Few generalizations are possible in this connection. Rate making must in a growing country ever be a matter of infinite detail. It is generally true, however, that beyond a certain point the tariff on different grades of commodities will separate more and more widely with increasing distance. For, obviously, after the low-grade goods have reached the maximum which they can bear--and this they tend to do speedily--they must remain practically constant; while those of higher grade continue progressively rising. And for very short distances the rate on the low-grade goods may even exceed that imposed upon higher-class tonnage. The coal rate for a ten-mile haul may exceed that upon some commodity worth twice as much; but for a 200-mile haul the coal rate may be only one-eighth of the rate on the other goods. Long experience on the part of the carriers has, however, enabled them to arrange their tonnage in classes; for each of which the conditions are more or less uniform. By reserving the exceptional traffic for special treatment under commodity rates, a fairly consistent scheme of charges, rising by stages with increasing distance may be evolved.
Few standard railway tariffs in the United States develop beyond the point covered by the preceding paragraph. Many of them are unable even to reach this stage of logical growth. In the South, for instance, they have never got beyond the stage of progressively rising local rates, with independent and often radically reduced charges at all large towns or competitive points.[74] Each traffic manager, particularly since the effective prohibition of working agreements between competing lines by the Trans-Missouri Freight Association decision of the Supreme Court in 1896, has been left to work out his own salvation, not aided by, but in spite of, the efforts of his rivals. There is, nevertheless, one example of further development in the so-called trunk line territory, lying east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. Conditions here, in general, are most favorable by comparison with the West and South. Both population and traffic are dense, and the state legislatures are conservative in making grants for the construction of new lines. The companies are historically mature. The good fruits of coöperation had already appeared in the evolution of a scientific and logical scheme, long before such coöperative action had been frowned upon by the law and the courts. All the railways in trunk line territory have worked in harmony, so far as general classified local tariffs are concerned--however much they may have fought one another over differentials to seaboard cities, or export and import rates. Their system is comparatively simple in principle, although it has required the experience of many years to work out in detail. Fully described elsewhere,[75] it will suffice for present purposes to say that all rates from intermediate points between Chicago and New York, are fixed at a definite proportion of the Chicago-New York rate both for east-and westbound shipments. Thus, for instance, as shown by the map of trunk line rate distribution, at page 365, the rate from Detroit to New York is seventy-two per cent. of the Chicago-New York rate. The percentages from the following points are as indicated, namely: Cincinnati, eighty-seven per cent.; Indianapolis, ninety-three per cent.; Grand Rapids, ninety-six per cent.; Peoria, Ill., one hundred and ten per cent.; Louisville, Ky., one hundred per cent.; Milwaukee, one hundred per cent.; and even points in Canada, such as Toronto, seventy-eight per cent., etc. Every place, no matter how small, has a certain percentage of the New York-Chicago rate assigned to it. This rate changes with any variation of the standard or basic charge. Thus when the Chicago-New York rate, first-class, is seventy-five cents, the rate from Indianapolis is ninety-three per cent. of that figure. Any change of Chicago-New York first-class rates modifies every intermediate rate in exactly the same proportion. This was well exemplified in the rate wars of 1893. These percentages have been fixed after a long process of compromise among conflicting interests. Another point of special interest is that these rates are adjusted on the basis strictly of the long and short haul principle, namely, that all intermediate points enjoy a somewhat lower rate than the terminal points, although the percentage may not be exactly upon a mileage basis. Consideration of the distribution of these percentages points to many apparent inequalities in the adjustment; but, as a matter of fact, it will be found that the existence of competing routes, of water transportation or of other factors, offers a partial explanation in most instances.