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Vanderbilt Interviewed

Vanderbilt Interviewed image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
August
Year
1881
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A New York Tribune reporter lias Ínter viewed Mr. fnt II. Vamlerbilt concern ing the rumored meeting of rail roail Ui rectors to arrange ratea for passenge trafile. Uc denied the re btnr a méetfog and said : " Wliat need is there of a conference Tlierc is aotblng to confiar about. War ii rates? I know of no war. lam flghtiii, nobody. Some of the trunk lines wer stcalini; the business of tho Central, an then they ' honey fugle' uroiiiid us ant pratend that they were maintaining rates They knew they were not, and I kuow it too. They said that rates were made by sonie of tlieir western coiiiierüoiis the; could not control. I havjj simply followe( their rates. I did not begin cutting, bnt do say DOW that their rates are u r rvtes ly mul Hv SOHW "lic Yrm -;r-t. nirtr MtK tireil of the whole thing. I ani perfeOtl1 wel] satislied. To be Mire, tlie Central i doing a vast deal of work for the satne money it received last year, but it is gettinjr about the same amount of monoy. Then is some satisfaction in that. Thore is im secret ibout this matter. When therc is plenty of business for the roads it is easj enough to malntain full rates. When thert is little traftic there is sure to le ascnimbh for that little, and when it comes to tha pools and pooling agreements amount to nothing; but I ïopeat that I did not boíi cutting off rates. We control our westen roads, whatever other lines may do; thej found that they were I.OSIXO TUEIU BUSINESS at rates made by some of their competitors They resolved to regain it by making similar rates, and they did this without order from me. By the way, how impossible i is to please every body. I inaintain rates and I am a monopolist, who gradually is absorbing the wcalth of the country by ex orbitant charges. 1 reduce rates to save my business, and I am blamed because I am ruining the property in my charge and the whole railroad property of the country. Ti ;, fr',','ïi'''vi"iC innocent stockholders of their fruit. Wuy, wv.„,. Ti,„rber aml the rest of that lot ought to pat me on ulc back and hall me as a public benefactor. These men howl about free canals, and by and by will want to tax railroads to raiise money to repair the canals. Dou't they sre that by free canals they strike a blow distinctly at the railroads theinselves. I am in favor of canals, because thuy brlnj; grain to New York, but by abolishing tolls the boat men. whom I am charged wilh ruining, would not be benefited. They would not receive one cent more for carrying srain. It is iinpossible, curtainly, to please everybody." " How did Erie increase its delivery of grain so largely last winter and spring?" " By cutting rates, and by no other ineans. Every railroad man in the country who know8 anything about it will teil you that he was astonished that the Central stood it so long. I have simply followed their rates, and now rates are down to hard pan where THEY CANKOT STEAL Ol R BUalXESS by making lower prices. Before we are throngh there will be a great many thinjis to settle. Take the Baltiinore and Ühio.for instance, which was allowed 8 per cent. on New York business, tliat road cut on every 100 pounds of freight it carried, in order to get even that 8 per cent. of business. ïïtlt right has the Baltiinore and Ohio to any New York business at all? It is not a New York road, and is not entitled to any of the business. Roads to Baltimore and to Philadelphia have built up those ports at the expense of this city. It is about time that an end was put to it They have been allowed differential rates to those cities. If they can cut rates to New York they have no need of differentiuls. I do not say these will be abolished. I do not know and I have no propositions to make to anybody, but a good many serious questions have got to be settled, and I guess the present is justas good a Unie as any. WIkmi railroads can carry goods around by Baltimon and Philadelphia and New Vork to Boston at 10 cents less than to New Vork, then all I have to gay is that the New York rate is too high, that s all." " How about arbitrary ratea on ronds west of Chicago?" ' Oh, that is all right Those roads have A POOL AMONO TUEM8ELVES, and what is more, tliey live up to it. It's ¦ pity we dul aot liave some of their sense a mi honesty, and not have a pool merely to viólate its agreements. Is there anytliinj; smart ia a freight solicitor going about and getting a thousand tons of freight at a cut rate ? lie lias that rmich freight, but in doing so he has caused his roud to viólate a solemn compact. Is there anytliing smart in that y The Central road is perfectly satislied with thinga as tin y go. Some of the companies have lots of idle cars. I do not say that we have none. We are doing a great deal of work, and we are rotting our moiicy and recovering oiir business. Why, this passenger business is a good thing for us. Notwithstanding low the passenger earnings of the Central increased $75,000 last month, and Cfaoee of the I,ake Shore increased $J5,0O0. My attention was called the other day to the Orand Trunk rates of $5, between Boston and Chicago, and some of my officers wantcd to meet the rate. I said It onld be foolish to do so. Our trains were going all the time, and if any one was willing to go around through the woods 150 miles further, to save a couple of dollars, I waB perfectly willing that the Grand Trunk sliould get ten or a dozen more passengers.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News