The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-05-04
PRESIDENT HILL
GIVES HIS SIDE
Practical Talk on Railway Rate
Question.
SOME VALUABLE POINTERS
AN OPINION AS TO THE PANAMA
CANAL,


the senate committee on interstate COM
merce today No changes were neees-
sary in the present law except the re
striction Of the scope and power of the
interstate commerce commission, he
said
James J. Hill. president of the Great
Northern. followed. He said there was
one safe basis on which low rate
could be made. and that was the low
cost Of producing the transportation.
The value of the service Is determined {
by the destiny of the traffic, and that
makes the rate. Rates vary with comb
tiCus. In making rates on his road, ne
said. they had to take into COnsidera-
ton what the country produces. The
railroad was charged with the pros
ueritv Of every man who lives on the
road. if that man worked. DiscrImlna-
lions were necessity. declared Mr. Hill
A Case in Point.
When the road was built he went to
Washington state and found that its
greatest product was lumber. There
was a rate of 80 cents per 100 pounds on
lumber to the eastern market Lumber
dealers said they could ship at So cents
/ He knew they could not do II and ne
made rate Of 40 cents and was snip
ping large quantities OF lumber ms
was discrimination against lumber
on the eastern end of the road but in
ten years there would be-uO lumber pro-
duced in that section II was because
the cars going out with merchandise
brought Ioaus back that these low rates
could he made. Beside the merchandise
for the Pacific coast. his road handled
freight for the orient. Large quanti-
ties Of flour At one time were hauled
from the Twin cities to the Orient, but
stopped 1t.
Cross-Fire of Questions.
This statement produced d fire Of
questions from members of the commit
tee. and in reply Mr.. Hill explained that
the company was compelled to file its
! through rates with the commission
/ This rate being made public, was cut
! by rival railroads which were not COM
PEELED TO make their rates public His
! company under the law could not
/ change its rate for seven or eight days,
and meanwhile the other lines took the
cargoeS. IF the ships of the company
( did not carry a pound of freight it
would make no difference with the divl-
deudS
! Speaking Of the great tonnage Of the
IA iIroadS Mt. Hill warned the commit
! tee to be careful aud not cripple the
/ business Of the country not for our
{
got down to us there would be great
many corpses about the country He
spoke of the congestion of freight At
/ eastern ports. and said business was
1 going to the Gulf although shipping
rates to Europe from Gulf ports were
very much higher Roads east of chi
I cagO would have to raise their rates in
order to get means to build more eX-
tensive terminals.
What Congress Might Do
Mr.. Hin said that while congress was
! iegisIating for safety appliances for
| employees il might provide better safety
/ for the public. He attributed 90 per
cent Of the accidents to UOu-obSeTVaU"c
/ of rules. He told Of shipment Of loco
motives from Philadelphia TO Yoke
/ hama by his company al rate equal
] To what another company charged for
! transporting locomotives 500 miles.
/ This is a case he remarked. for the
/ interstate commerce commission 10 take
! up and investigate They would hnd
J sompb body was charging too much
Commenting upon the statement Of
Mr. Hill that i'm twenty years there had
been a reduction of rates from , cents
to 16-1C0Jhs cents per ton per mile
Chairman EIkins asked what would
happen to rates i'm the next twenty
years
Piled Mr. Hill. and in twenty years I
think the rate viii come down to a
haIf-ceUt per ton Der mile
Makes Suggestion.
/ Mr. Hill said the ability of the rail
roads to raise money for increasing
their e,luirmcut and for building addi-
tioraI lines would lee destroyed by TAX
ing away from them the power to make
rates. He criticized the terminal
charges enforced below the Harlem
. river i'm New York saying they we're
greater than the rate from Buffalo To
J Harlem. He suggested that the inter
/ state commission might investigate
these terminal charges
Why don't the commissioners take
up that natter" asked Chairman
3 ElkiUs.
They are too busy" replied Mt Hill,
trying to get power 10 fix railroad
rates"
There was quite an interesting dis
cuss5on between Mr.. Hill and Mr.. FL
kius about the competition of Canadian
roads The latter asked what ought f.
he done to meet the rates and Teba teS
of the canadian nlcS-
willing to Fight 1t Out.
We are willing To work that out
( among ourselves" replied Mr.. Hill
viii cease cutting rates
He said that some years ago the
TranscontiueutaI association paid th'
Canadian Pacific road 100000 a year e
. get out of certain business on which
the road was cutting rates from New
York To san Francisco This arrange
meut lasted only three years
Replying TO Senator Foraker. Mr.. Hill
said no interest would suffer if eXpOr
traffic with non-cOUtigUOus countries
/ was exempted from control by the in
terstate commerce regulations Thi
was brought out by the previous re
mark of Mr.. Hill that his company ha'
to withdraw its rate on -four TO japan
because the commission insisted tina
the rate should De published
i Will Meet Any Rate.
, Replying to "a question by Senate
/ CIapp "a to the effect of the Pauam
canal on the railroads. Mr. Hill sal
that for Atlantic and Gulf ports an
for $50 miles inland the canal would b
Of some advantage But, he added
for all interior points we viii meet an
rate made by the canal route
I Again Questioned by Senator ClapI
/, Mr.. Hill declared that every railwa
officer should be disqualified from en-
gaging in the production of traffic O
a line where he is on the payroll. be
cause of the temptation 10 favor tn
+ company in Which he was interested
{ When Mr.. Hill concluded the committe
adjourned until tomorrow.