that with this explanation respecting the mutual functions of the carriers and the Commissioners in carrying the law into effect according to its true intent and meaning, there will be no lack of good faith and active co-operation in continuing the normal activity of every kind of reputable industry and traffic throughout the land, under favorable, fair and reasonable terms, conceding frankly to the people all the rights, benefits, advantages, and equal privileges which merce Law. One thousand bales were now awaiting shipment. Mr. Cummins said he would plead guilty to everything charged. This was exactly what his road was doing and what it asked leave to continue to do. the act to regulate commerce" was intended Miam S. Millen, general manager of the Wis to secure. SHIP ASSOCIATION et al. Re WISCONSIN CENTRAL R. R. CO. ESSRS. Howard Morris, attorney, and Willconsin Central lines, presented a petition and a brief in its support, asking that the operation Re SOUTHERN RAILWAY & STEAM- of the long and short haul clause be suspended, in so far as it prevented them from accepting traffic at rates fixed by water lines and by more HE Commission modified the order hereto-direct rail lines between their various terminal Tore grammession modified the order hereto-point. ern Railway & Steamboat Association, limiting its operation to points south of the Ohio River, and to business to and from such points, from and north of the Ohio River. ad to points nort of also granted upon the petitions of other railroads south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, to wit: the Illinois Central; the St. Louis & Cairo Short Line; the Tennessee & Ohio; the Norfolk & Western; the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk; the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley; the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas, and the Newport News and Mississippi Valley roads, Re LOUISVILLE, NEW ORLEANS & TEXAS R. R. CO. MR R. Hulmes Cummins, general counsel for the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railroad Company, addressed the Commission in support of a petition filed by that Company. He described the line of the road and said it touched the Mississippi at both termini, and at several intermediate points but lay at an average of twenty-five miles from the river along most of its route. It thus came into direct competition with water lines at several points, and it became necessary to give lower rates to retain the business. He asked the relief described in the petition, namely: the privilege of meeting the rates of water lines at competing points. The northern connecting lines from Kansas City and St. Louis to Memphis held differently, believing it illegal to make lower rates for long than short hauls under any circumstances unless expressly authorized by the Commission. Owing to this divergence of opinion through traffic was now suspended. This was an additional reason for a prompt decision of the point by the Commission. Re IOWA BARB STEEL WIRE CO. A Commission Petite Twa Barb Steel Wire Company, of Marshalltown, Iowa, stating that up to April 1 that Company has had an equalized rate of freight charges upon its receipts and shipments; that is, the through rate from Chicago to the Missouri River being twenty-five cents, the Company has paid fifteen cents for bringing its raw material from Chicago to Marshalltown and ten cents for transporting its finished product from Marshalltown to the Missouri. PRINTED petition received the Under this arrangement it has built up a reasonably profitable business of $400,000 a year. The railroad company, fearing the penalties of the law, has now suspended the arrangement and has made rates from Chicago to Marshalltown and from Marshalltown to the places of consignment of the Company's goods which are enormously higher than the rates from Chicago to such places of consignment. As a result of this action the petitioner must either ship at great financial loss or shut down its factories and discharge its employees. The system of making equalized rates has been customary in the Northwest, and the petitioner's case is represented as similar to that of hundreds of other establishments. The petitioner, therefore, asks that the system be sanctioned or the operation of the law be suspended, until such time as the subject can be investigated. Re RELIGIOUS TEACHERS, etc.* Railroads have a right to grant special privileges to religious teachers. IN N reply to Bishop Knickerbocker, of IndianAs he was about to conclude his remarks, his apolis, who inquired as to the right of a railattention was called to a complaint from Port road to transport missionaries at special reduced Gibson, La., charging his road with unjust dis- rates, the Commission wrote, by Cooley, crimination against that place, and in favor of Chairman, that it has no power in the premises, Vicksburg. The complaint set forth that the but stating that "There is no doubt of the right rate upon cotton from Port Gibson to New of the railroads to grant special privileges to Orleans was $1.75 per bale, while for the long-religious teachers; and in deciding in good faith er haul from Vicksburg only seventy-five cents what they will do they can scarcely be said to was charged. The people, it said, had expected run a risk of penalties. Penalties are for willlower rates as an effect of the Interstate Com- *See section 22 of the Act. Re INDIAN SUPPLIES.