Morning journal and courier., 1888-01-25
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. EQUAL FREIGHT RATES Demanded By The Jobbing ss6a st;s s> c-' ~ o' Grocers. THE AWFUL BLIZZARD, AGAIN. New England In Jack
 Frost's Grasp. EXPLOSION IN A COLLIERY, The Striking Coal Miners
 Weakening.
JoBB1NG eRooEKs COMPLAIN

Against Alleged D1scrIminat1ons by
 New York Trunk Lines.
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.-The complaints of the New York Board of Trade and Transpor- tation, the Retail Grocers' association and Mr. Leggett, representing the jobbing gro- cers of New York city, against the New York Central and the four other trunk lines lead- ing out of that city came up before the inter State commerce commission to-day. The complaint in these cases is that the trunk lines make an unfair and unjust discrimina- tion in favor of the larger shippers of grocers' freight by placing less than carload quantities in a higher class than carloads and forcing the smaller shipper to pay more for his trans portation than the larger shipper who ships the same kind of goods in carloads. Simon Sterns of New York, representing the New
 York Board of Trade and Transportation, made the opening argument. He held that this discrimination violated the frat, third and fourth sections of the law, which prohibit unreasonable preference to shippers and the charging of more for the short than the long haul. He insisted that prior to the passage of the inter State commerce law rates on erocers' goods were on the whole lower than they have been since the law went into effect. This in itself would not show discrimination, but would when taken in connection with the fact that prior to the passage of the law no discrimination was made on these goods with the exception of coffee and upon that only for & short time, and that upon all other gro eers' freight no distinction between various shippers was made between car lot quantities and less than car lots, except such as was se- crectly and privately made by rebates to the larger shippers. Prior to the passage of the law this discrimination in favor of the larger shippers amounted to about twenty per cent, but immediately after it went into effect new condition of affairs was brought about
 more onerous upon the small shipper than the rebate discrimination. This was made not by charging tariff more for quantity than for the carloads, but by putting a ship ment of twenty four thousand pounds of the same article into different classification from that which prevails with refer snce to 8 shipment of less than twenty-four thousand pounds. MT. Sterne exhibited 8 table of comparisons which he claimed showed enormous discrimiaations. The percentage of advance in rates for small lots over car lots on westbound traffic from New York to Chicago ranged from 16 to 116 per cent. The railroad, MT. Sterne said, had a three-fold object in view by thus fixing rates. First, to do what it was claimed to be within the province of the roads to do before the passage of the interstate act to build up
 iobbing centers in western towns and com- pei the retail grocer to patronize that jobbing center instead of seeking his goods in the larger and better markets. Second, to favor the larger shipper 50 as to simplify the busi- to deal with the fewest number of persons, the tendency being, except in so far as it is restrained by law and by the operation of the interstate com mission, for capital to coalesce itself with cap- ital as against the smallerand poorer man, and the third object hads in view Of this enormous discrimination, was to reimpose in a different form and in substance in contro- vention of the spirit of the fourth section of the interstate act the charging of the higher rate to the intermediate point as compared with the more distant point. He proposed to show that the distinction made by the rail roads under the guise of carload lots is an ut terly,arbitrary one, that they are not carloads but conventional carloads, that the car which was formerly of ten tons capacity had grad- ually risen to twelve, fifteen, twenty and thirty tons with tendency of further in creasing the capacity of cars, so that Q greater and greater discrepancy will be made if this discrimination against the less than carload lots is allowed to pre- vail Closing, Mr. Sterre insisted that dis criminations now made are not upon the basis of any difference in cost of transporta- ton, but wholly for the purpose of cireum- venting the law to enable the railway corpo- rations under the guise of making the unit of shipments 8 carload to do what they were forbidden to do or to continue to do under the provisions of the law, in other words that the rebates, drawbacks and discrimina- tions in favor of the larger shipper and in favor of the larger place as against the smaller shipper and smaller place are intended to be fastened to the eom- munity and continued under the guise of a new classification which makes diserimina- tion of from 16 to 116 per cent. against the smaller shipper and smaller place as against @ discrimination of 20 per cent. which pre- vailed before the interstate law went into effect. Mr. Sterne spent the remainder ot ! the day putting in and explaining deposi- | tions in support of the statements he had