The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-05

reduction of It's advantage over more easterly refining points, .au.aoaa
 6. The railroads have advanceu their published rates from Whiting into Northern Indiana and Michigan Dy about 2 or cents per hundred pounns, and have put the rates on practically an equity, distance considered. with those from Toledo and more oasterly
 !. The New York. New Haven and practice of proratinE on oil. thereny reducing the average freight charge to independent refiners of western into a large part of Connecticut. Rhode Island and Massachusetts. by about eight cents per 100 pounds. This will materially increase, their opportanli..ig, l.i, Company in that territory. The in- terstate Commerce Commission recently denounced the former practice and re-
 B. A large number of the secret rates of California railroads have been published as open rates. While under the contract system of f. selling .hn1 .'nn rue, the concerns formerly enjoying the secret rates continue to benefit from them, this revision of tariffs OBVIOUSLY operates to the benefit of independent shippers on future business. A number of discrepancies in open rates on the Pacific coast have also been adjusted.
 THG CnanKeS aDOR6 0EEGElpGuB WILD others of less importance, mean much charges to the Standard. They show in striking fashion the good which has tion. They put Independents upon a fairer footing and make competition possible in the territories heretofore inaccessible.
 Discrimination stiII In Force.
 Nevertheless. the widespread discriu- nations in open rates still in force leave the independents at serious dis advantage. The investigation has only incidentally touched State shipments from distributing centers, particular ly In less than carloads. The few ir- stances examined suggest the proba- biiity of determinations on such ship ments which. taken in conneetion with with through traffic. may result in dis criminations on interstate s,n ans,inessI r. by which discriminations are obtained, and to call pa7rstigsulsT gs att attention Irin ds to vices to obtain exactly the same result as would be obtained by rebates paid on interstate business. Any freight interstate, tends to- give control of markets to the preferred shipper, and makes monopoly possible. If existing sr sor Obtaining Hf discrimnation,. and per naits the same result to be accom- plished in a different way, then the iegislation is to that extent a sham.
 This investigation has shown very clearly one giaring defect in the inter- state commerce law viz. the method of filing and publishing tariffs. Al though a tariff or q rate has heen filed with the Commission in compli- ance with the terms of the law, none but the favored shipper may known of It's existence. Tariffs may be made and rates may be combined in such man ner as to make 1t practically impos- sibie for the ordinary shipper to find them. As long as the State rates are not required to be made public. and shippers use such rates in combna- tion with interstate rates, all manner of devices to evade the purpose of the law are possible. All State rates used in connection with interstate shipments should be filed with the In- terstate Commerce Commission. and q radical change should be made in the direction of simplifying tariffs and in methods of posting and filing them.
 Very respectfully,
 James Rudolph Garfield,
 Commissioner of Corporations.
 The President.