Bearing these facts in mind it is manifest that if an advance in rates is made and the protest of one shipper shall operate as a stay to the advance of a particular rate in which he may be interested the result would be to burden thousands of other shippers who have made no objection. The protesting shipper would thus secure an advantage, enjoying for a time, at least, a rate relatively lower than that to which he was entitled. It might be urged that it would be open to all other shippers to file similar protests, but under the provisions of the bill, or of the amendments suggested in committee, the protesting shipper might wait until the last day of the thirty-day period, thus giving no opportunity to other shippers, who would be ignorant of his purpose, to file their protest. It would be possible if this amendment became a law that many individual shippers would take advantage of their competitors by making contracts upon the basis of a lower rate and at the last moment file the protest, suspend the advance rate, and deliver their product under such contracts within the period of the suspension of the advanced rates and thus profit at the expense of their competitors. The effect of this amendment becomes more serious where the relation of rates is between wide areas, and these relative rate adjustments cannot be made simultaneously. The rates upon grain for export, from the West to the Gulf, as compared with the Atlantic seaboard, will illustrate this statement. The protest of one shipper between two specific points would not only result in throwing out of relation the rates from all points in that section, but would also affect the competitive rates from other sections. Such a result would necessarily render the rate situation in reference to the grain rates "confusion worse confounded." Rates in a country like the United States, which is comparatively young, and the development of which attracts the attention of the world, must, necessarily, be elastic, not only in the interest of the carrier, but of the shipping public. The principle is sound and has received the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission, that rates must be fixed with regard to their relations one with the other, and not entirely upon the cost of service. This relation is because of the competition between shippers, between sections of shippers, and between localities, and as (because of the rapid development of our country in the production of new sources of supply, in the opening up of new grain fields, flour mills, mines, and factories, etc.) this competition is constantly changing. It is manifest that rates must constantly fluctuate, so as to be adjusted to the new condition; it is essential in the development of the country, even in the older sections, that rates must be elastic, which means constant reductions and advances.