The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-17
ROBBINS'S CONFESSION
ARMOUR CAR LINES COMPANY HAS
 MONOPOLY.
President of Fruit TPansportation Trust Makes Frank Statement to the Senate investigation
 Committee.

Washington, May lo.--6eloIe tno Senate Committee on Interstate com merce, which Is investigatlng TaIiroaS rates. President George Robbins, or Armour Car Lines Company today ad- mitted that the company had twenty or thirty exclusive contracts with rail- roads for fruit transportation business and acknowledged a monopoly or that traffic in parts of the West and South' Wherever these exclusive contracts ap- piled, he admitted the producers ana shippers of fruit had to accept the rates laid down by the Arrnours. He claimed that his company was prl-' vate one and therefore not subject to the Interstate Commerce laws.
 MT Robbins who was the star Wit- ness of the day and appeared to com tInue his testimony of yesterday, was closely examined by the commission regarding the operation of the Armour interests. These exclusive contracts with railroads, he said, were generally private contracts, though exhibited when requested. He asserted that the Armours do not get any advantage over other shippers in these yirs, RepiylbS Sl to Chairman Elkins, the witness said that his company did not want to De subject to the interstate commerce laws. Tt seems" interjected MT. Elkins, that you have all the advant-
 
 of common carriers"
 According to the witness, the Ar mours have two hundred articles known as packing house products which are transported in Armour cars:
 You control the transportation Of these products in the private cars' re- marked Senator Kean.
 Not control,i but the Armours snip their products iu these cars"
 MT Robins admitted that on roads where they had exclusive contracts, like the Perre Marquette line, the roads could not engage In the shipment of the products covered in tae con tract in other cars. Those who conn pIained on this matter, he added, were mostly receivers and commission men and not the producers and shippers. Senator Deliver asked MT. Robbins regarding the business of the Armour Car Lines and it's earnings. MT. Roo- bins insisted that the company IS private one and ought not to be com pelled to expose It's books or earn ings any more tran any other private | company -.
 "IfnIess we should consider that you are A public carrier the same as | railroad company" remarked senator | Deliver.
 Mir. Robbins denied that the Armours were interested in any of the frnlt | cOmDAnleS Tn GHIlIOTHld OI Nhhb sA'S | Armours had a monopoly of the trans portation of California fruit, acknowl- l edRine. however, that his company had | a monopoly of the fruit transportation l in the Pere Marquette region and in | Georgia and Florida The Armours' he admitted, had exclusive contracts with all the South Atlantic Coast l States railways. exclusive contracts m East Tennessee and on certain roads | in Missouri and Kansas and on tho Southern Pacific road. The Santa Fe | was a connecting line in the fruit bus" | mess In California. Fruit producers | and shippers on these exclusive lines
 had to accept the rates of the Armour Company but MT. Robbins said they 1 satisfied so per cent of the shippers | Senator Clapp asked number ol
 questions as to the position of Mir. Rob | bins in acknowledging an absolute mo- l nonolv and yet withholding informa' | tion as to their business and claiming
 immunity from the Interstate Com l mercc Confusion laws. MT Ropplns
 rnaintained that his position was Justi'
 fled ...
 F w. Robinson, representing the
 New orleans Board of Trade and tho Central Yellow Pine Lumber Assocla | tfon testified that eastern lines shOulC
 be restrained from diverting the gram
 of the Northwest from its natural out | let at New orleans. ne auFOCdtSO oH lareed powers for the Interstate Com
 merce Confusion.
 MT. Robinson said that the railroads
 operating in the South had advanced l yellow pine lumber rates and charged l that there were indirect rebates, or dis criminations by manipulation of rates 1 He referred to practices of billing lum- | her to small towns and then rebilline ] 10 destinations by which cheaper rate i for d long haul is granted. This, ne set out. is a discrimination against some shippers
 F. F. Thurber. president of the New | York Export Association, opposed the proposed law empowering the Inter- l state ComRrce Commission to fix rates
 Murray Carleton of St. Louis. repre- sentfng the Business Mems League, the Merchants Transportation Association. and the Interstate Merchants Associa- tion of that city, opposed the Esch- | Townsend bill, or any other Legislation changing the present conditions. He | said that the business men had paid lit- file attention to the matter unless the | IeRfslation in Texas and Missouri had | "disarranged rates
 William NJ Kennett of St. Louis. a broker representing the Merchants | Excbange and the St Louis Manufac- turers' Association, advocated the rec onmendations of the President for q law con1erring power on the Interstate lCommessS Commission to adjust and de- terminS rates. He filed a number oi