* It is lawful, under the Act, for a common carrier to offer to make special rates with individuals, in order that the latter may make proposals to the Interior Department for the transportation of Indian supplies, such transportation being "for the United States" and the government receiving the benefit of the reduced rates. reply to a communication from Hon. H. rior, asking for the opinion of the Commission upon the question whether it is lawful under the Interstate Commerce Act for a common carrier to offer to make special rates to individuals in order that such individuals may offer and make proposals to the Interior Department for the transportation of Indian supplies, the Commission, per Cooley, Chairman, replied as follows: The Commission directs me to say to you that it does not understand it has any general power to construe the statute under which it is organized for the purpose of guiding or controlling the actions of individuals in either private business or public duties, except when complaints under the law are brought to its attention, or when relief which it is in its power to grant is prayed. The Commission has, therefore, uniformly declined to express opinions on abstract questions of construction on request of private citizens or organizations, deeming it alike proper and pru dent to do so. Deference to a department of the government inclines the Commission to make an exception of your request, especially as a doubt regarding the rights of the government might seriously affect the bids for transportation which are to be called for. Coming to the question then, I am further directed to say that in its view the statement made by you of the facts constitutes of itself a complete answer. The supplies, as you show, are delivered to the government at points designated, and they are then transported at the cost of the government to points where they are to be made use of. THE Canadian Express Company having sub mitted an inquiry as to whether it, together with other express companies, was subject to the operations of the Interstate Commerce Act, the Commission made a ruling that it would hold in the affirmative, but would give a hear ing to any company wishing to contest the point. The Canadian Express Company thereupon notified the Commission that it is carrying out the provisions of the Act, and forwarded a copy of its general tariff from offices in the United States. Re RICHMOND & ALLEGHANY R. R. CO. PETITION for exemption from the fourth The reply of the Commission stated that the (April 19, 1887.) Re ST. LOUIS MILLERS' ASSOCIATION. APPLICATION from the St. Louis Millers' The complaint is that there is on hand a large The Commission replied that it is clear that the Commission could not grant relief, The transportation is, therefore, "for the by giving to St. Louis exceptional advantages United States" in the words of the Interstate corresponding to those which Minneapolis Commerce Law; and it is immaterial that it is is said now to enjoy; that would be a discrim done by contractors when the government re-ination against other localities as indefensible ceives the benefit of the free or reduced rates, and as much opposed to the spirit of the law as as it must be presumed to do when the bids are the transit system itself. made in reliance upon the expectation that such rates will be granted. (April 18, 1887.) Re EXPRESS COMPANIES. "It may be questionable, perhaps, whether the so-called 'transits' have such validity in law that the companies issuing them are bound to give transportation according to their terms when the effect would be to discriminate in favor of one or more localities against others. That question is not brought before us by your petition, and could only be raised in some pro Express Companies are subject to the ceeding which would directly present it and in operation of the Act. See section 22 of the Act. which parties interested would have opportu the rooms of the Commission at the opening of the morning [session, and the hearing of their argument began at once. There were present Messrs. Wm. H. Lincoln, C. H. Allan and Charles D. Berry, representing the steamship interests; Mr. W. O. Blaney, of the United Transportation Company; Hon. Alden Speare, of the Boston Executive Business Association and the Merchants' Club; Messrs. Edmund Reardon and Charles H. North, representing the produce exporting interests; Judge Soule, attorney, and Mr. Arthur Wells, general traffic manager, representing the Boston & Albany Railroad; Messrs. George A. Torrey, attorney, and John Whitmore, general traffic manager, representing the Fitchburg Road; Mr. John Portius, representing the Grand Trunk, Central Vermont and Lowell Roads; and Mr. Ed ings. THE Commission received the following tel-ward Kemble of