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The business of express companies, as now conducted, is to forward by rapid conveyance, merchandise, perishable freight, live animals, jewelry, bullion, coin, currency, bonds, valuable papers, etc., and to deliver the same promptly; to make collections with or without goods; to fill orders, attend to commissions, and to transmit and pay money upon telegraph order or money order. In short, almost any service or commission that might be performed by a personal representative is undertaken and performed by express companies. In the course of a single year the express companies named in the resolution transport more than 100,000,000 packages of merchandise and more than 20,000,000 packages of money, and employ in handling the same more than 35,000 local agents, besides a large number of superintendents, route agents, messengers, drivers, and helpers.

In exceptional instances, railroad companies perform express service for patrons along their lines, but generally this service is rendered by independent companies organized for the purpose. The express companies in question operate upon various rail and other lines by virtue of contracts, which call for the payment by them for facilities furnished by carriers of from 40 to 60 per cent of the gross receipts of their business.

In the thickly settled portions of the country one-half to two-thirds of the local express agents are paid a salary graded upon the amount of business done, while the remainder are paid a commission, usually of 10 per cent, on outgoing and incoming traffic. In the western, southwestern, and parts of the southern sections of the country not to exceed 10 per cent of the local agents are paid a salary. In small communities, where there is not sufficient express business to warrant the establishment and maintenance of an express office, a resident merchant or other business man is induced to accept an agency and attend to the business offered on a commission basis. It is of frequent occurrence that express companies and railroad companies employ joint agents, and it occasionally happens that two express companies jointly employ the same local agent.

Although a given railroad company may (Express cases, 117 U. S., 1) and does make an exclusive contract with the particular express company operating over its line, most important points in the country, and many others, are served by two or more express companies operating on different lines of railroad.

While the methods of soliciting business by the various companies differ somewhat in detail, their general plans run in parallel lines and are in accordance with the same general principles or system. In the nature of the case merchandise and money shipments seek the most expeditious transportation, and the favored company at a particular location is usually the one offering the quickest service, express charges being the same. A considerable part of the express business has always been the execution of commissions for patrons. Commodities of all kinds are bought and transported on orders and are likewise transported and sold on orders. To properly care for and extend this branch of the business, the various companies maintain order and commission departments. In early days this business was solicited by special and route agents, who visited shippers personally. In later years, as distance of shipments increased and wider territory was served, the printer's and advertiser's arts have been brought into play, and the order and commission departments have been used on an extensive scale to increase shipments by express.

Express business is carried on through order and commission departments in four different ways, viz: (1) A patron may order any commodity, subject to express shipment, which will be purchased by the company's agent and transported to him for express charges. (2) A patron may deliver any commodity, subject to express shipment, to an agent of the company, to be transported to a certain buyer and the agreed sale price collected and transmitted to the shipper for express and money-order charges. (3) A patron may deliver any commodity, subject to express shipment, to an agent of a company who will undertake to sell it through other express agents to the best advantage on shipper's account and transmit the proceeds for express and money-order charges. (4) A patron may request an express agent to perform any reasonable commission, such as collecting bills, filing papers for record, redeeming pledges, etc., which will be undertaken by the company for agreed charges.

With respect to such a department, however, the Adams Company is peculiar when compared with the others named. It does not now and never has had a regularly organized order and commission department by means of which this kind of business is solicited. This company does not refuse to buy or sell and transport goods for patrons, nor does it refuse a voluntary consignment of goods to one of its agents to be disposed of to the best advantage on shipper's account. On the contrary, it will undertake any reasonable commission for a patron, but it has never actively and systematically solicited such business. In this respect it differs materially in its business methods from its leading competitors.

Before the inauguration of fast freight lines and refrigerator-car service upon railroads practically all shipments of perishable commodities to any considerable distance were made by express. The business moved through the only avenue then open, and express companies sought merely to enlarge the fields of production. But with the advent of fast freight and refrigerator-car competition the express companies, in order to hold this business and with the view of increasing it, reorganized their order and commission departments and began systematic efforts to bring buyers and producers into communication with each other and to induce them to make shipments: by express. In 1895 the Wells-Fargo Company began the use of express refrigerator cars, built and equipped for passenger-train service, and it now owns and uses for long-distance shipments of fruit, butter, poultry, and other perishable food products 110 such cars.

