St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-03
GOT HIS CHOLER UP.
E. M. Rawopth. Of Fargo, Files
a Complaint Against the
Northern Pacific.
4
That Road, as Well as the
Manitoba, Diseriminates in
Z Sugar Rates.
Action Of Interstate Commits
sion Awaited With Inter-
g est.
The Louisville & Nashville
Will Issue Three Millions Of
New Stock.

a notification was received at the
offices of the Northern Pacific and Man.
itoba roads yesterday from the secre-
tary of the interstate commerce COM
mission, informing them that E. NJ.
Raworth, wholesale grocer at Fargo,
OAK, had filed complaint charging
them with discrimination against Fargo
IN the matter of sugar rates, the rate
from San Francisco to Fargo being
higher than from San Francisco to st.
Paul. That the charge is true there is
no doubt. but it cannot be called dis
elimination for the same reasons as
were adduced in a precisely similar
case at Kansas City recently. The case
referred to is that of Lehman, Higin-
son Il Co. against the Union Pacific
railroad, charging it with discriminate
ing against Humboldt, Kan, the rate
from San Francisco to Humboldt
being higher than the rate from
San Francisco to Kansas City, while the
former is the short haul. Among the
witnesses examined at this trial were
Vice President Goddard, of the Atchl-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe, and Mi.
SpreckleS. son of the great sugar king,
Claus Spreckles. Their evidence went
to show that the sugar rates from San
Francisco to Missouri river points could
not be made on the basis OF overland
haul, as they had to come into competi-
ton with sugar shipped by the ocean
route to New York and thence by rail
to the Missouri river. The effect of this
is that the rate from San Francisco to
Humboldt is the sum of the rates from
San Francisco to Missouri river points,
and from the latter to Humboldt. The
case was heard on Sept. 25, and was
taken under adviSement, sixty days be-
ing given for the filing of additional
briefs.
This case OF RawOrth against the
Northern Pacific and Manitoba roads, is
precisely similar in all its details, and
it would seem that the appellant, MIR.
Raworth, would have acted more Jul
diciously had he awaited the decision
of the commission in the Kansas case.
The rate on sugar from San Francisco
to st. Paul is 60 cents hundred pounds,
and is based upon the rate from San
Francisco to New York by sea, and the
cost of transportation from there to st.
Paul. To get the rate from San Francisco
to Fargo it is necessary to add to this the
r local rate ITOIl 81. IduI W rdISO, %
cents. giving total of 90 cents. This
is what Mr.. Raworth is complaining of,
and is just what Messrs. Lehman,
Higginson & Co. complained of in the
Kansas case last month. The same evil
deDce then adduced would apply equally
to this case, going to show that the rate
from San Francisco cannot be based
upon the cost of hauling either to st:
Paul or to Fargo. but must be based
upon the ocean rate to New York.
These complaints bring up the old
question of ignoring section IA of the in
terstate commerce law. The railroads
Claim that the conditions are sufficiently
different to warrant them i'll cases like
these in ignoring the section and max
ing their rates entirely Independent of
the long or the short haul. The deci-
sion of the commission in the case of
Lehman. HigginSOn i Co. against The
Union Pacific will be awaited with great
interest, as on it hangs great deal. in
fact decision adverse to the railroad
means an entire revision of rates over
an immense area of territory.