The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-06

Of these questions was the dropping of all agents
at country points who go from town 20 town and
when they find that party is to go West East,
North or South swarm down upon the party.
and, before they are through, cut the
rate so deeply that there is not Eve cents
left to the initiatory road. At the
meeting the prevailing opinion was
that were these rate-demoralizers dispensed
with there would be less cutting of rates. at least
than there now is The passenger agents of
every road represented at the meeting, except
the L., B. & W.. voted to drop this class of
passenger solicitors; the l., B. & W. man. it
is said, conceiving the idea that this movement
was instigated by e. A. Ford. general passenger
agent of the Pennsylvania lines west of Pitts
burg. Whether this be true not, it might be
worth while to try the experiment., as it is we'll
known that it is useless, TO restore rates at In
dianapolis and allow passenger agents to be
skipping over the surrounding country
cutting tariff rates in two in the middle
ill-feefing was manifested by competitors of
the VandaIa that they have introduced
a new feature, which is to distribute with agents
of connections order books. For instance. Dis
trict Passenger Agent Denney, of the Missouri
Pacific has one of these books, which contains
partially fled-out blank, which he fills out,
and then sends to the Vandalia ticket-of1ce, Or
dering ticket without naming the rate simply
saying, charge, to my account Competitors
of the Vandalia object to this, saying that as
rate is named there is likely a cut in rates made
in some manner. The c., l. st. L. 81 G. has
also been distributing these order-books
While there may be good deal
of bug a-boo about the matter, it is causing con-
is made that their use be- discontinued. Other
questions of minor Importance were discussed,
but the two mentioned occupied m ost of the
time that the agents were in session.
The Boom in FREIGHT Business Still On.
T~J oIo ofo1I
over east and west lines, continues unprece-
dertedly heavy for spring time, in fact, the car
movement last week was the largest of any
corresponding week in the twelve years that a
record has been kept of the number of cars
received and forwarded at Indianapolis and is
exceeded only when the new crop begins to move
East bound it will be noticed that the c., FL. 81 l.
and l., b. e. w. show the largest increases in
number of loaded cars forwarded. The c., ST.
l.. 81 p. shows a handsome gain as WE'LL
while the Decline and Wabash fall behind
Whether the stiffening up of rates, which takes
effect to-day, will act as a check. on east bound
business, remains to be seen. Reasonable ship
pers, however can hardly object to the tariff
rates if they were lived up to, as it is evident
there is little money to be made in an 18s
cent per 100 pounds rate to the seaboard, a
23-cent rate pc, 100 pounds on slaves and ana
logous articles, or 23cent rate on live hogs.
West-b bound traffic is heavy, the tonnage exceed
ing that of last year. During the last three
months west-bound rates, however, as we'll as
eastbound, were too low to allow any margin
above actual cost of hauling, owing to the numer-
Gus competitors for the business. North and
south roads, the last week, carried a lighter
tonnage than in the week ending March %.
Shipments of lumber from the North seemingly
are still held back by winter~like weather. An
Improvement is looked for before the month
closes. Local business is seldom heavier than
at the present time. About the city freight
deDots there is unusual activity.
Below we give the number of cars received
and forwarded at this point in the two weeks
ending March % and April 4: