The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1889-10-25
INTERSTATE DECISIONS.
fMpoRrANr GASES DECIDED NJ
THE CONFUSION.

An Extra Rate Nay BE Charged on Cattle
When More thur the Minimum Weight
Il Loaded-Combtned Rail and Water
Competition.
The interstate commerce commission
has rendered three important de-
sisions. In tho case Of LAnord and
Chappell against the Chicago and Alton
railroad the commission decides that car
riers can rightfully substitute for tho
practice Of charging carload RATES ON
cattle. irrespective Of weight. the rule that
while . carlot 10 named q minimum weight
Tor . carload is prescribed, and any excess.
over the minimum d to be charged
tor BY the hundred pounds In
proportion to the carlot rate. The com.
plainants urged the commission to
conform to the State laws and rulings Of
Kansas and Missouri State commissioners
under which shippers Of cattle to points
within the State had the right 10 load cars
without regard to weight ct Q stated price
. car. The commission held, however,
that State action could not b allowed to
control In matters within the Federal
jurisdiction, and that the grant to the
Federal government Of the power to regu-
late interstate commerce is full and
complete and can not be narrowed or en-.
croached upon by State authority either
directly or indirectly.
In an opinion on the case Of McMorran
& Harrington, grain dealers at Port
Huron, Mich, against the Grand Trunk
and the Chicago & Grand Trunk roads,
Commissioner Schoonmaker q
ssThough rates are not required to DO
made on O mileage basis, nor local rates
to correspond with the divisions of a Joint
through rate over the same line. Mileage
Is usually an element of Importance, and
due regard to distant proportions should
DO observed in connection with the other
considerations that are material in fixing
transportation c~harges." "
The complaint tina { an Scent rate on
grain from Port Huron to Buffalo was un.
reasonable as compared with a through
rate of IL cents a hundred pounds from
Chicago to Buffalo was not sustained, but
no good reason having been shown for Q
higher rate on grain products that portion
of the complaint Is sustained and the pro.
ducts ordered to be carried at tho same
rate as grain.
Commissioner Morrison in deciding the
case of Abbott against the East Tennessee
railroad, which is charged with illegal dis
CIIIuiuoglOu III AutIlU0r IdU00 IEOW 40us
nessee points to Poston, says:
Combined rail and water competition
at a longer distance point does not justify
q greater charge for the shorter distance,
while the shorter distance point Is main
tanned by the carrier at points where the
competition is of greater force and more
controlling than at this longer distance
point; such greater charge is not justified
by the fact that local rates have been first
paid on lumber to the longer distance
points, nor by the fact that the freight is
shipped In cars from the longer distance
points which brought machinery to those
points. and for which profitable return
loads we're not always to be had, nor by a
difference in the bulk and value of tho
lumber when the published rate sheets put
the lumber in the same class and at the
same rate.
"While distance IL not always q con-
trolling element in determining what is q
reasonable rate there is ordinarily no better
measure Of railroad service in carrying
goods than the distance they are carried;
and when the rats of freight charges over
one line in sending freight carried from a
ne%ighboring territory to the same market
is considerable greater than over other
lines for distances as long or longer such
greater rate is held to be excessive and
should be reduced"