The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-26

such officers and employees te criticism and suspicion, and the report says th' policy should be speedily changed. As to the second class. who jofninf with others holding options on or titie' to coal properties, acquired interes therein by promoting or allowing th' use of their names as promoters, tn' report says this system was used 10 large extent by persons outside or or ficers and employees of the road to ad vance their own interest and to enlargs inc shipments from the coal properties they were operating. the purpose beint to secure by means of the influence o railroad officials and employees undu' and unjust advantage over other coa companies having no such ahliations. As to the third class, officers and .. employees to whom stock Tn coai com, panies was given outright Wltnou' subterfuge or pretense of purchase this system was frequently resorted 70 and the officers and managers or tne coal companies usually selected the officers and employees Of the railroao whose influence it was thought desir- able to secure. This practice mas l grown to be a scandal on the Penn sylvania Railroad and no one appear | ing before the commission attempted | to justify it. The commission can | not too strongly express it's disapprov- | al of these practices. Y Notice is taken of an executive or- der issued by the president of the
 Pennsylvania Railroad on July ?, iast, | requiring all officers and employees to | divest themselves of any interest, df- rect or indirect. in stock of any coal companies or firms.
 Baltimore and Ohio's Holdings. As to the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road. the report says.
 "The evoidence shows that ten of- f1cials of this company own an aggre- gate of 7,17S shares of stock Of coal companies par value S10o, and that these companies have their plants on and are doing business along the lines of the Baltimore and Ohio. This stock was acquired in some cases by pur- chase and in others by allotment as bonus with bonds purchased, and in few instances by gift. The critt- cism applied to practices on the Penn sylvania Railroad applied to these practices of stock acquisition on the part of the officials of the Baltimore and Ohio"
 Under the general head of contract in the form of trust or conspiracy in
 restraint of trade. the report touches
 upon the vaious railway and freight
 associations in the territory covered
 by the investigation and says 1t was
 apparent to the commission that 'the
 associations were used for the pur-
 pose of agreeing Upon and maintaining
 freight rates and that the distribution
 of tonnage to the several roads was
 only maintained In so far as the same
 was accomplished by fixing agreed
 freight rates"
 Regarding the various associations,
 the following conclusions are reached:
 The commission finds in the Asso-
 ciated Railways of Virginia and the Carolinas an agreement among the
 several railroads parties thereto not
 to reduce coal rates without consult
 tatton, and the inference is that The
 consent of the railroad companies rep resented in the association is required
 Tn the Ohio Coal Traffic Associa. tion. located at Columbus, O., an agree. ment appears as to rates by all of tn, roads, although in many instances rate. are fixed thereby which should bt competitive. The whole purpose of tn, Association seems to be the mainte. nance of agreed rates on coal. trafic.' Under the heading of Monopoly of any part of the trade or commerce in coal or traffic therein" evidence con- cerning the community of interest," between the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohios Norfolk and Western, Chesa- peake and Ohio, New York Central and Philadelphia and Reading Railways is considered. The report continues
 The Associations having failed to accomplish the desired purposes, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company deter mined to buy sufficient of the stocks of the Chesapeake and Ohio, Baltimore and Ohio and Norfolk and Western Railroads, SO that acting without others 1t might control the policy of those roads. The Commission reaches the conclusion, aside from the question whether the Pennsylvania Railroad had majority of the stock of the other railroad companies mentioned, except the New York Central, that as a mat ter of fact the Baltimore and Ohio Chesapeake and Ohio. Norfolk and Western and Philadelphia and Reading Railroads were practically controlled by the Pennsylvania and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroads and that the result was to practically abolish substantial competition be- tween the carriers of coal in the terri tCry under consideration.
 Since the taking of evidence in this investigation the commission Is ad- vised through the public press of the sale by the Pennsylvania Railroad of It's stocks of the Baltimore and Ohio Chesapeake and Ohio and Norfolk and Western. or a part thereof. but who Is to become finally the owner of these stocks the Commission Is not advised This action on the part of the Penn sylvania Railroad appears to the Com mission as a recognition of the public demand that there shall not be stock ownership by one road engaged in in- terstate commerce In substantial competitor also engaged in. interstate commerce"
 The report says the ownership, or in- terest In the coal, properties or coal traffic by carriers or their officers or employees, has. in Nthe opinion of the Commission bought about discrimina- tions, injustice and inequalities in the service to Independent operators and has prevented many persons who de- sired to engaged in mining coal from doing so and that the combinations or contracts of the several carriers, mem bers of the associations mentioned has had the effect of increasing freight rates and also the price of coal 10 the consumers.
 of the most fruitful courses of com plalnt by shippers against tho carriers as far as car distribution and the fur. nishing of facilities Is concerned has grown out of the want of publicity or the part of the carriers in their deal ings with shippers. If the carriers had conducted their business with shippers openly and had furnished in. formation as to car distribution tc which shippers were entitled, much ot the favoritism according to the report would have been averted and wherev. CT unjust suspicious were aroused tho fact they were incorrect would have readily appeared
 pannSUIUaOia and Ralfiu0rf