The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-18
SENSATIONAL DISCLOSURES.
Irregularities in Freight Rates Are B,
 ing Discovered.

Irfegularfttes in Freight Rates Are Be- inG Uncovered.
 Louisville, Ky, July 17.-Evidence of
 a sensational nature was offered late this afternoon in the investigation
 whtch is being conducted by the inter-
 state commerce commission to investi- gate charges of irregularities of freight
 rates on grain originating west of the
 Mississippi and north of the Ohio riv- CTS and shipped to southeastern points.
 The evidence presented today consisted
 of sixty-seven expense bills" taken
 from the local office of the Southeast
 ern Mississippi Valley Association.
 some of which had been altered and
 the rest duplicated ana even implicated
 with the result that the Louisville
 shipper was given an illegal advan- tage of three cents per 100 pounds over competitors selling grain in
 Southeastern Territory.
 The hearing was instituted on conn plaint of shippers of grain from St.
 Louis and other Mississippi and Ohio river points who charged that Louis-
 vile shippers by manipulating expense bills either with or without knowledge
 on the rart of the railroads were se- curing aewer rates to southeastern ter- l rftoyy man other points In this ter- | ritory. Under tho present system tho Mississippi and Ohio rivers are billing
 points for all grain originating west of those streams. Grain Is shipped
 from St. Louis to the Atlanta. Ga. dis
 trict by way of Cairo. III. at the reg
 ular local rate on account of the short
 distance to be carried. three cents per
 hundred pounds cheaper than 1t would via Louisville. By the presentation of an expense bill for each car of grain handled from St. Louis at any time within the previous ninety days. the
 Louisville shipper may ship an equal
 amount of grain on to Atlanta and
 have the rate 'shrunk" three cents.
 thus placing him on an equality with the St. Louis shipper.
 The Louisville shippers. through
 counsel before the commission. denied
 that these expense bills had been ma nipulated and duplicated so as to all
 low of the shipment of grain to the southeast that they had bought in the vicinity of Louisville and which thus saved them the three cents over St.
 Louis grain. The duplicated bills in- troduced today however. were admit
 ted by counsel for all parties inter
 ested to have been in many cases
 forged from beginning to end. Others had been obtained by erasing such
 words, for instance, as bricks" and
 writing in wheat" Every one of the bills introduced today was in favor of single Louisville grain firm whlch does an immense business In the south
 east As the bills thus far showed cover only the months of September and October, 1904, those interested ex- pect the total number of such bills used during the past two years to num- Der hundreds and to cover a saving in freight rates to the guilty users of many thousands of dollars. to say nothing of the advantages reaped in
 getting hold of the grain trade of the southeast.
 thorough investigation will be
 started and criminal prosecutions in either state or federal courts are ex-
 pected. The name of the firm impli- cated in todays exposures is withheld
 until the documents become a matter
 of record No action mad been taken
 In the matter when the commissioners adjourned until tomorrow.