Competition to be of advantage in the way of progress must always have in view the survival of the fittest and the elimination of the unfit. The vast extent of the United States, the necessity of transporting commodities great distances at low cost and the progressiveness of railway managers, has led to an extraordinary development of the phase of rate making above-mentioned. The principle of the flat rate, based upon the theory that distance is a quite subordinate, if not indeed entirely negligible, element in the construction of freight tariffs under circumstances of competition, was fully accepted twenty-five years ago.[103] J. C. Stubbs, traffic manager of the Harriman lines, speaking of transcontinental business in 1898, clearly expressed it as "the traditional policy of the American lines as between themselves to recognize and to practise equality of rates as the only reasonable and just rule ... regardless of the characteristics of their respective lines, whether equal in length or widely different." It is the theory upon which the southern basing-point system is founded; and it is the common practice in making rates into and out of New England--being in fact vital to the continued prosperity of this out-of-the-way territory.[104] President Tuttle, of the Boston & Maine, has most ably supported this principle of equality of rates irrespective of distance. "It is the duty of transportation agents," he says, "to so adjust their freight tariffs that, regardless of distance, producers and consumers in every part of this country shall, to the fullest extent possible, have equal access to the markets of all parts of this country and of the world, a result wholly impossible of attainment if freight rates must be constructed upon the scientific principle of tons and miles." This is the principle of the blanket rate attacked in the famous Milk Producers' Protective Association case in 1897;[105] and it is the practice which has been so fully discussed of late, as generally applied to lumber rates from the various forest regions of the United States into the treeless tract of the Middle West. The principle, while applied thus generally in the construction of tariffs, is of far greater applicability in the making of special or commodity rates. Wool rates afford one of the best examples. Under such rates the bulk of the tonnage of American railways is at present moved. The essential principle of such special rates, constituting exceptions to the classified tariffs, is that of the flat rate; namely, a rate fixed in accordance with what the traffic will bear, without regard to the element of cost, that is to say, of distance. But a noticeable trend away from the flat rate is evident in recent decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission; especially in the Intermountain case,[106] revision of the wool and cattle rates,[107] and the general disposition to lessen special tariffs all along the line. * * * * *