The great contest between the trunk lines over the granting of differentials to Philadelphia and Baltimore, as against New York and Boston, played a not unimportant part in the diplomacy leading to the acceptance of the MacGraham system. The New York Central, the Lake Shore, and the Boston & Albany roads, of course eagerly accepted it, because it promised aid in meeting the lake competition to which they were peculiarly exposed. The Pennsylvania and the Erie, lying considerably further from Lake Erie, would also be benefited, operating as they did in a territory naturally tributary to them, but exposed to drainage to the lakes by lateral lines. But the Baltimore & Ohio, ever since its entry into Chicago in 1874, had been a thorn in the flesh of the others. The territory along its line was so far from the lakes that it had little to fear from water competition at intermediate points between Chicago and the seaboard. Would it accept a plan primarily intended to meet a danger which, while injuring its powerful rivals, was of less consequence to itself? Fortunately for the scheme, it was based upon the solid principle that distance was of preponderating influence in the adjustment of rates. The entire contention of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania for a differential rate to Baltimore and Philadelphia below New York rested upon this same principle. The distance from Chicago to the southern ports was less. Consequently, they insisted, they were entitled to offer a lower rate. The MacGraham scale and the port differentials were thus logically connected. They stood or fell together. The MacGraham plan materially aided the Baltimore & Ohio in making good its demands.[404] It was acceptable, therefore, by reason of this collateral advantage. Another factor in the situation appealed to the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio. Their lines to tide water were about seventy-five and one hundred miles shorter, respectively, than the shortest line to New York.[405] In the division of the joint through rate between a chain of connecting railway lines this was of great advantage. It always aids the shorter line if pro-rating is based upon mileage. A feeder one hundred miles long pro-rating with a trunk line one thousand miles in length would be entitled to only one-eleventh of the total rate. Were the trunk line only eight hundred miles long, the neutral road might claim one-ninth. This seemingly slight difference might mean several hundred thousand dollars more earnings to the neutral road or feeder, if it turned over its business to the short line.[406] Any emphasis upon distance as a general principle strengthened the Baltimore & Ohio in securing patronage from other roads by this means. The other trunk lines, through acceptance of the MacGraham scale, conceded the distance principle, and with it, coincidently, the pro-rating practice.