The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-25
Interior Jobbers Gain First
Advantage in Rate Contest.
Hoekaday Case Is Decided by
Railroad Commissioners.
WALKER ON OTHERSIDE
HOltOn Commissioner Would
Hold to Old Prices.
Reductions Ordered Apply Only
to Hardware.

With A. D. Walker dissenting, Rail-
road Commissioners Robson and
Wheatley on Tuesday afternoon pro
mulgated a new rate schedule on car
load shipments of hardware from. Atehi-
son to Wichita, Hutchinson and Salina,
the effect OF which viii be to reduce
/ jobbing rates to interior Kansas hard
ware wholesalers from to 13 cents per
hundredweight.
/ The decision was rendered in the suit
/ filed by the Hockaday Hardware COM
pany of Wichita. and Joined later by
the H. D. Lee Hardware company of
Salina and the Colladay Hardware COM
pany of Hutchinson It Is decisive
victory for the interior Kansas jobbers,
for it puts them in a position where it
is believed that they win be able to
enjoy the same advantages in the west
/ ern Kansas territory, that Kansas City,
No, and other Missouri river jobbers
enjoy in the territory of eastern Kan
sas.
1t is understood that the AtchisOn,
Topeka & Santa Fe, against which
road the order is directed, will fight the
! introduction of the rates on the ground
]
/ commerce.
The decision in the Hockaday case is
of great Importance for the reason that
it not only affects hardware jobbers,
but is likely to determine the policy of
the board in dealing with the grocery
commodity case, in which almost exact
/ ly the same contentious are involved as
in the Hockaday case. The grocery
commodity case is set for hearing on
] Novembe r..
Commissioner a. D. Walker, who re-
fused to concur with the majority OF
the board in the adoption Of the new
rate schedule, did so on the ground that
the board does not have jurisdiction
over the complaint; that the interior
I jobbers are trying to regulate interstate
/ commerce. Tt is said that Mr.. Walker
admitted that the interior jobbers are
being made the victims of discrimina-
ton, and that they are entitled to relief.
But he refused to join with the MAORI
| ty of the board in reducing the rates.
To a certain extent the petition OF
/ the hardware jobbers was a subter-
fuge, from the fact that the board was
asked to reduce rates from Atchison to
I the interior points. AS a matter of
load lots from AtchisOn. Not very
much of it even passes through there.
/ The Santa Fe is the only road which
/ is defendant to the action.
!
( duction such as asked for by the in
terror iobbers, and granted by the rail-
road board, will work as a lever to
compel all railroads from all Missouri
river points to put in the same sched-
ule of rates which is ordered for Atchi-
son on the Santa Fe. And although
no hardware is shipped direct from
AtchisOn, or from any other Missouri
river points, in car load lots, the re-
duction in the local rate will work as
d reduction on the through rate from
the mills and factories in the east.
At present the interior jobbers of
Kansas. and the Missouri river job
bers, all get the same rates east of
the Missouri. It is west of the Mis-
souri, that the discrimination against
the interior jObbers is in evidence, and
this is the part of the rate which the
interior jobbers have induced the rail-
road board to cut down.
For example, the rate on car load
! lot hardware from the Mississippi
river is % cents; from the Missouri
river to Wichita the old rate was 36
cents. on most hardware items The
! railroads made a through rate of So
cents. Now, however, the board has
ordered a reduction from SO to IS
/ cents and the sum of the locals will be
! only % plus IS, or 81 cents, a reduc-
/ ton from the old rate of cents a
+ hundred.
/ Unless the railroad companies sue
( coed in hooking out the new rates
voluntary reduction in the distributing
rates now enjoyed by Kansas City and
other Missouri river jobbing houses,
/ the proposed new schedules will give
interior Kansas iObbers a protective
tariff in territory west of them that
\ is they can get into all the towns of
western Kansas about or g cents. per
100 cheaper than can the Missouri
river jobbers. At the present time, the
Missouri river jobbers enjoy the bene-
fits of just such protective tariff in
| son, Wichita and Salina jObbers can
not compete in the territory east of
! them.
The formal order of the board has
not yet been issued. The board held
a conference of about two hours Tues
day afternoon, and at 4:30 in the
/ afternoon announced the new schedule,
and accompanied it with statement
that the formal order would be pro-
mulgated next week. After the pro-
mitigation of the order, the Santa Fe
it does not comply within that time, it
will be UP to Attorney Carr Taylor to
bring mandamus proceedings to force
the company to adopt the rates. and
| this viii throw the whole controversy
directly into the coFts.
The following win show both the old
rates and the new ones put in by the
/ board
wichita: Old New
! Corrugated iron .....-.......-... Sc %
/ Tin plate -------..-........... IS p
! Iron bolts and nuts .....-...... IS q
/ Horse shoes e-s-.-.-.-.-.--s=Sb %