the firm of Kemble & Hastegram from E. M. Herrick, President of the Pacific Pine Lumber Company, and F. C. Williams, President of the Redwood Manufacturing Association of San Francisco: Our two corporations, employing 8,000 to 10,000 men and about $30,000,000 of capital, have addressed you by mail stating that our eastern business has been entirely destroyed by the operation of the law and asking your interposition on our behalf. Meanwhile will you allow the roads over which we have been operating to give old rates and so revive our business with the East, provided the rate is open and available for all? Judge Soule was the first speaker. He said the route taken by shipments to Boston was not the same as that to New York, but was between 60 and 115 miles longer. Of course, the rates to New York were fixed by the shortest line. There had grown up a large export trade in Boston, made possible by an arrangement with the roads which brought traffic at the same rates charged by the New York roads to that city. This trade rendered it possible to maintain a line of steamers to England, which could not be maintained without its traffic; hence, this question became one of greater moment to Boston interests than would appear merely from the amount of the traffic itself. He submitted statements showing the extent of Re FRUIT INTERESTS OF CALIFORNIA. the traffic referred to. THE Commission received the following telegram from A. Lusk & Co. of San Francisco: The fruit interests of this State, which are of great and growing importance, are seriously jeopardized by the workings of the Interstate Commerce Bill. Inasmuch as this interest cannot avail itself of water competition we respectfully ask that section 4 be suspended, that these interests be not entirely paralyzed and great loss ensue. Mr. Arthur Mills, general traffic manager of the Boston & Albany Road, was sworn, and in in greater detail the history of the growth of response to questions by Judge Soule set forth the traffic which is said to be jeopardized and the extent of the interests involved. The local rate from the West to Boston was about five cents greater on grain and certain like classes dise intended for export. If the local rates of produce than that upon the same merchanwere changed on the export traffic it would kill it. A certain portion of this traffic came on Re KENTON WHEEL CLUB OF COV-through bills of lading from the West to foreign INGTON. HE Commission received a communication of American Wheelmen, and secretary of the Kenton Wheel Club of Covington, Ky., complaining to the Commission that the Covington and Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Company compels bicyclers to dismount and walk over its bridge, and yet to pay an extra charge for their bicycles, threatening arrest if a wheelman attempts to ride over. The communication stated that the bridge has street railways over it, and that hence the writer assumes that it falls under the provisions of the Insterstate Commerce Act. ports. About an equal amount was brought to Boston and held there by Boston dealers until they could see a favorable market abroad. was asked. The Boston dealer was not able to avail himself of the through bills; these were given by the western roads to western men. In reply to Commissioners Schoonmaker and Bragg, Mr. Mills stated the rates upon oil from the Pennsylvania oil regions. These were higher than before the law went into effect. There was discrimination, but there was none from the oil stations. His company did not know the Standard Oil Company in any of these transactions; it received the oil from the New York Central; but with all due respect to the Commission, was he compelled to answer questions relating to these matters? He was Re EXPORT TRADE OF BOSTON.f willing to state anything he knew respecting THE representatives of various business in-matters subsequent to the date when the law took effect; but were the previous matters to form a part of this inquiry? terests centering in Boston were present in *See post, 80. +See ante, 18. The Commission thought the inquiries were | rate upon his barrel of flour than a mechanic legitimate. in Massachusetts? Mr. Torrey, for the Fitchburg Road, exhibited maps of his line and a photograph of the immense wharf and elevator property of the company which would become useless if the former privileges were not restored. Mr. Torrey called Mr. Whitmore to state under oath the difficulties of doing the export business under other than the old methods. One of these found in the fact that ocean freights varied from week to week, yet the through rates could not be changed by the railroads without giving notice in advance. The Fitchburg Company was entirely dependent upon Boston traffic for its property. Mr. John Portius, general traffic manager of the Grand Trunk, representing on this occasion the Central Vermont and Boston & Lowell Roads, addressed the Commission. These lines had about a thousand tons of freight a day for export, besides a large traffic of various kinds from Canada and the West for the coastwise trade. He explained the