The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-22

to whether an injunction granted Is syf- case cese" # the A. I. and $, F. or the simi- lar case of the International Harvester Company. I agree, however. with your an effort should be made to obtain the | Judgment of the court on the question. |
 "sinesrSsiy TS soJors ySSrf Roosevelt" Hon. william H. Moody. Attorney
 In a letter to President Roosevelt. dated June 5.Secretary Morton reviewed the rebate case at length. He said m part:
 My Dear MT. President:
 Now that I have rendered and you have accepted my resignation or the pc sition of Secretary of the Navy, wish xtchison. Topeka and santa Fe Colorado Fuel and Iron Company alleged repatel case, which has coupled so much at tent1on ana pr0pab ncb Dfest Dses % Criticism of the Atchison company's management
 "The arrangement referred to was the time that the restraining orders prohibiting the Western roads from cutting rates or departing n from na,ds gupe, ec the passage of the Elkins bill.
 The people chiefly interested in the smelting and mining business or Soutn- large consumers of coal and coke They were dissatisfied with the quality Of coke they were setting from the ovens along the line of Atchison Railroad In Colorado, and threatened to use eastern coke exclusively or build a railroad or their own to coal properties which they might obtain unless S lower prsss tSst shsS were receiving at Fl Paso and Deming. All of these things. taken in connec- tion with the undoubted financial aoil, railroads and develop either coal or oil fields. menaced a traffc worth nearly million dollars year to the Atchison of the railroad so far as its officers were concerned, an understanding was effected between the railroad and the Paso a, m and Southwestern people. the terms of which were:
 The Agreement Erected.
 'First--The Colorado Fuel Company was to supply the coal at very low price at the mines fin Colorado. S1 .15l per ton. This Is all they received for tional paid them fin the way of a re- bate or otherwise.
 "second--The railroad company was ,S hsui the S sof a veFy Ss pw $2. 90 per ton. This was In reality division of the rate not usually pub
 .aThird--The Fl Paso nnd Southern people were to receive and pay for the coal $4 05 per ton at El Paso and Dem ing and 1t was to be used by the rail- road Itself and the industries along It's
 ''The tariff covering this arrange ment was published so as to show the freight rate to be .05 per ton instead of the delivered price at Fl Paso and Deming and did not separate the freight rate from the cost of the coal at the mines. as 1t should have done Until the investigation of the case by the Interstate Commerce Commission, did not know precisely how the matter of the tariff was concerned. My own connection with the case was to see that the tariff was secured to the At chison and after that details were left are published every year.
 When this arrangement was entered into the Colorado Fuel Company % own agents all the coal properties on the Atchison Line In Colorado from the district in which the rate applied, or, in other words, 1t was the only shipper of coal from that district oyer the Att chison rails and there was in no sense an unjust discrimination against any ether Colorado producers. The follow ing year. or in 1902. the injunctions known to you, certainly not to the pub which I gave before the Interstato Commerce Commission on the practice of Western railroads, so far as grain. dressed beef and provisions arrange ments were concerned, that made 1t possible to secure intunctlons. With out my evidence it Is quite unlikely obtained. l was anxious to see ali the Western railroads prevented from dc- ing things I knew were irregular and as the public generally, great injustice. Morton Gave instructions. "When the injunction was issued by the court, positive instructions were mates to comply in every respect with Its terms. These instructions were is- sued IS eyerybody eoneerned; ne rnco.d in writ v confirm. When the Elkin phi became q law early in 1903 all of theIinstruc- tions were reiterated.
 notwithstanding all of theEe pre-" cautions, the old arrangement of bill- ing the coal and coke at delivered price and not separating the freight rate from the price of the commodity fin the tariff was not corrected upTl some time last November. It was .ey- idently not regarded In the tariff print ing bureau as an irregular arrange ment and entirely escaped attention. It might be considered that 1t was 9 misplaced switch in that bureau and neither the President of the road nor MT. Riddle. the freight traffic mana ger, nor myself was any more respon- ident, or the President or Gen eraI Manager fns train service which may result in a bad wreck.
 At the time this contract was made l had no interest whatever fin the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. l sold my stock in that company and all It's auxiliary companies when left it's employ. before entering the service of the Atchison road in 1895. and have not been a stockholder of 1t or of any of It's subordinate companies since. I have been a railroad man for over thirty years and railroad officer for most of that time and I have done my utmost to bring about decent railroad practice. l have always been opposed to rebates and all kinds of two by four graft fin the business, and l do not be- ueve that there is another railroad of- ficer in the Western country who has tried to be fairer to the public O more indulginR in trying to prevent the evils and abuses of railroad management lnsistent in demanding that the rail- roads should have fair pIay.
 Great injustice has also been done the management of the Atchison road in thIs matter. No railroad in the Western country has more clearly rec ognized the reports of the public or more definitely declared itself at all times in favor of fair trade relations.
 ''VeTy respectfully
 Paul Morton"
 Roosevelt to Morton.
 The correspondence concluded with the following reply from the President
 June 12. 1905.
 My Dear Mir. Morton:-I have re- ceiVed your letter of the 9th instant in reference to your own action con