The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-17
HAS A MONOPOLY AND
 HE FRANKLY ADMITS IT
PRODUCERS AND SHIPPERS HAVE TO ACCEPT AR-
 MOURS RATES.

President of the Armour Car Lines
 Company Acknowledges the Fact
 Before Senate Investigating Commit
 fee-Has Exclusive Contracts With
 RaiIroads--Says Company Should Not
 be Compelled to Expose Its Books.
 Washington, May 16.-Before the sen ate committee on interstate commerce, which is investigating railroad rates, President George R. Robbins, of the Armour Car Lines company, to-day ad- mitted that the company had twenty or thirty exclusive contracts with rail- roads for fruit transportation business, and acknowledged monopoly of that traffic in parts of the west and south Wherever these exclusive contracts ap- piled he admitted the producers and shippers of fruit had to accept the rates laid down by the Armours. He claimed that his company was private one and therefore not subject to the interstate commerce laws MT Robbins, who con- tinued his testimony of yesterday, was closely examined by the committee re- garding the operation of the Armour interests. The exclusive contracts with railroads, he said, were generally pri- vate contracts, though exhibited when requested. He asserted that the Ar rnours do not get any advantage over other shippers in these cars. Replying to Chairman Elkins, the witness said that his company did not want to be subject to thes interstate commerce laws.
 It seems, "interjected MT. Erkins, that you have all the advantages and none of the responsibilities of common carriers''
 z According to the witness the Armours have 200 articles, known as packing house products, which are transported s in Armour cars.
 You control the transportation of these products lin the private cars ?" queried Senator Kean.
 Not control, but the Armours ship their products in these cars.
 MT. Robbins admitted that on roads where they had exclusive contracts the. roads could not engage in the shipment of the products covered in the contract in other cars. Those who complained on this matter, he added, were mostly receiverssand commission men, and not the producers and shippers.
 Senator Foraker examined MT. Rob- bins as to the cost of icing car from [ Eio1,tr +.,3D 1o+ acr ured that 1t would cost $50 per car Isn't it matter of fact" asked the senator ''that the ice costs only about $25 per carr"
 Mr. Robbins would not admit that this was true. The Pere Marquette line, he suggested. had reduced rates from $2.50 to s5 per car and the Ar. mour line had make a like reduction.
 Senator Deliver asked MT. Robbins regarding the business of the Armour Car lines and it's earnings. MT. Rob bins insisted that the company is a pri- vate one and ought not to be compelled $ to expose its books or earnings any more than any other private company.
 Unless we should consider that you are public carrier the same as a 6sTdtiTOdu sCOlipdily, TciIldihcu cclintol Deliver.
 MT. Robbins denied that the Armours were interested in any of the fruit com panies in California or that the Al mours had a monopoly of the transpor- tation of the California fruits, acknowl- edging, however, that his company had a monopoly of the fruit transportation in the Pere Marquette region and in Georgia and Florida. The Armours, he admitted, had exclusive contracts with all the south Atlantic coast state rail- ways, exclusive contracts in east Ten nessee, and on certain roads in Mis- souri and Arkansas and on the South ern Pacific road. The Santa Fe was a competing line in the fruit business in California. Fruit producers and ship pers on these exclusive lines had to ac- cept the rates of the Armour company but Mir Robbins said they satisfied 30 per cent of the shippers
 c. w. Robinson, representing the New Orleans Board of Trade and the Cen tral Yellow Pine association, testified that eastern trunk lines should be re- strained from diverting grain of the northwest from it's natural outlet at New Orleans. He advocated enlarged powers for the interstate commerce commission.
 F. B. Thurber, president of the New York Export association, opposed the proposed law empowering the interstate commerce commission to fix rates. Mur- ray Carleton of St. Louis, representing the Business Mems league the Mer- chants Transportation association of that city opposed the Eseh- Townsend bill or any other legislation changing present conditions. He said that the business men had paid little attention to the matter until the legislation in Texas and Missouri had .disarranged rates"
 William P. Kennett of St. Louis, a broker, representing the Merchants ex- change and the St. Louis Manufactur- CTS association, advocated the recom- rnendations of the president for law conferring the power on the interstate commerce commission to adjustsand de- < ter1nine rates.
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