methods of billing export traffic. If they were refused the privi: lege of making a rebate, New York would handle both the export and the coasting trade. William H. Lincoln, agent of a line of transatlantic steamers, said under oath that the whole business of Boston was involved in this matter-both local and export. Boston was the second port of the country in the amount of its exports and imports. This trade had all been built upon the basis of equality with New York on rates. New York's advantage in spite of this equality was such that the average rate of ocean freights during the last season had been from a penny to a penny and a half in her favor. This question was of such importance that he had cabled his people in Liverpool the day before leaving Boston to delay the sailing of a steamship which was about to sail, until it should be settled; and he knew that other lines had done the same. C. H. Allan, representing the Allan Line, said the law had greatly interfered with the business of the steamers. The Pavonia, which sailed a few days ago, was short about 1,200 tons of her cargo. Another steamer which sailed last night was short about 700 tons. Other speeches of a similar purport were made. Mr. Torrey, in answer to a question by the chairman as to what power conferred by law upon the Commission it was desired should be exercised, said it was his own opinion that the law did not forbid the continuance of the drawback. Edward Kemble asked that the railroads should not be permitted to single out a certain class of citizens of Boston as beneficiaries of No expression of opinion was made on the part of the Commissioners themselves to indiate their own views. During the progress of one of the brief incidental discussions the chairman remarked, that if the law forbade rebates the Commission had no power to suspend or waive the legal provision. The hearing of the Boston interests was completed. No opinion or decision was rendered. Re CHICAGO, ST. PAUL, MINNEAPO- YOUNSEL for the above Railway Company Co presented petitions for relief from section 4, so as to be allowed to make rates from St. Paul and Minneapolis to Superior and Washburn, Wisconsin, and to Duluth, Minn., to meet the rates fixed by the St. Paul & Duluth Road which is wholly within Minnesota and therefore not a subject of the new law. (April 21, 1887.) Re MILK TRAFFIC. PETITION was received from several farm ers Prof Orange County, New York, representing the farmers and milk producers of that county, setting forth that the rates charged by the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railway Company for transporting milk to Jersey City, a distance of fifty miles, are unreasonable and unjust. The rate charged amounts to 35 per cent of the value of the product, with 5 per cent more for ferriage to New York, which is more than is charged upon other traffic of like value and no greater risk. The charge upon milk from Summit, in New York, a distance of 184 miles, is the same as from Orange County. Like complaints are made against the New York, Ontario & Western, the New York, Susquehanna & Western, and the Lehigh Valley & Hudson River Roads. The petitioners ask such immediate action as shall seem just and equitable, to the end that the said corporations may be restrained from continuance of the acts complained of. a Re Ralph W. THACHER. ALPH W.Thacher, a miller of Albany, N. Y,,ppeared before the Commission and filed VY., petition setting forth that his branch offices, steam mills, grain elevator and general shipping station were at Schenectady. The elevator was built in compliance with the terms of an agree ment with the railroads for certain rights of transportation upon terms as favorable as were given to any other shippers. the desired action of the Commission. He asked that their petition be amended so as to distribute the hoped for benefits to all classes. If the roads could haul freight from Chicago to Boston for export for twenty-five cents, why could they not do it for consumption. It was a fact, he submitted, that at the same rates the roads would make more money by hauling to Boston than to New York. There was a termiSince the Interstate Commerce Law went innal charge at New York which Boston traffic to effect the Delaware & Hudson Canal Comescaped. By what principle of justice was a pany had declined to transport grain from mechanic in England to be afforded a better Schenectady to eastern points, except at local sail. rates. The petitioner set forth that his busi-shippers of coarse goods to forward them by ness is at a standstill, and that his daily expenses are about $200. He asked the issuing of an order for the furnishing of cars and the acceptance of the old rates, according to the contract under which the elevator was built. Re SUSPENSION OF THE FOURTH SECTION. the R. Charles H. Tweed, of New York, adprayer of the Southern Pacific Railroad for a suspension of the fourth section. He presented a formal petition which sets forth that the Southern Pacific is in competition for the transportation of through passengers and freight with the Canadian