Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-03-06


Bef0re proceeding II, mo ra ersb EVAN.
nation IN accordance with sncb annIica-
tlon or petition, said commissioners
shall give to the petitioners and railroad
e & nPaLy reasonable notice in writing of
me lime ne and place of entering upon the
saAlle' II upon such an erRuination il shall
appear 70 said Commissioner that the
COZ. PlalnE alleged by the applicants or
peu0oners be well founded. thew shall so
9ojQdge; and they shall then and there
necloe- what Is reasonable charge for
such relghts, and shall inform the cor
poranon operating such railroad COM
pany Oh Gnelr education within ten DAYS,
ana snaI also report their doiBgs to the
governor, as provided in section six of
this act, and shall certify to such COM
Pla1nantS the result of such adjudication,
ana socn adjudication shall be prinaG
IGcse evidence Of what is a reasonable
charge In all actions for such service"
Section IA. In all cases where com
plant shall be made In accordance with
the provisions of section eighteen, here
matter provided that an unreasonable
charge Is made, or that the rates charged
for freight are unjust, unreasonable, or
extortlonate, and the Board shall find
SUCH complaint to be true, they shall re-
qulre modified charge for the service
rendered, such as they shall deem to be
reasonable, and shall certify their ind
ing to the managing officer of the road
against which complaint is made; and
the rates so determined by the Board to
be reasonable shall be, by the railroad
company affected thereby, accepted, and
posted up IN conspicuous place in each
depot on the line of its road that NAV be
designated by said Board; and such rates
On Oh oil II
any court in the State, be taken
to be reasonable compensation for
the services for which they are
provided, until the contrary is
proven; and all compensation demanded
or received by any such railroad com
pany in excess of the rates so determined
by the Board, shall in any such action be
taken to be unjust, unreasonable, and ex-
tortionate, until the contrary is proved.
Ali cases of a failure to comply with the
recommendation OF the Board OF Com
missioners shall be embodied in the re-
port of the Board of Commissioners to
the Governor, and the same shall apply
to any unjust discrimination, extortion
or overcharge by said company, or anv
other violation of this act by such COM
pany."
1t will be seen from an examination of
conferred are:
First-To receive and examine into the
complaints Of unjust, unreasonable, or
extortionate freight charges at any station
complaining,
Second-Upon finding that the COM
plants made sOere t,ate, the Board is au-
thOrized to direct a modified charge to
be made by the railroad company for the
service in question, and that modified
charge so directed by the Board, be-
comes prin1G .facie evidence of what is a
reasonable charge for said service before
any court of law.
This is the entire power conferred on
the Board.
Let us now examine what the Board
has done:
Upon the 912 miles of railroad in Kan
sas operated by the Atchison System
there are 104 stations, of this large
number of stations; three zig: Usage
City, Newton and Great Bend made
SO called complaints" against the COM
pany.
These complaints were examined, and
it is generally acknowledged that it was
fully proven that from every reasonable
standard of comparison, the rates at those
stations were fair and just The Board,
however, claimed that the earnings of the
road were 600 high and decided that re-
duction of fifteen per cent. should be
made, and proceeded to order as follows:
No. 1. They drew up reduced local
tariff called the "LoCAL DISTANCE TARIFF"
and ordered its adoDtion on the entire
DaGt1l tine CT the road.
No. 2. They ordered the adoption OF
this same reduced tariff on all Of the
brGRch.Or atLriIj0ry lines, although no sta
ton on any auxiliary line had COM
planned.
No. 8. They ordered that the mileage
of the BRANCH LINES should be allowed a
rate not separately, but IN conjunction aoitl
the main line mileage.
When asked whether the company
would be allowed to operate these
branch roads seDaratelv and distinctly
from the main line they have answered
that we must not do so, and have
coupled this with the threat that in the
event Of failure to operate them tOgeth-
er such failure "tU0ltLd afford q margin fOY
STILL greater reductions" thus saying to the
com pany that unless you consent to con-
tinue to operate your leased lines at a
less rate of compensation than that
which is already unremunerative, the
Commissioners will, upon the cancella-
ton of such leases, TetGLiGte By an addl-
OIlGt reduction OF the rates on the mann tL1le
No. 4. The Commissioners order that
the Leavenworth, Topeka & Southwest
ern Railway and the Manhattan, Alma
& Burlingame Railroad, two separate
and distinct pieces of property, in which
the Atchison road owns only little more
than a quarter interest, and which are
not leased or operated by it, should also be
operated as q part of the AtchiSOn system
o0ith the same system of rates and The same
conioirat mileage before mentioned.
No. 5. The Commissioners ordered that
On and after the 18th of February, 1884
a certain system ofspecial rates should be
adopted by the Atchison road from the
three Missouri river towns, Atchison,
Leavenworth and Kansas City, to and
from three interior points in the State of
Kansas, which had complained, viz:
Usage City, Newton and Great Bend.
This last act of the Commissioners will
be found by the people living on our line
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