The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-01
A FULL STATEMENT
Interstate Commerce Com.
missions Report.
LONG AND SHORT HAULCLAUSE
For Stock JObbing Purposes-CuttIug
RAtes-It Will Lead to Bank
ruptcy-Rec commentators.


WASHINGTON, November 30.-The an
nual report of the interstate Commerce
Commission is now in type, From It
the following is taken: From the best
Information now available, the railroad
mileage of the country on the Both of
June, 1888, is estim ated at 157 ,7Sl miles,
O: which 2,312 miles had been COM
pleted and brought into operation
within the six months preceding that
day. A summary is made OF the for
NAL complaints of 107 cases submitted.
Fifty have been decided, sixty have not
vet been decided, on nine the hearing
has not vet been completed, twenty
three were withdrawn or settled, ten
were suspended byrequest and nine have
been assigned for hearing on the long
and short haul clause in the section of
territory north of the Potomac and
Ohio and east of the Missouri, in cases
IN which a greater charge is made for
shorter transportation, and their cir
cumstances are such that complaint is
often made
THAT THEY OPERATE oPPRESSIVELY,
with some exceptions resulting from
ocean competition. The rule of the
short haul provision of the law has
been put in force on transcontinental
roads, where its operation and effect
can be observed under, what appears
now, to be favorable conditions. The
south and southwestern States commits
sioner has had reason to think that
corners are moving more slowly in
bringing their tariffs into conformity
with the general statutory law than in
other sections, not being satisfied that
the duty has been sufficiently appre-
hended and observed. The commission
has ordered an investigation to be made
of The whole subject.
EFFECT UPON COMMERCE.
The report then takes up the subject
of the effect of the inter State commerce
act upon commerce, and says, although
some railroad managers have declared
it to have had a damaging effect, the
commission is pos sessed of no evidence
showing the general result other than
beneficial. Railroad business suffered
IN the past year not because of the in
ter-State act, but owing to strikes, new
ssoarallel lines and rate wars. With ref
Wgence to rate wars in the northwest
aud among trunk lines during the year
the report says it is commonly the case
in the rate wars of trunk lines that the
difficulties resulted from suspicious on
the part of carriers, respectively, that
their competitors
WERE CUTTING THE OPEN RATES
and reductions were made to recover
the freight which parties to the agree-
ment claimed were their dues, but
which they were not getting, because OF
secret cutting by the others. The
efforts of the commission to obtain
evidence Of the practices suspected has
been wholly ineffective, and war rates
proceeds without the possibility of
external authority interposing to bring
it to an end. The making of unreason-
able rates, the report intimates, are
often for stock jobbing purposes is to
compel the purchase of the road by
competing roads. Persons having
control of railroads may deliberately
MAKE INSUFFICIENT RATES
in the expectation of profits to be in
directly or improperly derived there
from. Every case of war may be re-
garded as one of this character. Present
profits are sacrificed on the calculation
that by gripping q rival or forcing an
agreement or compromise on some
matter of contention, the loss will in
time be more than made up. In gen
eral, therefore, as it may be said, that
the railroad general managers pur-
poses are to destroy the interests, not
only of their rivals, but of their
own stockholders. They will cklessly
make rates that lead to bankruptcy.
The question often becomes OF nigh
moment whether it is wiser to meet the
reduced rates of competitor or let the
business go, yet the decision of this
question is left in unimportant hands
of subordinateS, who apparently have
no other notloB upon the subject
beyond the rule that every cut must be
promptly met" Nothing seems more
surprising than the fact that railroa d
managers who will neither take
steps by law to put a stop
to the cret cutting of rates,
which he publicly charges, nor
Iurnlsn evidence npon Wnlcn IDe otner
road may b. prosecuted. 1t Will, new
ertheless, suffice for shareholders with
millions of revenue to punish it. The
unity of railroad interest is reasonable
to expect. Carriers of the country viii
make, where practicable, such joint
arrangements that the public shall find
the arrangement one adequate for the
purpose of any single transaction.
='nbarn chnr1 III no qnun rnaanc Of
ing, among carriers, the obligations,
moral or legal, that would grow out of
such arrangements. The tendency
among railroads seems likely to be
IN THE DIRECTION OF CONSOLIDATION
as the only means for mutual protec-