The San Francisco call., 1896-03-08

stretch of 600 miles on which there was no
local business at all.
Morgan asked Huntington il it was not
q fact that the merchants of Los Angeles
complained that they could only get their
freight by paying the charges to San Fran
cisco and back.
Huntington denied this. When the
road was first started, he SAID, there was
some complaint on this score. owing to
the fact that this had to be done to realize
enough to pay the fixed charges; but
Huntington said he had heard no COM
plants about it for at least twenty years.
There were complaints that the road
charged more for the short than the long
haul. This could not be avoided and the
Interstate Commerce Commission law
granted such authority. 1t could not be
remedied by the railroads. The long haul
was taken at less rate because it met the
competition OF roads between terminal
points and of transportation at tidewater.
"Have you not" Morgan asked, ire
fused to deliver goods along the Southern
Pacific from New Orleans to points north
of Mojave until you had sent them to San
Francisco and back?'
81 never heard of it."
Huntington called attention to the case
now in the California courts in which the
reduction in rates by the California Rail-
road Commissioners was being contested,
and he denied the authority of anybody
to take the property of his com pany with
out consideration. This was the effect of
the proposed reduction in rates.
els not this very complaint that you
ship goods to San Francisco and back and
charge that extra rate part of the record
in the suit now pending in the California
courts, and has not the grievance COM
planned of continued up to thfs date?'
asked Morgan.
Huntington replied that if such was the
case he knew nothing of it. He did not
even thiuk Congress had the right to for
felt his property and he did not believe it
would either.
An investigation of the freight rates
brought ont the fact that on California
fruits the Southern Pacific got 54 per cent
of the rate for carrying the freight 435
miles, while the Central Pacific carried
the same good 742 miles for the same per-
centage.
In explanation of this Huntington said
the Southern Pacific gathered the freight,
iced it and did all the preliminary work.
Huntington said the Southern Pacific
had hauled freight three times as far for 80
cents as the Union Pacific did for 50 25 for
the same amount. Wines and brandies
were carried at very low rate for the re a.
son, Huntington said, that the road was
compelled to compete with the water routes
on those goods.
For the reason, suppose" said Nor
gan, ''that the longer such goods are in
shipment the better they become?"
II don't know about that, replied Hun
tington. "Some people claim so, but be-
lleve ride by rail would do them good.
Morgan sought to bring out the fact that
it was the fruit tonnage that created what
he called the monopoly of the Central and
Southern Pacific roads, but Huntington
denied this. The green fruit was an Incl
dental part of the annual tonnage, he said.
The great bulk Of fruit was dried, pre-
served or canned, and could be shipped by
anv line, overland or water-speed was not
essential.
The examination was next diverted into
a review of the various construction COM
panies and their financial status-all Of
which has been gone over heretofore.
Later on it developed that during the
early days of the Central Pacific the most
stock Huntington ever held was 200
shares. he now owned about 5000 shares,