Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-09-20
srIckNEY AND scHEpULEs.

Presidenf Stickney Of the Chicago
Grea Western appears to be thorn
in tt side Of the men who manipulate
schedules for the benefit of certain
class of shippers. About the time they
get things going satisfactorily he
breaks in with dissertation on the
subje, Its that makes the whole quite
! clear to the Interstate commerce COM
mission and the public. WHAT makes
the information valuable is that it
comes from railroad president, a
practical railroad man ard man who
knows what he is talking about.
His recent statement with reference
to the publication Of schedules Of rates
is pertinent just at this time when the
new commission is eL6oavoring to
solve the problem Of the enforcement
Of tho new rate law. While other rail-
road men put in their time in an effort
to show that it is impossible to
comply with the new enactment Mr..
Stickney comes forth with statement
of how it can be complied with.
In throwing some light on the
methods in the traffic departments he
contrasts them with the operating de-
partments. He says:
"In every department Of railway
operation except the schedule making
departments, order, method and sys-
tenn prevail. In schedule making
there is neither order, method nor
system.
"It is not penalties of the law, but
method, order and system which keep
the trains upon the track. When a
time card is changed, the whole card
is reprinted and the old card taken up,
so that the engineers and conductors
and the public are never compelled to
examine more than one card.
"No such system pertains to the
schedule in such manner that rail-
way agents who collect the rates or
the public who pay the rates, can tell
with certainty the legal rates.
"On the contrary, they have been
published on detached leaves and
booklets Of a few pages, some leaves
and some booklets containing few
specific rates, many containing no
specific rates, but instead of specific
rates they contain rules for the COM
bining rates to produce specific rates
which are incomprehensible to both
the shipper and to the railway agents
who collects the rates. This results in
a great many mistakes in regard to
rates which must be corrected by an
over-charge claim"
The "overcharge claim" referred to
is another name for rebate. There Is
rate that is unknown to all small
shippers because Of its indefinite ma
ture, but is known to the shipper for
whom 1t was intended. He pays the
schedule rate as it is known to all
others and to the men who collect the
tariffs, and then puts in claim for
"overcharge" under the indefinite
clause. In due time the overcharge is
paid
He says that the only way perma-
nent and substantial reform can be eff
fected is for the commission to compel
the roads to adopt simple and uni
form method of making and publish
ing schedules, and to require them to
republish their schedules entire every
time rate is changed, just as time
tables are published entire when the
time of train is changed.
To one not experienced in schedule
making and railway traffic this will ap-
pear as {. feasible plan, and coming, as
it does, from man who Is at the head
of a great system, it would seem that
1t must be admitted by those who are
in the work. If he can do it, it would
seem that the others would hardly
dare to say that they can not. The
great trouble apparently is with the
number of schedules, as well as with
the large proportion of illegal sched-
ules. Mr.. Stickney says that they can
be made into volumes about as large
as an unabridged dictionary. And if
they were compelled to republish the
entire schedule when change is made
1t may be concluded, as he has con-
Guided, that there would be less
char -es, and it appears that it is in the
changes that the unfair and discrimin.
atOry rates are made.
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