For the increase of express business, particularly in perishable commodities, the order and commission departments afford a direct means of solicitation. The companies carefully prepare lists of buyers of these products located in cities and towns along the lines of railroad upon which they operate, print them in convenient shape, and forward them to their local agents for distribution among producers and shippers. Lists of growers of fruits and vegetables and dealers and shippers of oysters, fish, and game are circulated by agents among buyers of and dealers in such products. Monthly, weekly, and, where practicable, daily price lists are prepared at buying centers and freely circulated by means of postal cards sent by mail or printed slips delivered to patrons by messengers and local agents. Printed blank forms for all classes of shipments are supplied to local agents, and the latter are instructed to diligently solicit, order and commission business. The printed lists of producers and buyers are designed to be suitable for the different seasons of the year and to cover different sections of the country.

All the companies named, except the Adams, have used the above method of business solicitation to a greater or less extent during the past years, and it is still used by some of them. In 1904 the Wells-Fargo Company ceased issuing printed lists of buyers and sellers and now depends upon the personal solicitation of local route and other agents to secure fruit, vegetable, and other perishable food-product shipments. The other companies depend in part on lists, where their use is advantageous, and partly on the industry of agents. The United States Company has apparently brought its method of soliciting business by means of printed lists, price lists, etc., to a greater degree of perfection than any of its competitors. It has a special employee located in Chicago in charge of this branch of its business. Numerous lists cover large sections of the country, both in the buying and producing fields, monthly and daily price lists are issued, and numberless blank forms are printed for free distribution to buyers and sellers. All this is designed to increase express shipments by inducing direct dealing between the producer and the retail and wholesale buyer. Similar, if less elaborate, efforts are made by other companies, and all of them now appear to be as active and diligent to secure business through order and commission departments as they ever have been, though the methods of solicitation in some cases are different from those formerly employed.

During recent years the business methods of wholesale dealers in perishable-food products have undergone marked changes. The wholesale dealer of twenty years, ago was almost invariably a commission merchant. He sought consignments of this traffic from growers and producers to be handled by him on a commission basis. To-day the jobber of fruits, vegetables, etc., usually buys his supplies outright, generally in carload lots, and does very little commission business. His representatives in the field of production contract with the growers of berries, melons, vegetables, etc., for refrigerator carload shipments at freight rates, which are cheaper than express rates, to the city or town where the jobber does business, and from there the commodities are distributed by express to local dealers in the smaller markets of consumption. To the same extent change has taken place in recent years in the methods of disposing of their products by growers. So far as practicable, apparently, growers of fruit and other food products have organized associations the objects of which are to secure the sale outright of the total production of each region and its shipment. in carload lots. The manager of such an association receives the products of its individual members and assembles the same into carloads. The manager also sells the product of a particular field to a jobber or other buyer, or contracts to deliver such products to a certain buyer at a fixed price per crate, barrel, etc., and makes settlement with the members according to the amounts they respectively deliver. The natural effect of these changes in business methods has been to divert initial shipments from express to freight. So long as the production of fruits and vegetables in any section of the country remote from jobbing centers is in its infancy, and the growers are too few in number and their products too limited in amount for carload.

shipments, the service necessary to market the same is rendered largely by express companies. The effort made by the latter to hold the business when the volume of production materially increases, in the face of the ever-growing tendency of shippers to take advantage of the lower rates accorded to freight shipments, has led to some practices by local and other agents of express companies which have met with much adverse criticism by dealers in these commodities.

The great territory west of the Mississippi River, and particularly that part west of the Missouri River, is at present the scene of most active strife for business by express companies. A large portion of that territory is sparcely settled and there is but little local express business. Jobbing centers are far apart and the productive resources of many sections are yet to be developed or are in the first stages of development. New fields with bright prospects for future production are constantly being exploited. It is to these fields, which are in process of development or are yet to be developed, that express companies have directed their efforts to secure business, and it is mainly from this part of the country that complaints against the methods of handling perishable food products by express companies have been received.

In the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers these complaints appear to be few and indefinite. This is undoubtedly because business relations in that territory are more closely knit together, jobbing centers are not far removed from each other or from local fields of production, and there are no extensive new fields to be developed. The supply of food products for great consuming centers, such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, moves for the most part in refrigerator cars and from distant points.

In that part of the country east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio and Potomac rivers no complaints have been brought to our attention except in the fruit sections of Georgia and Florida, where conditions are similar to those hereinafter described as existing in the western section of the country.

