The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-23
CAN'T ENFORCE IT
Interstate Commerce Commits
sion Submits Report.
Says Law Is Useless but Sug.
gests Nothing Better.
VIOLATORS OF LAW
Attention Called to Action of
Railroad Officials
In Their Relations to Packers
and Grain Men.

Washington, Jan. 23.-The annual re-
port of the interstate commerce COM
mission, which was transmitted to con-
gress today, renews the declaration
made in previous reports that in its
present condition the act to regulate
commerce cannot be enforced AS to
remedial Legislation, the commission re-
news the statement made in its per-
vious annual report that it has little
to suggest and nothing new to pro-
pose"
The feature of the report is the al
most sensational statement of the rela-
tions existing between the railroads
and a comparatively few heavy ship
pers. Referring to the commissions re-
cent Investigations into the amount of
packing house products and of 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 Off
cialS of many of the prominent railway
lines, men occupying high positions and
charged with the N ost important du-
ties, 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 nee
essary to destroy vouchers and to so
manipulate bookkeeping as to obliter-
ate evidence of the transactions; that
hundreds of thousands of dollars should
be paid in unlawful rebates to few
great packing houses; that the business
of railroad transportation should to
such an extent be conducted in open
disregard of law. must be surprising
and offensive to all right-minded per-
sons Equally startling at least is the
fact that the owners of these packing
houses, men whose names are known
throughout the commercial world
should seemingly be eager to augment
gains
of these rebates which they receive in
plain defiance of a federal statute"
PALLIATING CIRCUMSTANCES.
That there are palliating circum-
stances under which railway traffic Off
cials act, the commission is not un-
mindful, and the opinion is expressed
that existing laws should be so amend
ed that railway m managers who desire
to observe them can do so without risk
of sacrificing their property. The ap-
plication of the remedy, the report says,
is fraught with dangers to the public,
and it should not be applied unless 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 great
ly relied upon to secure just and rea-
Sonable rates and facilities, will be
largely eliminated, some method should
be provided by which the government
can exercise in fact that control over
railway rates and operations which
courts WITHOUT nunOer nave asserted
that it possesses and which many per-
sons suppose that it 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 not
possible to amend this law in its more
essential features, it ought at least to
be possible to deal with those coercive
features of the act which are intended
to prevent practices of this character
Referring to the court decisions that
penalties cannot be imposed upon cor
porations violating the act and that
only their agents can be punished. the
commission says:
Now the object of rate cutting is to
get business and make money and the
corporation, If any one profits by the
illegal act. 1t is the real offender and
ought certainly to pay the penalty as
well as its officer. If every illegal act
of that character subjected the carrier
to a substantial forfeiture so that the
money result of the transaction was
likely to be the other way the induce
ment to commit such offences would be
greatly diminished"
RATE CUTTING.
Taking up the difficulty of securing
convictions in cases of rate cutting the |
report says:
ITO convict for paying a rebate it is
necessary to show not merely that the |
railway company paid a rebate to a
particular shipper, but it must also be
shown that it did not pay the same re-
bate to some other shipper with respect |
to the same kind of traffic moving at |
the same time under similar conditions.
This is almost always impossible. De- |
parture from the published rate is the |
thing which can be reached and the |
thing which should be visited with fit |
ting punishment"
1t is urged that the twentieth section |
should be amended so to open the |
books of the carriers to the inspection |
of it's agents under proper restrictions |
to prevent the misuse of information so |
obtained. 1t is also urged that if the |
be generally enlarged some method |
should be devised by which such orders |
as it can make, may be enforced within |
a reasona BILE time.
Summarizing the results of it's inves- |
tigation of the handling of packing |
house products, the commission says:
Some times rebates were paid, some |
times the freight was billed at the cut |
rate and some times the published rate |
was reduced when the freight money |
was paid. The important fact disclos- |
ed from the testimony is that packing |
house products are habitually carried |
from points of origin to the seaboard at |
IA ties below the published tariff of TO |
10 cents per hundred pounds
EVIL EFFECTS.
Then discussing the evil effects of this |
state of affairs, the report says:
1.-The commission required the car |
riers to file statements showing the /
MN ber of cars shipped and the rates |
ceived the gross amount of the rebates /
can be determined. At present it can |
only be said to reach hundreds of thou
sands of dollars. While the general pub |
lie probably receives some benefit from
the lower rates, in the main the sums |
swell the profits of the packers, These !
great concerns number only about five /
or six, and little distinction in the rates /