. Railroads, rates and regulation . like almost all the others involvingthe interpretation of the Fourth section, arose upon complaintof a small town in the southern states that more important tradecentres were securing advantages in the matter of rates whichwere denied to it. The Board of Trade of Troy, Alabama,complained that it was compelled to pay $ a ton on phos- 1 6 Rep., 3; overruled by the Supreme Court in 168 U. S., reprinted in our Railway Problems. Decisions of secondary impor-tance down to 1905 are abbreviated in App. F, Senate Elkins CommitteeHearings, 1905. VO
. Railroads, rates and regulation . like almost all the others involvingthe interpretation of the Fourth section, arose upon complaintof a small town in the southern states that more important tradecentres were securing advantages in the matter of rates whichwere denied to it. The Board of Trade of Troy, Alabama,complained that it was compelled to pay $ a ton on phos- 1 6 Rep., 3; overruled by the Supreme Court in 168 U. S., reprinted in our Railway Problems. Decisions of secondary impor-tance down to 1905 are abbreviated in App. F, Senate Elkins CommitteeHearings, 1905. VOL. I—31 482 RAILROADS phate rock from Florida and South Carolina points, whereasthe rate to Montgomery, a longer distance, was only $ perton. The rock was carried through Troy. It was also com-plained that rates on cotton discriminated against Troy ascompared with Montgomery and other points; and that, thirdly,rates from Baltimore and New York were higher to Troy thanto Montgomery, which was fifty-two miles further away. The. case was carried on appeal to the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates, where an opinion was handed down in 1896. The gistof this decision was that competition, whether of trade centresor of railroads, must be recognized as a factor in the determina-tion of the similarity of circumstances and conditions underwhich the Fourth section of the clause should be applied. Inother words, it recited that Montgomery being a larger placethan Troy; and having been an important trade centre on anavigable river for many years, it was competent to the rail-roads centering at Montgomery to determine in part for them- EMASCULATION OF THE LAW 483 selves whether the existence of effective competition wouldwarrant them ua granting lower rates to Montgomery than tolocal stations hke Troy. The court held, however, that suchcompetition was oi^ly one of the elements which must be con-sidered. It did not define it as the dominating one. Therailroads, nevertheless, seized upon t
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