Pacific, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, clippers and tramp steamers, and that the business is done under substantially dissimilar conditions from those under which local transportation is conducted. Mr. Hawley, of New York, general eastern agent of the Southern Pacific Company, was sworn and questioned by counsel upon the matters set forth in the petition. He was cross examined by F. N. Taft, of New York, representing Sutton & Co., of the clipper lines. A. T. Britton, attorney of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, produced a map of the road and its connections. He read a petition setting forth that the road and its connections were engaged in transcontinental traffic. In an honest endeavor to comply with the law it had put in operation new schedules which, while they increased the through rates, largely reduced the rates to intermediate points. While this had not resulted in increasing the way traffic, it had entirely destroyed the through traffic. The prayer of the petition was similar to that of the Southern Pacific. General William W. Belknap, representing the St. Louis & San Francisco Road, presented a petition setting forth the circumstances influencing that company's through traffic, and asked that the fourth section of the Act be suspended. Colonel George Gray gave notice that he would file the petition of the Northern Pacific to a like purport later in the day. James F. Goddard, assistant general manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Road, was sworn, and in reply to inquiries by counsel substantiated under oath the matters set forth in the petition mentioned above. The witness said the company asked to be placed in a position where it could meet the competition of the clippers without further reference to the Commission. Mr. Taft presented a communication from Sutton & Co's Dispatch Line setting forth that the action of the transcontinental roads toward the shipping interest via Cape Horn has been of the most violent nature; that they had exerted every effort to annihilate the shipping interests of the country. They had taken the long haul traffic at a loss which they must make up from charges on the short haul traffic. The writers protested against the suspension of the long and short haul section, unless a fair competing tariff shall be made that will enable J. E. Searles, Jr., of New York, representing the sugar refiners of the East, including the St. Louis Refinery, entered a protest against the granting of the San Francisco refiners' petition. He told the history of the rise of the Hawaiian sugar trade, to the point where the importations from the islands exceeded the entire consumption of the Pacific Coast. Then, to make a market for this surplus the importers entered into a combination with the railroads, by means of which they were enabled to lay down this prices with which the eastern refiners who were held to full rates of freight could not compete. One result had been the closing up of the St. Louis refinery, which had cost $1,500,000. A telegram was received by the Commission from C. M. Wicker of Chicago, on behalf of the Board of Trade and merchants of Chicago announcing a wish to be heard upon the transcontinental question, and asking that the decision of the Commission be withheld until arguments can be submitted. "We are," the telegram says, "in favor of conditional suspension of long and short haul clause on Pacific Coast traffic, provided rates from the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley be made proportionately less than from the Atlantic seaboard as has been the case in the past.' Justice, Bateman & Co., wool commission merchants, of Philadelphia, in a letter to the Commission, express the hope that section 4 will not be suspended as regards transcontinental lines. The protests against the long and short haul, they say, came from persons who have heretofore enjoyed the greatest benefits from cut rates and who have had an unfair advantage. "For instance," they continue, "last year the merchants of San Francisco had a rate of fifty cents per 100 pounds on wool, while dealers and growers located several hundred miles further east had to pay $3 to $4.50 per 100 pounds if that wool was shipped direct to the East." There is wool, they say, now in Philadelphia, grown in Montana, which the railroads forced to be sent thence via San Francisco, making a haul of 4,000 miles, while if shipped direct it would have traveled only 2,000 miles. The object of the discrimination was to give the San Francisco merchants an opportunity to exact toll before it reached its natural destination. (April 23, 1887.) Re EXPORT TRADE OF BOSTON.* Upon petitions by railroad companies praying the Commission to "authorize the trunk lines to bill export freight to Boston at New York rates" etc., held, that as any legal ground for affirma tive action on the part of the Commission was precluded by the fact that the parties bringing the practice to the attention of the Commission did so with explanations of its propriety and insisting upon its lawfulness,-no order *See ante, 18, 23. |