Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-03-01

untouched, as they are on many miles OF every
road, is Ii fair for them to make up on the
miles untouched by competition? Is 1t fair
for them TO make up on that portion of the
mile what they are compelled to lose on
other portions where competition destroys
the profit of the business?
Mr.. Ripley: When did they do it?
Member: We have seen many instances
Of it in Iowa.
Mr.. Ripley: l never have.
Member: We paid more constantly than
Council Bluffs because of the low through
rate. When the railroads were in the pool
at Council Bluffs portion of the money they
lost, if they lost money, they made up at
nOn-competing points in the interior.
Mr.. Ripley; Your rate was the same, re-
CARELESS of what the Council Bluffs rate
was
Mr.. Sage: 1t was less than before
Mr. Ripley: Your rate was not changed
any by these things; at least, il it was
changed, it was not advanced?
Member: No, sir.
Mr.. Ripley: Them how can you say they
made up from you what they lost elsewhere?
Member: They claimed ours was a just
rate, and il was an argument that the other
was at a loss. If ours was a just rate, the
other was a losingratc.
MIR. Ripley: That does not follow. do
not know whether in this particular case
your rate was higher than the regular Coun-
ell Bluffs rate or not.
Mr.. Sage No, sir, ii never was.
Member: You deny we have ever paid
more than the rate to Council Bluffs?
Mr.. Sage: If ii was we always made
ninety cents the maximum along our line.
At least, we have for five years. The ST.
Paul and ours make the rates at Council
Bluffs the same as to Atlantic.
Mpnhnr. Wa have ol,VaVS maid from
twenty to twenty-five dollars car more than
they paid for the same car through our place
to Council Bluffs.
Mr.. Ripley: You mean the rates from
Council Bluffs have been lower than from
Atlantic? There have been such times but
as O rule the rate has been the same on all
our lines, except we have always taken I'm
ion Pacific stock from the west at less rates.
Member: 1 refer to shipments of car
loads of stock generally from Council Bluffs
stock yards; the shipments are from fifteen
to twenty-five dollars per car less than they
take il from Atlantic.
Mr.. Ripley: l do not deny that has been
the case, deny that it has been the rule.
Member: 1t has been the case ever since
have been there.
Mr.. Ripley: Oh, no. l know the Rock
Island business well enough to know that as
rule their rate has been seventy dollars
from both places.
Mr.. Sage: The Only case that ever oc-
CURED was the stock driven up to Council
Bluffs, and some of it taken by the st. Pau
road when she first started in business but
the rate has always been as low at ATLANTIC
as at Council Bluffs
Mr.. Ripley ! think that is one of the
things TO which | alluded awhile ago ; one of
the things that can be explained.
Member a car was shipped from Chicago
to Council Bluffs, by a gentleman doing a
large business at our place, who is at present
Chairman OF the House Railway Committee
and the largest nursery raiser in Iowa. He
had car load shipped through to Council
Bluffs because the rates were cheaper, and
he undertook to have the privilege of having
it stopped at Atlantic, but could not get it
done. He did not complain, but it had to
go through and be brought back. They said
if it was billed TO Council Bluffs if il had to
go to Council Bluffs.
Mr.. Sage: Never during the normal stu
alton Of rates has that occurred There are 50
many roads to Council Bluffs, and especially
since the st. Paul road came in, there was a
serious reduction, and at that time the rates
at Council Bluffs were very low. We are
not fighting her, but while at the times you
charged, your rate, we will say, was sixty
dollars TO Atlantic, that was the rate to
Council Bluffs. The rate now to Council
Bluffs is twenty dollars. We viii charge
you at Atlantic, not sixty dollars, but we
Will charge you the twenty dollars plus the
rate there, which would make it about thir-
ty-f0ur dollars; so that, instead of the man
at Atlantic losing, he gains the difference
between thirty-fOur and sixty dollars. He
didn't get the Council Bluffs rate.
To-day, under the Interstate commerce.
law, Atlantic gets the same rate Des MOine5
gets the same, so that all that complaint is
passed. The interstate law has settled it..
We cannot charge TO any point on our road a
higher rate than We do TO Council Buds
that is settled.
Member: Yes, that is settled. The point
i was trying to get at is, when railroads in
their competition lose money on long hauls
TO competing points, we who have but one
system Of railroads, are assessed TO pay the
loss at the other points, to make the property
yield what it ought to yield.
Mr.. Ripley: Is that true?
Member: 1t is.
Mr. Ripley: When were they advanced
Member: 1t was not necessary that they
be advanced. They were always that way
Mr. Ripley: They have been steadily re-
duced all the time
Member: You and Mr. Sage avoid the
point try to make. Before the enactment
VI lllt INTERSTATE commerce law, competition
rates on through shipments from Chicago to
Council Bluffs were about forty per cent less
than Red Oak on your line, or Atlantic on
the Rock Island line?
Mr.. Ripley: That was true at times.
Member: Hasn't it been true ninety per
cent of the time the last five years?
Mr.. Ripley: No, sir; and not ten per
cent.
Member: That is a remarkable state
ment.
Nr. Ripley: Nevertheless that is true.
Member In towns within forty or fifty
miles of the Missouri river. hasn't it been
the custom of merchants to ship their goods
to Council Bluffs and then back again?
Mr.. Ripley: Not to my knowledge. 1t
has not been the custom on our line most
assuredly That has never been true, |
think, except when one line was cutting the
rates at Council Bluffs. l have had cases
of that kind where freight was shipped by
other lines to Council Bluffs and shipped
back twenty-five or forty or fifty miles on
our line, but they have been very rare. 1t
is our rates for the last fourteen years the
gentleman alluded to.
Member: i understand il has been the
common custom of our towns on those trunk
lines to do that-ship their goods to Coun-
Gil Bluffs and back.
MIR. Ripley: Not at all, sir. This is a
great misunderstanding Self-protection
would lead us to arrange our rates that that
could not be done.
Member: Was it done by means of rebate
to the Council Bluffs man?
Mr.. Ripley: No, sir. The rates at COun-