Morris tribune., 1902-01-25
INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMITS
sion SCORES LEADING RAIL
ROAD OFFICIALS.
OPENLY ll:ll BREAK STATUTES IA Ut
Hundreds Of thousands Of Dollars
/ Paid in Unlawful Rebates BY The
Principal Railway Lines to = Few
I Heavy Shippers Commission pc.
d
elares It's Inability to Remedy Mat:
tiers as the Law Is Detective.


I Washington, Jan. 24-The annual
report Of the interstate commerce com
mission, which was transmitted to
congress during the day, renews the
declaration in previous reports that
In it's present condition the act to
regulate commerce cannot be enforced.
AS to remedial legislation the COM
mission renews the statement made in
its previous annual report that it ''las
little to suggest and nothing to pro-
pose" ~
The feature of the report is the al
most sensational statement of the re-
1ations existing between the railroads
and comparatively few shippers.
Referring to the commission recent
Investigations into the movement OF
packinghouse products and grain and
grain products the report says:
"The facts therein developed are of
such character that no thoughtful
person can contemplate them with in
difference That the leading traffic Of
f1cials of many of the principal rail-
way lines, men occupying hig positions
and charged. with the most important
duties, should deliberately violate the
statute law of the land and in some
cases agree with each other to do so;
that it should be thought by them
necessary to destroy vouchers and to
so manipulate bookkeeping as to oblit-
crate evidence of the transactions;
that hundreds of thousands of dollars
-. L. Gel 4A1 %f
few great packing houses; that the
business of railroad transportation
should to such an extent be conducted
in open disregard of law, must be sur
prising and offensive to all right
minded persons. Equally startling, at
least, is the fact that the owners Of
these packinghouses, men whose
names are known throughout the com
mercial world, should seemingly be
eager to augment their gains with the
enormous amounts of these rebates,
which they receive in plain defiance CT
a federal statute"
Some PaIIiating Circumstances.
That there are palliating circum-
stances under which railway traffic Of
ficia1s act, the commission is not I'M
mindful, and the opinion is expressed
that existing laws should be SO
amended that railway managers who
desire to observe them can do SO with
out risk Of sacrificing their property.
The application Of the remedy, the
report says, is fraught with dangers
to the public and it should not be ap-
piled unless the public is fully pro-
tected. In view of these great COM
binations which have been formed and
are now forming, by which railway
competition, which, upon the present
theory of this law, is greatly relied
upon to secure just and reasonable
rates and facilities, will be largely
eliminated, some method should be
provided by which the government can
exercise in fact that control over rail-
way rates and operations, which courts
without number assert that it pos |
sesses and which many persons sup |
pose that it now eXerts. The commits
sion believes that the whole law should |
be revised on some correct theory and |
some workable basis. ..@.- ..--~-
In view of the gross violations of the |
act, the commission suggests that if
it is not possible to amend the law in
its more essential features, it ought
at least be possible to deal with those |
coercive features of the act which are
intended to prevent practices of this
character.
The commission also found, in in
vestigating complaints made by West
ern millers, that the carriers east of
Chicago made no serious pretense of
the export rates on wheat,
and that the carriers had agreed
among themselves upon rate from
Chicago 21s cents below the published
;ariff, resulting in discrimination of
from rs to 4 cents against -four The
open wheat tariff from Kansas City to
Chicago has been IL cents and the &C.
,ual rate as low as 5 cents.