The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-18
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

| INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
How the Problem Is Regarded by Shippers
and the Railway Companies.
| WASHINGTON, Jan 1Z-Senator Culloms se-
lect committee on railroad transportation will
probably report to the Senate. tomorrow or
Tuesday, an original interstate commerce bill,
| and at the same time submit an exhaustive re-
port in its support. The committee, which
| spent good part of the summer in investga-
tions, has been holding daily sessions since the
assembling of Congress. In addition to the
| two or three volumes of oral testimony which
the committee has taken in its pursuit of in
formation upon the subject an appendix, con-
tanning number of interesting papers from
leading authorities, has been printed for the uss
of the committee, and will be made public with
| the report. John D. Herman chairman of the
! New York Railroad Commission con-
| tributes statement supplemental to the
| views he expressed orally to the committee
| He deals first with the history of the contest
| between the railroad and its patrons, in the
| presence of which history, he says, many crude
| ideas as to the usefulness and practicability of
| rate fixing, penal legislation, maximum and
minimum rate laws. etc, disappear, and it be-
comes clear that the proposed legislation must
be broader in its aims and less disturbing III its
| action than that heretofore at times in vogue
| The low through rates OF to-day, he says point
| ed out by railroads as a reason why no legisla-
tion is needed, have little to do with the ques-
| tion They are phase Of universal reckless
| ness. OF needless railroad construction Con
gress cannot apply the remedy chiefly needed
| The States whose railroads are already
suffering in number and extent for public use
| at fair rates, can and ought to enact that
| no new roads should be constructed unless pub
lie necessity for them is shown to exist as in
Massachusetts. and as recommended by the New
York railroad Commission to the Legislature,
that at least so per cent of the stock be paid be-
| fore the road is begun, and that the issue of
bonds shall bear fair relation to the stock is
sued and paid in. 1t is at the local non compet-
| tive points where protection for the shipper is
| needed. other than that afforded by the present
| laws. Mr.. Kiernan advocates the creation of a
national commission, whose findings upon all
questions of facts should be accepted in all
courts as, prma facie, true. Such findings he
declared, are the one thing needful to make the
courts available to carriers and shippers as
| against each othcr
| The Board of Railroad Commissioners of Kan
| sas contributes to this volume paper which ex
| presses the opinion that national commission
| should be established, with certain supervisory
| powers over the subject of interstate commerce.
| These powers should be confined to the function
| of regulating, and not to the management of
| the business of interstate commerce 1t would
| the board thinks, serve useful or practical
| purpose to give such commission the powe. to
| establish maximum rates for either passenger
| or freight traffic over interstate railways, ths
subject being too large to be dealt with by such
body Of men, even though composed of men
trained in the business of railroad affairs There
| FORE the board says. there should be
two classes Of interstate traffic over
| railroad lines. and between interior
points and the seaboard and the
other across State lines. but still local. 1t is
obvious that the rates adopted for one class
| would furnish no criterion or base of rates for
| the other. The great cereal crops raised in the
| Mississippi valley, and the meat products in the
| trans Mississippi in the continued production of
which the country is vitality interested, can only
be maintained by system of rates for their
| transportation to the seaboard, which. while
| they involve no loss, would. if the same rates
I were obligatory upon them as to all traffic car
ried OYER their lines, consign every road in the
business to bankruptcy. TO devise system of
maximum rates, covering every species of inter
for long hauls from the extreme West
to the East, would parayze every
| railroad engaged in the business On the other
hand, to equalize the rates as between long and
short hauls would if railroad property is to be
preserved and it's efficiency maintained advance
the rates, on great distances, to such an extent
as to put an embargo upon the movement of the
cereal crops of the extreme West, or the trans
Mississippi region, result which would be little
less disastrous to the East than to the West
While the power to establish maximum rates to
govern interstate traffic could not, therefore, be
wisely usefully employed by a national rail
road commission, such body might usefully
exercise the fU lction of entertaining complaints
from shippers of undue or unreasonable charges
on the part OK the railroad companies, and
judge as to the reasonableness of the charges
complained Of In this way prima facie case
might be made for the courts Nearly all causes
of complaint on the part of shippers arising in
the business of transportation might usefuly be
committed to the investigation and correction
of such acommission, and the board feels safe in
| expressing the opinion, based upon the expert
ence of State commissions, that cases would sell
dom arise in which coercive power would have
to be invoked to compel the correction of such
rate. The board also treats of the Importance of
maintaining the stability OF rates. The board
also discusses the subject of strikes, and sug-
gests that a national commission might be in
trusted with power to arbitrate and settle dis
putes arising between companies and their en-
ployes.
Mr.. Chas E. Perkins president of the Chicago,
Burlington Quincy Railroad Company, con-
tributed an interesting paper, setting forth what
may, perhaps, be assumed to be the railroad side
of the question. He assumes that it is the set
tied policy of most of the States to permit rail
road construction to be free and also that the
English common law doctrines relative to com
mon carriers not now open to discussion
Many of them are relics of age of horse
power or water craft He thinks the best
method Of preventing extorton or unjust dis
elimination is by appeal to the courts, but he
says very little if any extortion or discrimination
is practiced. Through rates. he says, are gen
orally lower than local rates. because through
business is wholesale business larger in amount
and therefore less expensive to transact and for
the additional reason that the competition
! for it is more severe. and that through
rates are more generally affected by direct water
route competition. But it is obviously inexpe-
dent to require railroads to reduce local rates.
because the combined influence of large aggre-
gate traffic and the competition Of other railroad
or water routes, which influences are not felt at
local points, may make it for their interest to
| participate in the through business on very
small margin of profits. IL is no more for the
interest of the public to make railroading un-
| profitable than to make business generanv un-
profitable. Perhaps the best evidence that the
local rates of railroads throughout the country