The San Francisco call., 1898-03-05
S1UBBS IS STILL
 MAINTAINING RATES
He Smokes NOnchalantly While Merchants Fret and
 Agents Funne.
A Ruroor That the War Will Spread to Freight Starties
 the Street.

CHICAGO. March 1.-The Western roads were in session to-day considering the troubles with the Canadian Pac1Ilc- Ihe question before the meeting to-day was the manner of meeting a reduction ol sio in the price of tickets to the facllc Coast which 1t was reported that the od- nadian Pacific would make in the near future.
 The meeting to-day lasted far into the night. but nothing had been done up 10 late hour.
 The old trouble of scarcity of cars IS worrying the traffic officials of the roaos running east of Chicago ana 10 SoLie eE ten the Western roads as well @ 1he .Iou. ~ ble seems to be that the traffic Is so heavy in both directions that the ToduS are having very few empty cars ana when a car arrives at its destination II IS generally held for return load instead of being returned promptly. Botn the the Eastern and Western roads are at the present time badly crippled for lack or cars.
 Notwithstanding the complaints of mer- chants who blame the attitude of the Southern Pacific for driving trade away from San Francisco to Puget Sound cltleS; and the fuming and frett1ng or rallfoae men who hardly know where they sidIu or what will happen next and who iohg to see the big transcontlnental line take q hand in the fight in hopes that 1t Will force the Canadian PacInc 10 come come 10 10  sit with one leg over the other and pun his perfecto with the same nochalance that has always characterized him, while he keeps the rates on his road right up to the regular old $66 50 mark.
 He is determined to keep the war. out of San Francisco, so he says, and, from the look of things, it seems as though he will succeed.
 T know of nothing new in the situa- tion" said MT. Stubbs, when seen In his office yesterday, except that I hear the Colorado roads are protesting against the proposed reduction of the Rio Grande Western on their through travel via Og- den and Huntington, claiming that it will have tendency to demoraliZe their business. The reduction, l expect, will be made, however, as soon as the com the nature of flat rate or rebates on the regular rate. Further than this l have heard nothing new and everything seems to be about the same.
 The latest rumor along the street is to the effect that the war may spread from traffic to freight rates. Should this occur, it will tend to absolutely demoraliZe the whole railroad business, and the effect will be much more injurious and longer felt by the different roads, though 1t will be godSend to the shippers. The rumor, however, is as yet only of the vagueSt sort, and will, in all probability, result in nothing more than idle speculation, as one road Is as much interested as another in preventing it's naturalization.
 As things now stand in the city, the Canadian Pacific is the only road openly advertising through rates from here, though the other lines are selling as many tickets as possible to their northern ter minals and giving full explanations of the cut rates in operation, accompanied by letters of Introduction to their connec- tions in Seattle and Portland. Which manner of conducting business practically amounts to the same thing as selling through tickets at cut rates right here.