Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-01-30
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
Annual Report of the Interstate
Commerce Commission to
the Congress.
PREVIOUS DECLARATIONS ARE RENEWED
The Feature of the Report IL the
Almost Sensational Statement of
h Relations Existing Between
the Railroads and n Compara-
S'SlS Few Big Shippers.

Washington, Jan. 23.-The annual
report of the interstate
commission, which was transmitted
to congress, Thursday, renews the
declaration made in previous reports
that in its present condition the act
to regulate commerce can not be en-
forced. AS to remedial legislation,
the commission renews the statement
made in its previous annual report,
that it has little to suggest and
nothing new to propose"
The feature of the report is the almost
sensational statement of the relations ex-
listing between the railroads and a COM
paratively few heavy shippers. Refer
ring to the COMMISSIONS recent investiga-
tions into the amount of packing house
products and of grain and grain prod
ucts, the report saws:
1.-THE facts therein developed are of such
a character that no thoughtful person can
contemplate them with Indifference. That
the leading traffic officials of many of the
principal railway lines, men occupying
high positions and charged with the most
important duties, should deliberately vio-
late the statute law of the land. and in
some cases agree with each other to do
so; that it should be thought by them nee
essary to destroy vouchers and to SO
manipulate bookkeeping as to obliterate
evidence of the transactions; that hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars should be
paid in unlawful rebates to a few great
packing houses; that the business of rail-
road transportation should to such an ex-
tent be conducted in open diregard of
law, must be surprising and offensive to
all right-minded persons. Equally start
ling. at least. is the fact that the own
ers of these packing houses, men whose
names are known throughout the COM
mercial world. should seemingly be g
to augment their gain with the enormous
amounts of these rebates which they re-
ceive in plain defiance of a federal stat
ute."
That there are palliating circumstances
under which railway traffic officials act,
the commission Is not unmindful, n the
opinion Is expressed that existing laws
should be so amended that railway man
ayers who desire to observe them
can do so without risk of sacrificing
their property.
The application of the remedy, the re-
port says, Is fraught with dangers to the
eN'A~ ehN A. ShooAN W NC appIiCu uIllCS
the public is fully protected. In view of
those great combinations 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 elm
mated, some method should be provided
by which the government can exercise, in
fact, that control over railway rates and
operations which courts without number
have asserted that 1t possesses, and which
many persons suppose that 1t now exerts.
The commission believes that the whole
law should be revised upon 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 this law in its
more essential features it ought at least
to be possible to deal with those coerciye
features of the act which are intended to
prevent practices of this character,
Referring to the court decisions that
penalties can not be imposed upon cor
oorations violating the act, and that only
heir agents can be punished, the commits
sion says:
Now, the object of rate cutting is to
get business and make money, and the
corporation, If anyone, profits by the H.
ought certainly to pay the penalty as well
as it's officer, If every illegal act of that
character subjected the carrier to a sub
stantial forfeiture. so that the money re-
Sull. VI lHt lIduSdCtIOH WAS likely to he
the other way, the inducement to commit
such %offenses would be greatly dimin-
ished.'
Taking up the difficulty of securing con-
victions in cases of rate cutting, the re-
port says:
necessary to show, not merely that the
railway company paid a rebate to a mar
ticular shipper, but 1t must also be shown
that it did not pay the same rebate to
Cnnn nfhnr chtnnnr VIZ -
same kind of traffic moving at the same
time under similar conditions. This is
almost always impossible. Departure
from, the published rate is the thing
which can be shown and the thing which
should be visited with fitting punish
ment." ~
1t is urged that the twentieth section
should be amended so as to open the
books of the carriers to the inspection of
it's agents, under proper restrictions. to
prevent the misuse of information SO oh.
tanned. 1t is also urged that If the pow
ers of the commission are not to be gen
orally enlarged some method should be
devised by which such orders as II can
max may be enforced within a reasona-
BILE time.
Summarizing the results of its investi-
cation of the handling of packing house
products. the commission says:
Sometime rebates were paid,
times the published rate was reduced
when the freight money was paid. The
important fact disclosed from the testio
mony is that packing house products are
habitually carried from points of origin
to the seaboard at rates below the pub
lished tariff Of five to ten cents per hun
dred pounds" -
Then, discussing the evil effects of this
state of affairs, the report says: .'The
commission required the carriers to file
shipped and the rates actually charged.
When these are received the gross
amount of the rebates can be determined:
at present 1t can only be said to reach
hundreds of thousands of dollars. While
the general public probably receives some
benefit from the lower rates, in the main
these sums swell the profits of the pack
.ers. These great concerns number only
about five or six, and little distinction in
the rates appears to have been made he
tween them. The effect is to give them
an enormous advantage over smaller COM
petitors located at other points. Already
these competitors have mostly ceased to
exist. These disclosures afford a preg-
nant illustration of the manner in which
secret rate concessions are tending to
build up great trusts and monopolies at
the expense of the small independent OPP
orator"
The additional statement is made that
all Of the traffic officials who admitted
that these secret low rates were being
given the favored shippers maintained
that in the published tariffs the rates ex-
acted of the smaller shippers were too
low.
The commission found, also, in inyesti-
eating complaints made by western mill
ers, that the carriers east of Chicago
made no serious pretense of maintaining
the export rates on wheat, and that the
carriers had agreed among themselves up
the published tariff, resulting in a dis
elimination of from ~ to 4 cents against
-four. The open wheat tariff from Kansas