We do not find that any of the express companies named are now or ever have been engaged in the business of buying and selling commodities transported by them on their own account. Prior to February 15, 1907, a number of local express agents, and particularly those of the Wells-Fargo Company, at important points in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, were engaged in the fruit and vegetable business on their own account. They bought and sold these products and handled them on consignment and commission, often using the express companies' wagons for the purpose of delivery and the express companies' offices as places of storage. This led to many complaints from local dealers and jobbers generally who met the agents in competition for business. On the date above named a general order was issued by the president of the Wells-Fargo Company which declared that all agents employed exclusively by that company were prohibited from dealing in any commodity transported by it. This order is similar to a standing order of the Wells-Fargo Company that has existed for years, but which seems not to have been closely observed, and is similar to standing orders of all the other companies. Since the issuance of the above order, which appears to have been generally obeyed, we find little complaint because local agents at important points anywhere in the west are engaged in the fruit and vegetable business. Most of the offending agents have discontinued the forbidden practices or have resigned from the service to engage in the commission business. At a few points, however, the practice in question has not been entirely abandoned. Much the greater burden of complaint has relation to a period of time prior to 1907. This is partly due to the fact that the fruit and vegetable production over the entire country during the year 1907 was comparatively small, and consequently the demand exceeded the supply. The producers had no difficulty in finding ready markets at fair prices. In other words, producers received orders from dealers in excess of the output, and no special efforts were required to dispose of the available supply. During the year 1906, and for some years prior thereto, conditions were quite different. There were grown throughout the western fields bountiful crops of berries, peaches, apples, melons, and vegetables. Markets were congested with these products, producers were unable at times to secure sales at satisfactory prices, and resort was had to every means that promised relief. Express companies sought to secure as much of the traffic as possible, and local and other agents were spurred to activity. During the year 1906, and for a number of years prior thereto, a route agent of the Wells-Fargo Company, together with an express messenger of the same company, conducted a fruit business at Gentry, Ark. In the course of their business they bought and marketed entire crops of peaches and berries from associations and individuals in the region roundabout. They conducted the business to make a profit for themselves and to secure the traffic for the express company. They gave prices which were satisfactory to the associations and individual growers, and secured the business in competition with buyers for jobbers. We do not find that there had been a general practice among

route and other agents of express companies to buy crops on their own account, in order to secure express service, although certain agents have done so at various southwestern points.

More frequently local agents undertake to find markets for producers in their localities and to handle all the products offered, receiving a commission therefor on their own account for services rendered. The commission which they receive is often a voluntary offering from their patrons.

In the beginning of an industry in any locality, such as the growing of strawberries or other fruit, the cultivation of celery, cabbages, spinach, or other vegetables, the grower is often ignorant regarding markets and the manner in which his products should be packed for shipment and sale. Express agents, specially appointed for the purpose, or a local agent, should he be informed, undertake to instruct the grower as to the proper manner of packing his products for shipment and to find markets for their sale. The only interest of the company in the matter is the express shipments which result. Route and other agents often encourage residents of various localities, considered favorable for the growing of certain fruits or vegetables, to undertake the cultivation of these products with the assurance that markets will be found for their profitable disposal. Instructions are given as to the kind of plants and seeds to secure and as to methods of care and cultivation. These efforts have been made to a greater extent apparently in the central and southern portions of Texas than elsewhere, although they were made in the infancy of the melon industry in Colorado, and to some extent in other Western States. Wherever the express companies are able to see a prospect of future business they are always active to render assistance to producers and growers in any section of the country.

In finding markets for products one or more of three methods may be used, viz, (1) a local agent supplies a producer with a list of buyers located at various points reached by his company and names express charges by the crate, box, barrel, or pound, as the case may be; he suggests correspondence, and if orders result the producer consigns accordingly; (2) the local agent receives telegrams and letters of advice during the season from other agents as to wants of buyers at various points and turns them over to producers, who make consignments in accordance therewith; (3) a producer may deliver his shipment to a local agent, who will consign it to some other agent at a distant point to be disposed of by the latter to the best advantage, the proceeds to be transmitted to the producer, less express and money-order charges.

Instructions of the companies to all agents are that when commodities are consigned to them they shall be turned over to some dealer to be disposed of by him. In case no dealer will buy or accept the consignment on commission the agent is to dispose of it himself. Where commodities are handled by the latter method no commission is charged by either of the companies, except the American, which has issued a rule of instruction for the guidance of agents to the effect that where an agent makes a sale himself, not to or through a dealer, he shall charge the "usual commission." This commission when collected is included in the office receipts. This rule appears to have been adopted upon advice of counsel to the effect that where an agent makes a sale himself for a particular shipper and charges no commission therefor it might be held to be discrimination against a shipper for whom no service is rendered except delivery of the commodity transported.

