The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-12-02

| the hearings at Austin on the 10Th
allowed itself to be dictated to by two
| railroads, and agreed to issue an order
to the railroads, calling for lot of ton
mage statistics, which are entirely i'm
material in this case.
Now, as shown in a former part of
this paper, the petitioners for this new
scale of rates alleged that they did not
believe that per cent of these arti-
cles which came into the state in car
| loads were shipped out from Texas
points in less than carloads. and they
requested the commission to iivesti-
| gate this fact. How were we to com
Div with this request except to obtain
| from the railroads the facts? If this
| irformation was not deemed material
why was that statement made. and an
| investigation of it requested? And why
| should it now be said that this infor-
nation is immaterial!
Further on in this letter ne SAYS:
II tell you frankly, that my belief is
that those gentlemen (the petitioners
who are heartily joined by shippers in.
other lines, will 90 before the people of
Texas with an appeal in this matter"
| If there is to be an appeal we are
ready to meet it, but the person max
ing it need not expect that such threat
will make the commission forget its
duty to the public, or surrender the
right of judgment.
We will now inquire into the effect
which would follow the adoption of the
proposed schedule of rates. And first
WHY some of the railroads make no oh
| lection to it. provided it should not be
changed or altered. That was I'M
doubtedly because it materially III
creased freight rates on their lines.
The proposed schedule would increase
the rates of freight on agricultural i'm
dement's. first-class, at nearly all dis
! tances Of 14T miles and less. The SEE
! ond-class makes increases in the freight
rates at nenrly all distances of I'D miles
and less. The third-class makes an in
crease of rates for all distances of IN
miles and less. ard the fourth-classt
! makes increases OF rates W miles ana
! less.
There can he no doubt that shipments
! of agricultural implements and ma
chinery will be made mainly in the
agricultural and more densely popr-
| lated parts of the state, and we Think
! il safe to assume that Mt least four
fifths of these articles will be shipped
within the distances. as above given.
in which the rates are increased by the
proposed schedule. And we think 1t
| equally certain that not less than four
! fifths of these articles will he shipped
on single lines of railroad. The pro
posed reductions of rates on the longer
distances, and on shipments over two
/ or more roads. will, in our opinion. fall
far short of compensating for the in.
creased rates on the shorter hauls, and
on single lines of road.
| We have shown that from Dallas, and
| from any and all trade centers in this
state. the shippers of agricultural M
PIGMENTS and machinery have the adj
| vantage over shipments from other
states in freight rates, covering CIR
cles of territory varying with the class
so shipped, having diameters of from
! 2C6 to 1874 miles. These circles overlap
each other in such way as to give some
tcrstate shippers. As, for example.
take Dallas, Fort Worth. Sherman,
Paris. Marshall. Palestine, Terrell.
| Waxa hachie, Corsicana, Cleburne,
Waco. Houston. Austin, San Antonio.
and all other points in the state from
which such shipments are made, and
draw circles with these diameters round
them, and the entire state is covered
by areas which have the advantage
under our present freight rates. over
! Kansas City, st. Louis. New Orleans.
Chicago and other outside cities.
The extent of the territory of this
state has its influences on the rate
question. 1t is so great that if we
should make rates under which these
! could be shipped from any given point
| in the state to all other parts of the
state, at less cost than from places out
| side of the state, this would require
Il system of rates, which for shorter dis
tances would be so high as to impose an
unjust burden upon the people. and
| for longer distances would be INSULT
cient to provide reasonable revenue for
the railroads. and there could be no IS
cape from this condition. Besides
which,if we were to adopt such a pol
| icy this would inevitably cause the
roads engaged in interstate shipments
| to make lower rates on less than car
| loads to meet and defeat such policy
From the time of the organization OF
this commission. in 1891, it's efforts have
on all occasions been eXerted to secure
such a system of state and interstate
rates as would enable the jobbnS-
houses and manufacturers of this state
| to do business on equal terms with
those outside of the state. and at the
same time to preserve to our peoplt the
benefits of competition both within
and from without our state. To 10 this
it became necessary to ascertain what
the rates were from places outside nf
the state on carloads and less than ear
loads, and to make our local rates on
Interstate shipments. and the local
rates in shipping from points outside
of the state at less than carload rates.
On this subject while we have not oh
tanned all we desired. we have secured
frora the interstate lines of road con
cessions which have been valuable TO
our people. without producing the evils
of rate wars: and it is our purpose 10.
adhere to this policy.
1t is a matter of much difficulty to
determine the distance to which We
should give our local dealers and man
ufacturers the advantage in rates, so aS
to put them on an equality with outside
shippers, and preserve to them the icn-
ehts of competition. In our present
rates we have come as near to this as
has been practicable. A number of
manufacturers and merchants have de
manded of us such rates as would en-
able them to reach all parts of the state
on lower rates than those on less than
carloads from other states. We have
had to refuse this, because, rs above
stated. it would make the rates On
short hauls too high. and the rates on
long hauls too low; because we believe
such policy would be met by a leduc-
ton of the rates on less than carloads
from points outside of the state, which
we would have no power to prevent.
and because it wuold produce mucn CON
fusion in the arrangement of rates, and
necessarily operate to the injury of the
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