Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-03
JAMES ], HILL HEARD
Opposes Government Control
of Railway Rates.
ONLY ONE SAFE BASIS
DENSITY OF TRAFFIC, He SAYS,
SHOULD GOVERN TRAFFIC.
Reviews the High Foreign Rates and
Declares That They Are Nowhere
So Low as in This Country.

Mr.. James J. Hill, president of the Great
Northern railway and of the most
prominent railroad men in the United
States, appeared this morning before the
Senate committee on interstate commerce
which is investigating the railroad rate
problem with view to recommending
remedial legislation to supplement the
present laws on the statute books Mr..
Hill is in Washington in attendance on
the sessions of the international Railway
Congress.
Mr.. Hill said that there only one
safe basis which low rates might be
made, and that was on the low cost of
furnishing transportation.
II was not a safe basis, he said, for the
country to be built uDon-that one party
must furnish the service at a loss. Unfor-
tunately, however, it was taken generally
by the shippers and the public that rate
once established must perforce be compen-
satory, and must in consequence be main
tanned ever thereafter. Instead of this being
the case, however, it was fact that con-
ditons in this regard changed very fire.
Guently-it might be said almost daily. This
apparently general feeling that rate once
proclaimed must be always maintained con-
tributed in large degree, Mr.. Hill thought,
toward holding up rates higher plane
than would otherwise be the case.
Density Of Traffic True Basis.
reasonableness of a rate, Mr.. Hill said,
could be expressed in different wagon a
density of traffic For instance, he said, If
his road had profit of 100000 to make and
had 100000 tons of freight to carry, it
would be necessary to figure on a rate of a.
least 81 a ton. If, on the othe rhand, 1t had
the same amount of profit to make and had
1000 tons of freight to carry, 30 cents
ton would be more near the necessary fig
ure while if there were 100000 tons to ham
die, 25 cents ton would come near doing
the trick
If the average of freight rates on the
Great Northern were applied to certain of
the divisions, he said, it would be found
that in some cases the resulting rates were
almost prohibitive, while in others the road
was doing business at a loss
The principal difficulty in connection with
the proposition to empower a government
commission to fix rates, he thought, was
the extreme instability of the commercial
conditions upon which the making of rates
is based. A rate fixed to meet the condi-
tons of today might not, and probably
would not meet the conditions of tomor-
row, of next week or of the period month
ahead.
Referring to his road, Mr.. Hill said
that ir density of traffic handled 1t had al
ready passed many roads much older. Even
now there We're not more than fifteen per-
sons to the square mile the average in
the territory covered by the Great North
ern, and yet the density of traffic was as
great DIS LII llHnOiS at the present Time,
where the density Of population is much
greater. So far rates were concerned,
Mr.. Hill said the road of which he Is presi-
dent compared favorably with any other
railway operating west Of Chicago.
Foreign Business Given Up.
Taking up for a moment the question OF
through rates and foreign markets, Mr..
Hill said that until recently the Great
Northern had handled between forty and
westward, which were shipped to markets
in the orient on the steamers of the road
But the interstate commerce commission
had stepped in and demanded that the road
nile wit hthe commission its through rate
This, Mr.. Hill said it would have been alb
solutely impossible for the road to do for
purely business reasons. The German, En-
glish, French Italian and>ships and vessels
OF other nationalities as well, were under
no such obligation, and, after the through
rate of the Great Northern had been filed
| and made public, could have Immediately
made cut. His railroad however, could
not make corresponding cut under ten
days and without due notice to the COM
| mission. The restrictions in this connection
were so great. Mr.. Hill said, that it had
been thought better to give I'D this class of
business altogether.
senator Foraker, member of the COM
mittee, wanted to know If Mr.. Hill. as one
or the foremost railroad and business men
of the United States wanted tn 90 on rec
ord as saying that the foreign markets
were OF no advantage to this country
Mr. Hill replied that on the contrary ne
thought the foreign markets were of the
greatest advantage. but that he had
spoken as president of the Great Northern
railroad, which could earn Its Z per cent
dividend without trouble, even IL it never
had anything to do with a foreign market
| In twenty years.
Foreign Rates Highest.
Mr.. Hill read from statistics he had pre-
pared, showing that the average foreign
rate for carrying one ton of freight 100
miles was, in Great Britain, $685. in France
$2.02. in Austria $1.SS, in Germany 81 70, in
Russia $1.7O and in the United States So 70,
1t was a constant matter of wonder to Eu-
ropean railroad men, Mr. Hill said, how
the railroads of the United States could af-
ford to carry freight as cheaply as they do
Every year or so, he added, a delegation
of foreign railroad men come to this coun-
try who never failed to inquire into the
matter of the low average of freight rates
and to ask the reason therefor
But even to him it was astonishing that
the freight rates of the United States-in
view of the many miles of railroad and the
other pertinent factors-shouId be 40 per
cent less than in thickly populated Europe
The American rate he said, was in fact the
lowest in the world. For the past fifteen
years. Mr.. Hill said, railroad rates In this
country had been in a constant process of
evolution. They were low now but he saw
no reason why they should not go even
lower still. II the railroads were not hedged
around with restrictions.
Country's Development Responsible.
The development of the country, In his
opinion. was, of course, largely responsible
for the steady reduction in freight tariffs
He said that in 1882, with 600 miles Of