Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-19
!, {, c, MAKES REPORT
Car Shortage One of Its Princi-
pal Topics.
FIXING RESPONSIBILITY
Numerous Special Investigations
Being Carried On.
RECORD OF ACCIDENTS LARGE
Commission Has Yet No Recommends
tions to Make Concerning Amend
ments to Rate Law.
RECORD OF ACCIDENTS LARGE

relating to the work of the commission
was the passage of an act, approved June
20, which amended the act to regulate COM
merce in various and important particulars.
The scope of the statute has been material
J. enlarged by this enactment and the pow
ers of the commission substantially in
creased
The commission does not present any
recommendations for further amendment
of the regulating statute in this report
bat says such amendments 1t may con-
clude are necessary will be submitted in
special communications to Congress during
the present session.
One of the most interesting features of
the report is that relating to the present
pressing car shortage
The inability of shippers to procure cars
Tor the movement OF their traffic is the
subject of numerous grevious complaints
which come to the commission from all
parts of the country. A car famine pre-
walls which brings distress In almost every
section, and in some localities amounts to
a calamity. The extraordinary prosperity
which everywhere abounds with the high
prices obtainabe for all classes of COM
modities have so stimulated production as
TO yield a volume of Transports ton business
which far exceeds in the aggregate the car
rying capacity of the railroads. In word
The development of private industry has of
late been much more rapid than the in
crease of railway equipment
The conditions now existing in the north
west. where large quantities of grain re-
quire immediate shipment, and in the south
west and trans Missouri region. where thou
sands and tens Of thousands of live animals
are denied movement to the consuming
markets, may justly be regarded as alarm
ing; while throughout the middle west and
Atlantic Seaboard the shortage of cars for
manufactured articles and miscellaneous
merchandise has become a matter of serious
concern. In some cases it is simply a lack
of cars. in others insufficient tracks and
81 hny -lDl1,
Gudte freight yards and terminal facilities
ne larger roads. which have been in
crraslng their equipment. as their man
ayers claim, as rapidly as it could be. pro-
CuTed, are in many cases refusing to fur
niSh cars for loading to points beyond their
own rails, because they are not unloaded
ana returned within a reasonable time
Frequently. il is said foreign cars are viz
tualiy confiscated by roads which get them
INTO possession and keep them in use for
local service. The surprising statement was
recently made by high official of one of
the largest and best equipped systems that
!" per cent of its cars was then beyond
us control on the lines of other roads.
Situation is Serious.
The practice of allowing car loaded on
on" line TO go through to destinatio how
ever distant. has been so general and the
commercial need for such movement is so
obvious and urgent, that a curtailments of
this interchange results in widespread
~
pears 10 be impossible for any road to at
once secure an adequate addition to its
rolling stock, because we are told that
every ear and locomotive building estab-
H"hment Is working to the limit of its
capacity and that orders placed now can
not be hlled much under a year
Whatever the cause or however difficult
to fix responsibility, the tnauestioned fact
Is that the railroads cannot or do moi
move the entire volume of traffic offered
ana that shippers are suffering to de-
gree almost unbearable in many cases be-
cause they cannot get transportation for
Their traffic. The railways. to use a COM
mon smile, are the arteries through which
the commercial life of the nation circu-
iates but when this circulation becomes
lmpeded because the channels are cholled
UP or subjected to abnormal pressure the
d necessary and early result is an impair
h"nt OF commercial vigor which is felt in
every sphere of business activity A sit
.uation of such gravity calls for every rem
coy that can be usefully applied.
The commission is without authority I'M
. dcr any existing law to deal effectively
WIN inns condition. The regulating power
or congress has not been exercised to con-
tr"i the physical operations of interstate
railroads. aside from the safety appliance
requirements, either as respects the move
mehts or trains or the supply of equip
ment- Nevertheless, the commission with
. out waiting for further authority has com
menced an investigation of this subject
WIN view to ascertaining its causes the
CONDITIONS In different parts of the country
tlther voluntarily by the carriers or hy
me compuision of suitable enactments
IH',S LESSONS and rulings under the
NV law relate to the following subjects:
Money payment for TRANSPORTATION tariffs
81 ne" rodcs through rates higher than the
sum OF locals and reduction of such
tiIouSh rates on one days notice up to
december 81, 1906: desire to meet rates of
competing carrier, round-triD excursion
rates and establishment of such rates ON
snort notice; round-trip tickets on certificate
lNft
ctlscA OF lnti astate rates applying on inter-
state traffic. issua ice and use Of free passes
transportation of land and immigration
agents free or at reduced rates free nv re-
uUcei-rate transportation for ministers of
re,iSlon ahd others, transportation for care
takers OF live stock. poultry. fruit and
NeSttthies' Hing OF contracts or agree
mthts Tor divisions of joint rates exrort
rates on cotton and other commodities: an
ph>ation of the amended law to cases pre-
- viously pending before the commission.
Special Investigations.
The amended law provides that in all
cases of changes in rates applicable to inter
state traffic whether advances or reduc-
tons, the public and the commission shall
be given thirty days notice To meet I'M
foreseen emergencies and prevent hard
ships, the commission is authorized in It's
SCietion and for good cause shown to
allow changes in rates on less than thirty
days notice. More than COO applications
.Ior PERMISSION 10 make changes in rates on
less than the statutory thirty days notice
have been received since August Is the
date when the new law became effective
Under the heading of special investiga-
tons the ccmmisS on mentions the nuner-
Gus hearings which have been held in the
Investigation ordered by the joint resolu-
ton Of Congress, approved March Z 1906
commonly known the Tillman- Gillespie
resolution and relating to the relations of
common carriers to the production and dis
tribUtion of coal and oil and the ownership
OF coal and oil lands by such carriers or
their officers and employees. series of re-
ports on this investigation will be made
from time 20 time the first of which so far
as coal Is concerned. will pertain to what
Is called he eastern bituminous situation
and that report will soon be submitted to
The Congress. special report upon that
portion of the investigation which pertains
q To oil will soon be submitted
report to The Congress under the La
Toilette resolution of June -. relating to
the ownership and operation of elevators
charges and allowances paid thereto. and
practices in the handing and transporta-
HIOn of grain is in course of prepara alton
and will be submitted soon as prac-
ticable. certainly during the present session
of Congress- Another special report Will be