"There was nothing in the law specifically forbidding the payment of 'commissions,' and it was found that the routing of business might be secured by a slight expenditure of that nature to a shipper's friend. Other kindred devices were suggested, some new, some old; the payment of rent, clerk hire, dock charges, elevator fees, drayage, the allowance of exaggerated claims, free transportation within some single State--a hundred ingenious forms of evading the plain requirements of the law were said to be in use. The demoralization was not by any means confined to the minor roads. Shippers were ready to give information to other lines concerning concessions which were offered them, and to state the sum required to control their patronage. A freight agent, thus appealed to, at first perhaps might let the business go, but when the matter became more serious and he saw one large shipper after another seeking a less desirable route, he was very apt to throw up his hands and fall in with the procession." Mr. Walker is very severe on the Interstate Commerce Act, which, he says, might in its present form "well be entitled, 'An act to promote railway bankruptcies and consolidations by driving weak roads out of competitive business.'" To remedy the evil which, in his opinion, the act causes, he favors the granting of differentials by the stronger to the weaker roads. Such a device is simply a species of pool under a less offensive name. Its manifest object is to maintain rates through a conspiracy of rival railroads. Mr. Walker admits this when he says: "It operates in practice to affect a distribution of the traffic somewhat roughly, giving rise to frequent dissensions and bickerings over the 'differentials' which are allowed; but after all it has enabled the trunk lines usually to secure a better maintenance of tariff rates and a better observance of the provisions of the law against private rebates and discriminations than has been attainable in other sections of the country where different conditions make such an arrangement impracticable. It vividly illustrates, however, the necessity of some plan by which common business may be divided." This problem, which apparently causes so much perplexity to railroad managers, would soon be solved if railroad abuses were done away with. So long as these abuses exist and rates are maintained by artificial means there will be bickering and strife for business which legitimately belongs to others. Mr. Walker then bewails the proscription of the pool, saying: