Bismarck daily tribune., 1902-01-24
Interstate Commerce Commission
Scores Leading Railroad Officials
Of Country.
Openly Break Statues by Repaying Big
Charges to Shippers Through
the Nation. g. =i =
Commission Declares it is Unable to
Remedy Matters as the Law is
Defective.

In its 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 "has
little to suggest and nothing to pro
pose"
3 The feature Of the report is the al
most sensational statement Of the re.
lations existing between the railroads
and comparatively few shippers.
Referring to the commissions recent
Investigations into the movement of
packinghouse products and grain and
grain products the report says: i.
"The facts therein developed are OF
such character that no thoughtful
person can contemplate them with in
difference. That the leading traffic of.
ficials 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
should be paid in unlawful rebates to
a 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 ot
these packing ghouses, 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
federal statute.
Some PaIliating circumstances.
That there are palliating circum.
stances under which railway traffic of.
ficials act, the commission is not un-
mindful, and the opinion is expressed
that existing laws should be I 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 1t now exerts. The commits.
sion believes that the whole law should
be revised on some correct theory and
some workable basis. n,
In view of the gross violations of the
act, the commission suggests that II
1t 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
maintaining the export rates on wheat
and that the carriers had agreed
among themselves upon rate from
Chicago az cents below the published
tariff. resulting in discrimination Of
from 2ss to A cents against flour. The
open wheat tariff from Kansas City tc
Chicago has been IL cents and the ac