Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-22

recess Of the hearing In order that he might
consult the railroad men present as to the
action they should take.
a. J. Vaulandingham, representing the st.
Louis Traffic bureau. said that the question
interested not only official classification ter
ritory. but the entire United states.
"Changes IN western classification have
already been made, in line with those OF the
official classification" said he, but they are
not so radical as in this territory. A western
railroad vice president said to me a few days
ago: The changes in official classification.
particularly the great spread between car
loads and less, are revolutionary in char
cater and, in my opinion, should not be
made"
Mr.. Vanlandingham believed that II a post
poncment Of the date when the official class
ifcatious would be effective could be ar
ranged the western lines would take similar
action.
Mr.. Gill withdrew his request for a recess
and, although protesting against what he be-
licycd was the irregularity OF the proceed
ing, again went on the witness stand. He
was questioned by several representatives of
shippers, but in almost every instance de-
clined to give detailed replies. He declared
that the Increased rates would not, in his
opinion. compensate the railroads for the in
creased cost of transportation.
Discriminntes Against Small shippers
L. 5. Monnett, attorney general OF Ohio,
questioned MIR. Gill as to the cost OF ship
ping petroleum., endeavoring to elicit from
him some statement to the effect that the
standard Oil company was favored by the
railroads at the expense of the small ship
pers. Mr.. Monnett said that on less than
carload lots of petroleum the proposed CLASH
6gotf,, fppraaupI tho rata OGO nor cent de-
pending on the distance. This, he said, was
a discrimination which would break up the
small shipper.
Mr.. Gill explained that his committee had
nothing to do with the carload rates on
petroleum and that the changes in the elias
s~ification of less than carload lots had been
made by the committee on a suggestion Of
j. A. Tucker, chairman of the Central
Freight association of Chicago. A few
questions were addressed to Mr.. Gill by
other representatives of shippers present,
but no further information Of importance
was ELECTED.
Nathan Guilford, traffic manager of the
New York Central and Boston & Albany
railroads, made a statement to the commits
sion, in the course Of which he said that he
did not care to defend the proposed clas-
sifcations, because he realized there might
be Inconsistencies and mistakes in them.
He declared the readiness of the railroads,
however, to correct any inequalities or in
justices that might be found to exist. He
did not think the railroads ought to be
asked to lose three months revenues from
the new classification, because operating
expenses of maintenance were constantly
maintained. He said his company was now
building $1,000 cars, for which they would
have to pay nearly double the amount they
formerly had paid for car construction. The
increased cost to the railroads of transporta-
ton made it absolutely necessary for them
TO secure increased revenues. While the
revenues of many railroads had increased
for months, the net earnings had not pro-
portionately increased, because of the heavy
increase in operative expenses and in main
tenance.
When his attention was called to the state
ment of the earnings for the last quarter Of
the New York Central, as corresponding
with the quarter one year ago, showing an
increase this year Of the net earnings, he
said the railroads had not felt yet as they
would feel the increased cost of operation
and construction Of plants.
Without any action the commission ad-
~journed until . o'clock tomorrow morning.
a meeting was held tonight at which
thirty-ono shippers, some of them holding
proxies as representatives of a commercial
organizations were present, and it was de-
cided to introduce several witnesses to-
morrow before the Interstate Commerce
commission, for the purpose of showing the
injurious effects of the new classification and
advance in rates.