The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-04
Santa Fe Arraigned by
 Commission.
In AiIowins Rebates to the Colorado Fuei snd Iron Company, the
 Laws sf the Land Know
 insiy Were TrsnsEressed.

decision promulgated today by the In- eeFstate Commerce Commission on the aueged unlawful rates and practices or that road in the transportation of coal and mine supplies, involving also the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The main points of the decision, sum- marking the way in which it is al- leged the law has been violated and dis regarded, are as follows:
 The act to regulate commerce re- quires carriers to publish and adhere 10 their tariffs. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company has for the last live years, wilfuliy and con- tinuously violated this provision of the law in respects above stated.
 February 19, 1903. the so-called 'Elkins bill was enacted, providing that carriers should in no case transport traffic until a tariff had been publish cd. and that the published tariff should pc observed, and providing a penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more than $2u,0O0 for each offence. The provisions of this statute extend both to the rail- way company which grants and the party which receives the concession. Both the Santa Fe and the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company systematically and continuously violated the provis- Ions of that act in the particulars men, tianed. from the day of its passage down to Nov 27, 1904, when the tar ifs under which this coal moved were reduced fin all cases S1.15. It would seem that the Fl Paso and Southwest ern Railroad was also in violation of the same statute during that period, but that company was not a party to this proceeding and has not been heard.
 Tt should be further observed that nr1 he Circuit Court in a suit began at the instance and request of the Interstate Commerce CommissicA enjoined the Att chison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company to observe in all respects It's published schedules of rates. That company from the date of this injunc- l ton down to Nov. 27. 1904. was appa- rently in continuous disregard of that court in it's failure to maintain these coal tariffs"
 The decision says that a number of | operators it New Mexico besides Mir. Bowie of the Caledonia Coal Company. found it dihicult to dispose of their products in competition with the Col 1 orado Fuel and Iron Company, the commission deduces number of the general facts from the evidence.
 The Sauta Fe company, 1t says, act | ed as agent for the Colorado Fuel and
 Iron Company in collecting from its customers the price of the coal itself | along with the freight rate, and the
 evidence showed that in one instance | at least this also was done for the | Victor Fuel Company.
 Under this arrangement the Santa | Fe instructed its agents to bill coal | in certain points at which the Colorado 1 Fuel and Iron Company operated to various stations on its system at flg-
 ures to be furnished by the Colorado | Fuel and Iron Company and the prae-
 tice seems to have been to embrace
 the price of the coal and the freight
 rate in a single item which appeared
 on the expense bill as freight. Con | tinuing the commission says.
 If the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com
 pany had in all cases paid the publish
 ed tariff rate which was exacted from | other shippers, the fact that the price
 of the coal and the freight were in-
 cluded in a different Item would have
 worked no practical advantage to that | company so far as we can see Neith-
 CT apparently would there have been
 any reason for this arrangement if tho purpose of the parties had been hon.
 est. If. however, there existed on the part of the Santa Fe Company an in- ] tent to charge the Colorado Fuel and
 Iron Company less for the tranAporta- ton of its coal than the published rate
 1t is evident that this method of bili- ing would afford it a means for con-
 oealing the transaction. In point of
 the fact, during the period covered by | this investigation, the Santa Fe Com- I pany did transport coal for the Colo
 radO Fuel and Iron Company for less
 than its open tarir rates and these
 concessions amounted in many cases | to the price of the coal itself.
 Under the joint tariff of May a.
 1903, and effective until November 27.
 1904, the railroad parties to that tarift 1 allowed the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company a concession on all coal
 transported under these joint rates of Sl.O0 per ton. Mir. Riddle. Freight Traffic Manager of the Santa Fe, tes- ttfed that of the $4. 05 received by the santa Fe, lis was always paid to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company with the full knowledge of the El Paso and southwestern. These railroads, there fore, collected the published tariff rate from the Trinidad district to destina- ton and paid back to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company $1.15 per ton Of the amount so collected.
 Some suggestion has been made that these payments to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company by the Santa Fe system were not in the nature of re- bates, but simply payment for the price Of its coal; that the published tariffs in reality included the cost of the coal, but inadvertently omitted to state that fact. The record conclusively shows the contrary.
 Tt was said that these rebates in fa- vor of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com. pany work no discrimination. as there were no other Shipper and consequently no actual preference. The Santa Fe Company published it's rates and these rates were actually insisted upon in the case of the small consumers appa- rently. but whenever it seemed desir- able in order to secure a particular contract. to shade the price, a special arrangement was made between the Santa Fe and the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, by which the Santa Fe agreed to transport the coal require ed to fill that contract for less than this published rate.
 Since the greater part of the busi- ness of the coal company was in filling these large contracts. the rebate was applied to the greater part of its total shipment Nobody else sold to thesc large consumers because in the very nature of things nobody else could sell. These tarlffs from the Trinidad dis trict merely served as scare-crows to keep of all competitors and further as a pretext for declining the reduced rate from Northern coal fields, on the ground that there ought to be some re- lafiou hetweep different districts