Imagine the Encyclopædia Britannica, a Chicago mail-order catalogue and a United States protective tariff law blended in a single volume, and you have a freight classification as it exists in the United States at the present time! A few selections from the first and last items of such a document are reproduced on the preceding pages. They give some idea of the amazing scope of trade. Such a classification is, first of all, a list of every possible commodity which may move by rail, from Academy or Artist's Board and Accoutrements to Xylophones and Zylonite. In this list one finds Algarovilla, Bagasse, "Pie Crust, Prepared"; Artificial Hams, Cattle Tails and Wombat Skins; Wings, Crutches, Cradles, Baby Jumpers and all; together with Shoo Flies and Grave Vaults. Every thing above, on, or under the earth will be found listed in such a volume. To grade justly all these commodities is obviously a task of the utmost nicety. A few of the delicate questions which have puzzled the Interstate Commerce Commission may give some idea of the complexity of the problem.[316] Shall cow peas pay freight as "vegetables, N. O. S., dried or evaporated," or as "fertilizer"--being an active agent in soil regeneration? Are "iron-handled bristle shoe-blacking daubers" machinery or toilet appliances? Are patent medicines distinguishable, for purposes of transportation, from other alcoholic beverages used as tonics? What is the difference, as regards rail carriage, between a percolator and an everyday coffee pot? Are Grandpa's Wonder Soap and Pearline--in the light of the claims put forth by manufacturers, suitable either for laundry or toilet purposes--to be put in different classes according to their uses or their market price? When is a boiler not a boiler? If it be used for heating purposes rather than steam generation, why is it not a stove? What is the difference between raisins and other dried fruits, unless perchance the carrier has not yet established one industry while another is already firmly rooted and safe against competition?