The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-03
ALL NOT CORRUPT
DIRECTORS OF PENNSYI.VANI&
 MAKE \ REPORT.
Result of an investigation Into the Scandals Developed in Recent Hearings Before the Inter- state Commerce Com
 mission.

Philadelphia, July 2-A preliminary renort of the special committee of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company recently appointed 10 investigate the alleged discrimina- tfon in the distribution Of coal cars as revealed at the hearings of the Inter state Commerce Commission was sup mltted today to the fuli board or the company. After shert. discussion the renort was rnauimos sly approved >-s The committee says tltAts thss teats- l nonv showed that of more than 500 onerators of bltuminous coal mines sit- hated on the lines of the PennsylVanla Railroad Company less than ten oper- ntors in all have testified that thcy lieved themselves to have been untalr- 1v discriminated against, either in the distribution of coal cars or in the mat fer of sidirgs connecting mine work- ines with tlle railroad lins.
 "Fifty-one of the more than l2S,- 900 officers and employees of the Penn- svlvania Railroad Company, the com mittee says, were examined pelore tns Interstate Commerce Commission and of those witnesses twenty-one were shown to have alleged but not proven to have received undue and unreason- able preferences in the distribution or coal cars or in the construction or sidincs The testimony of the wit- nesses examined before the committee does not prove that there have been m fact any undue or unreasonable prefer enres. either in the distribution of coal cars or in the construction Of sldlnSS'
 The committee says it has recelVeu rsnlies from all officers and employees having charge of the distribution or cars to inquiries made by the commit tee on car distribution but until the company's records of the daily move nncnt of cars can be examined, the cormittee will be unable to know whether the distribution of cars varied from the rules governing the same. Because of the magnitude or the tash of tabulating, examining and compar- ing many thousand reports the commit tee has employed the audit company of New York to undertake an expert investigation of the company's daily reports and other record UT car u'9'i4 button. A..
 The committee calls attention to many difficulties encountered in the dis tribution of cars. The committee says:
 There must be fair system or pro-rata distribution, but whatever pc inc system, there will inevitably come neriods when the demand for cars will exceed the supply because of increaseo market prices sometimes caused by weather. somtimes by strikes in other territories. or sometimes by suddenly increased industrial developments.
 .The question of the independent or nrivately owned coal cars is not new pneetion nor one which admits of an off-hand solution, The greater portion of the coal tonnage in England IS moved today in privately owned ears The use of such cars on the Pennsyl- vanla lines is not peculiar to a few They have been used from the beginning of the coal transportation"
 The report concludes as follows: ."rhe committee will investigate every fact which is or may be brought to its attention affecting the performance by the officer or employe or ms duty to the company or the performance by the company of it's duties to the pup lice: and the committee vii report it's conclusions in every case to the presi- dent of the company in the confident assurances that no ownership or prac- tice calculated in any way to affect the full and impartial discharges of duties owed by the respective officers and employes to the company or by the company to the public will be con doned; and that every officer and em- ploye after full investigation has been or shall be found to to have failed in the performance Of his duty, will be properly dealt with.
 while under former conditions it was right that officers and employees should have been encouraged to invesr their own money in CT to personally assume financial obligations for the purpose of developing personal enter prises on the line of the road for the practical return that if officers and employees did not so invest 1t would have been difficult to induce other peo- pie to make such investments; it new ertheless has been always understood that no such investment of money or assumption of financial obligation was permissible, if it affected the officers or employees performance of such du- | ty"