Every facility for the prompt forwarding of commodities and for immediate and accurate returns from sales made for producers are afforded by express companies. Each local agent in a producing field receives during the season daily telegrams and letters of advice from other agents informing him of the wants of dealers at various points along the line or lines of railway upon which the company operates, and he, in turn, is instructed to advise agents in buying centers or in towns along the line as to the growers in his locality who have products for sale. Prices are quoted from each to each in the endeavor to strike a bargain and secure orders and express shipments. The companies operate over many miles of territory, and food products are often transported 1,500 or 2,000 miles. Fruits and vegetables raised in Texas frequently find sale in the Dakotas and Minnesota, as well as in intermediate States. The system by which express companies operate their order and commission departments has reached a high state of development, and local agents seeking to increase their income from commissions and advance the interests of their employers are zealous in their efforts to secure business. For services rendered producers local agents as a general rule receive no other compensation than the salary of the office or the 10 per cent commission allowed by the companies on business handled. In many instances, however, such agents do receive from shippers a commission, usually 5 per cent, which accrues to themselves.

Growers and shippers of perishable food products ordinarily prefer to sell upon orders from dealers and make consignments to them, but at times they find occasion to use

express companies to dispose of the surplus remaining after all orders have been filled. It also frequently happens in the field of production that climatic conditions exist which ripen berries, fruits, or melons with great rapidity, and a grower's orders for a given day are not sufficient to cover all of the product which must in the nature of the case find a quick market. In such event the opportunity to take the surplus to a local express agent and have him consign it to other agents along the line for disposal affords some return to a producer for commodities which otherwise would be left to rot in the field. In the Texas fruit and berry growing sections this last condition often arises, and the distances to consuming markets of any considerable importance are so great that surplus and overripe products have no outlet except through express service.

Jobbers of fruits, vegetables, and similar commodities enter the fields of production and buy such portions of the crops there grown as they believe they will be able to profitably handle during the season. Provision is made for shipment to the jobbing centers, as the crop matures, by freight-refrigerator carloads. Traveling men employed by the jobbers canvass the territory tributary to their locations and secure standing daily or weekly orders from dealers in small towns, to whom shipments are made by express. The jobber must realize a profit over and above the cost of the product delivered to the local dealers. Should it happen, on the day a local dealer who is to receive a shipment of fruit from a jobber with whom he has a standing order, that the express agent at the same point receives a consignment of the same fruit and offers it to the local dealer at a lower price than that contracted for with the jobber, the latter may be required to sacrifice at least his profit, and if the two shipments overstock the limited local market prices are demoralized, to the loss of all concerned, except possibly the consumer. The jobber also occasionally meets local agents in competition for orders. A local agent, upon the receipt of information from an agent located in a field of production that certain fruits or vegetables can be obtained, may solicit a local dealer for orders, and in such case may name a price below that for which the jobber can afford to sell the same products. The result is that the dealer gives his order to the local agent.

The amount of business done by express companies in the way of securing orders from dealers and filling the same by shipments from fields of production is very large, but not over 5 per cent of the total is done by local agents selling the commodities themselves. In case a local agent receives a large and unexpected consignment of fruit, melons, or other products, and the local dealers are supplied and can not handle the same, he sells the consignment direct to consumers at the best price that can be obtained. It occurs, in instances, that express agents control the sale of some commodities in certain localities; that is to say, the prices which they name to local merchants for such products as melons, celery, cabbages, etc., are lower than the jobber can meet, with the result that the latter does not attempt to make sales and abandons the business at the particular point.

The views entertained with respect to this matter by jobbers, producers, and express companies were stated by members of the Western Fruit Jobbers' Association and other wholesale dealers in food products, by producers from different parts of the country, and by general superintendents, special and other agents of the express companies who testified at the hearings.

It is maintained by the jobbers that the methods express companies use to secure shipments of perishable food products, and the conduct of local and other agents with respect thereto, are a serious injury to their business, and that the best interests of the people, as a whole, are not subserved thereby. It is insisted that express companies should attend strictly to transporting the products, and should not be allowed to solicit orders from dealers or induce producers to consign to or through their agents. It is maintained that consignments to express agents, whose primary object is to secure express charges, is effective to lower and unsettle prices which would remain stable should the business be freed from solicitation and resultant sales by express companies. It is asserted that when express companies engage in soliciting business from the buyer and seller of food products, and afford facilities for the conduct of a large business between them, they have entered the field as competitors in the jobbing business, and that such competition is unfair, because the companies do not have money invested in the business, are not required to pay the expenses incidental thereto, and do not stand losses from products becoming unfit for sale. Experienced jobbers express the opinion that should express companies cease the methods of which they complain business would quickly adjust itself to the new conditions; that the result would be beneficial to producers and more stable and satisfactory relations between buyer and seller; that local dealers would be served regularly without being required to meet in competition occasional shipments to local agents which demoralize prices; that the business requires foresight and experience, and few local agents are capable of judging what is a fair price for products or what quantity of goods a particular market can easily consume; and that shipments to agents, either through

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