The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-03-27
WORLDS FAIR RATES FIXED
Agreement Reached at a Meeting of
Presidents of All Chicago Roads.
Rate Not Made Public. but 1t Will Probably
Beon One and 0ne-Thri Basis-Fair Av.
erage of Freight business Last Week.

The presidents of all the Chicago
roads met Saturday. and settled on
the worlds fair rates. The matter
was ostensiDly left in the hands of the
special committee Of the Western Pas
senger Association. which is to report
at the meeting of the association to-
day. but the presidents took matters into
their own hands, settled the rates, and will
hand their conclusions over to the Dassen-
ger agents. who will approve them. and
they Will then be formally adopted
as the regular rates TO the exposition. 1t
is not definitely known just what rate will
be adopted. but it will either be one and
one-third one and one-half. with the
probabilities in favor OF the former. The
presidents have been compelled to take the
question into their own hands because OF
the impending danger of q general democrat.
izatlon of passenger rates which would
have been the legitimate outcome of de-
layed decision on the subject Many Of the
roads were quietly preparing TO handle OK.
cursfons at their own figures, and 1t would
have been only short time before there
would have been q general scramble for
business which the presidents were afraid
would bring rates too low for profits.
A Fair Average of Business
While the train records show an average
tonnage OF freight moving tits not as heavy
as 1T would be had the indianapolis lines
the power and cars to handle the business
offered. While in both power and cars
there has been o marked Improvement
shown within the last thirty days, the de-
mand is not fully supplied. 1t Is In the
handling of through business that this de-
ficiency IL most noticed. After taking
e - - toh pryfr fao
on the respective roads th~re are no cars
left to send out on immediate connections
TO be loaded. and the same connections are
loath to let their cars go off of thir own lines.
lest they will be held away too long; con-
sequently, freight which would naturally
90 TO east over lndianapclis lines drifts
away to roads north and south OF the mid
land routes. Still, all the Indianapolis
lines have as much business as they can.
with their present power. move with rea-
sonable promptness. East bound the ton
mage, aside from export freighls. IS fully up
&c its usual March average. In export
freights practically nothing is doing. flour
line worth looking after. This coun-
try is consuming most OF the pro-
visions, so light was the hog crop,
and this Is usually an important
bound tonnage, however. is in excess OF
that of the corresponding period last year:
bat q prospective advance In west bound
rates may be one OF the causes OF this heavy
movement Local traffic could hardly be
improved on. and here the question of cars
cuts o more important figure even than
with through business. Agents are press
ing into local service all the cars they can
get SIGHT of, and about the city freight de-
pots there is the greatest activity. AS far
as possible the local agents are requiring
shippers and consianees to load and unload
their freights. where there are carload lots
on tracks In yards set apart for that puf.
pose Below is given the number of cars
received and forwarded at this point for
the week ending March rs. as compared
with the corresponding weeks OF the pre-
ceding two years: