce,  and  of  transportation,  had  in  it  none  of  those
conservative  elements  of  legitimate  competition  which  attach  to  owner-
ship and  to  personal  responsibility  for  results.
