The principle of charging what the traffic will bear is well illustrated by the relative rates on patent medicines and ale and beer, as maintained by the Official Classification. In a complaint made by a prominent manufacturer of proprietary medicines against the New York Central and other roads, it was shown that the complainant's products were shipped at owner's risk, and that they were in bulk and intrinsic value similar to ale and beer, but that in spite of these analogies the former were rated as first-class and the latter as third-class goods, simply because they retailed at a higher price. Another unwarrantable discrimination is that in favor of live stock and against dressed beef. While Mr. Fink, the commissioner of the Trunk Line Pool, himself admitted that the cost of carrying dressed beef from Chicago to New York was only 6-1/4 cents per 100 pounds in excess of the cost of hauling live stock, the trunk lines maintained on dressed beef a rate 75 per cent. higher than that on live cattle. The railroad companies asserted that this was due to those people in the East whose living depended on the live-stock interest. The railroads have in this assumed a paternalism which would not be tolerated even in the Government. To protect the East, railroads will not permit the West to engage in new industries. The position which the Interstate Commerce Commission has assumed in interpreting the rights of shippers under the law which railroad companies are bound to respect in the preparation of their tariff sheets and classifications cannot but be most gratifying to the people. In a decision relating to the classification and rates for car-loads and less than car-loads, filed March 14, 1890, the commission laid down the following rules for the guidance of railroad companies: "1. Classification of freight for transportation purposes is in terms recognized by the act to regulate commerce, and is therefore lawful. It is also a valuable convenience both to shippers and carriers. "2. A classification of freight designating different classes for car-load quantities and for less than car-load quantities for transportation at a lower rate in car-loads than in less than car-loads is not in contravention of the act to regulate commerce. The circumstances and conditions of the transportation in respect to the work done by the carrier and the revenue earned are dissimilar, and may justify a reasonable difference in rate. The public interests are subserved by car-load classification of property that, on account of the volume transported to reach markets or supply the demands of trade throughout the country, legitimately or usually moves in such quantities.