The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-07-14
THE RAILWAY RATES FIGHT
Discrimination Against
Charleston.
A TELL-fALB LETTER
Which IL II Hard for It's Author to
Reconcile With His Testimony He.
fore the Interstate Commerce Com
mfssfon-RAflway Men Admit ahe
Discrimination, But FRY Go Justify it.
Some sharp QuestiontDg Of Wit-
nesAes.

Some sharp Questioning Of Wit.
nesses.
Washington, July 1.-THE hearing
of the Charleston railroad case was
continued before the interstate com
merce commission today. The Charles
ton bureau called Is witnesses Will
liam Campbell, general freight agent
of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois
railway, and L. A. Emmerson general
freight agent of the Southern railway
i'll charge Of the Southern's route to
Charleston. The witnesses of the de-
PENDANT carriers were H. w. B.. Glover,
of Richmond, traffic manager Of the
Seaboard Air Line, and j. NJ. Culp, of
Washington, traffic manager of the
Southern railway.
When MI. Campbell was asked the
attitude of his road to the southern
rate question, he replied that the bus
mess south of the Ohio was SO small
that it had not commanded much at
tention. He thought the rates as they
stood were low enough and he did not
see much use in reducing them.
At this Mr.. Bryan produced a letter
written by Mr.. Campbell in March
1898 to the Charleston bureau of freight
and transportation in which he charac-
terized the rates by the roads south OF
the Ohio as exOrbitant and inimical to
the business interests Of the south. The
letter said in part:
ITO my mind the information you
furnish points conclusively to the fact
hat the direct roads from this terri
tory are losing business which should
| accrue to them. y AS a matter
of fact, l believe you will agree with
me that the rates charged south, OF the
river, as a rule, are eXOrbitant and
| act as a barrier to the interchange of
| products between the west and the
south. Undoubtedly, if the southern
roads would open up and show the same
spirit % productive industries as is
| shown by our road and the roads Of
| the northwest, the spirit of industry
| would be stimulated and the southern
| roads in the end would be benefited.
= = = As l stated some months ago,
1 will favor the proposition Of reduced
| rates to Charleston and run the risk
| of being charged with grossly discrim-
/ mating against intermediate and inte-
rior points,"
Mr.. Campbell FASTENED to say that
this letter conveyed a wrong impress
sion; that he knew nothing about the
| rates south of the Ohio except through
complaints that had been made to him
through certain shippers. He did not
know how he came to sign such a let
ter as the one produced by Mr.. Bryan,
except in the press of signing a large
mail at the end of a hard days work
when he had not~time to check the
errors of his stenographer. He said
that he never heard of such a PROPOSE
ton as that advanced yesterday by Mr..
Fulton to pro-rate the through tariff
to southeast coast points and thus re-
duce the rates. AS he understood the
| proposition, it had been to readjust
the division of profits between the roads
north of the Ohio and those south of
it, not to reduce the rates.
Commissioner Clements examined
the witness with some asperity as to
the difference between his oral testi-
mony and his letter, but Mr.. Campbell
insisted that his only object had been
to get if possible a larger share of the
pro-rated charges for his own road.
General Freight Agent EmmerSon,
Of the Southern was questioned by
Commissioner Calhoun, to find why his
road moved grain for ocean freights
from the west through Charleston at
from IL to 16 cents and at the same
time charged as high as 80 cents on
the same grain delivered as inland
freight at Charleston. Mr.. Emmerson
clainvd that this foreign bound grain
was handled at an actual loss, but hat
the road used it as a lower hold cargo
to help them make rates in loading cot
ton for export.
Commissioner Prouty also asked on
what principle the witness justified a
q cen freight from Kansas City to
Norfolk and charged AZ in the same
class to Charleston. Witness said
that the rate at Norfolk probably had
been reduced by the greater bulk of
business and the competition with the
northern trunk lines.
Mr.. Bryan made the point that the
Southern, running through to both
Norfolk and Charleston, ought to be
able to quote rates on the same mile
age to each.
III. w. B. Glover, of the Seaboard,
said that the rail rates from the west
were fair enough because they were
lower than any competing form of land
transportation In support of this he
demonstrated at some length that
freight hauled by wagon from Chicago
to Charleston would cost at least $12. so
per hundred weight. This he said, was
a fair argument He said that if rates
to Charleston were lowered to the level
OF Norfolk it probably would result in
handling an increase tonnage at Char
lesion, but whether the railroads would
benefit in evenue vas problematic.
Natural conditions of population,
wealth and productiveness, he said,
prevented railroad rates in the south
being as low as those on the big north
ern trunk lines.
Questions by Mr.. Bryan developed
that the Seaboard carried south into
the Carolinas from Norfolk a large
amount of grain and packing house
products. In case, through a lowering
OF rates, this freight was brought into