The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-28
How Interstate Commerce Mat
 terS Are Adjusted
HUMBLEST CITIZEN HEARD
Big Majority of Complaints of Ship. pers Are Now Adjusted Amicably and Never Reach Docket of
 the Commission.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

Though the interstate commerce com mission has the res'flation of some four teen billion dollars worth of property in vested in tse railroads of this country, and has rees il the spot light for years, it's workiafs are understood in only the most general way. Congress established the commission and gave 1t it's powers SO that the people of the country could have recourse against the evil practices that have been growing up in the rail- road world. The commission finds oppor- tunity to carry out the spirit of the law i in SD many ways that the average man has never heard of them all. Besides it's role as q body combining the legislative, executive and judicial functions of gov ernmnet, it also plays the role of peace ernment, and is the beattude about peace makers being blessed extends to the off cial acts of a governmental body, then the members of the interstate commerce com mission will have It's benefit in no small degree. Although they are supposed to settled differences officially, yet the work of adjusting differences in an informal way constitutes perhaps their most far reaching line of endeavor
 Under the old interstate commerce law, passed in 1887, the railroads did pretty much as they pleased. They did not have any too much respect for it, since it never did more harm than to give their attorneys q chance to earn some of their salary. But under the new one they are usually pretty sure that the out come of a complaint is going to be faVor- able before they will allow the matter to come to formal hearing. Under the old Jaw as soon as ruling was made by the commission the railroads carried the case to court, but under the new law it has been diErrent. In the year and more since the reorganization there has been but single decision of the commission appealed from, and that IS an appeal by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad from a decision on discrimination it was alleged to nave made against independent oil men Tn taVor of Standard oil. Moreover, there are many instances where formal complaints have been made and afterward dismissed, ''the defendant having voluntarily agreed
 
 imposed on it by the commission Out of a total of about 400 formal complaints filed since the new law took effect, there have been some forty such compromises. This don't shoot, I'll come down. pol icy of the railroads argues for the justice of the complaints in these cases.
 When a formal complaint is filed with the commission the newspapers get 1t, for on the desk in the office of the chief clerk the correspondents find the com plaints filed that day. But back of this there is much that even the wide-awake newspaper men do not know Before complaint is filed in formal way there is an informal one. The man who thinks he needs to resort to the haven of refuge for the shipping world writes the com mission and tells 1t his troubles. The commission considers them, and then writes to the railroad against which the complaint is made to see if some amica- ble adjustment cannot be erected before adding to a crowded docket another for maj complaint. If such an adjustment, satisfactory to both parties, can be made, that l.; the end of the matter; the difficult tv k adjusted informally and the world never knows that there was such case But if the efforts at compromise fail then the matter comes up In the shane of formal complaint, and the correspondents get it. The number or complaints adjusted thus is vastly greater than the number settled through lofmal hearings and decisions. An official of the commission who has to do with the correspondence in these cases, says there arc about six cases settled in this way where there is one by formal complaint. A renort of the commission shows that during the past year there were over 23oo informal. and only 40O formal complaints.
 The humblest citizen of the land hnds that the commission gives the sahe at tention to his complaint as 1t does to that of the wealthiest corporation. The different cases range in importance from those involving a few dollars to others representing as many millions. one or inc most interesting cases was that or inc Loop Creek Coliery company of West Vitgjnia against the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad in which the coal company soueht to compel the railroad to give if os good rates as 1t gave to other ship ners on it's own line. Stated that way the case appears to be a perfectly unln- terestlng one. But the Loop Creek Col lery company has back of it the new one hundred milion-dollar, bulit-With-out-a
 hond railroad which II. II. Rogers and others are constructing from Norfolk. Virginia 10 the Great Lakes, and thence nrobably west to the Pacific It IS case of two gigantic corporations hght- ing the preliminary sklrmlsn Tor the control of the coal fields of West Nir- ginia. In the arguments the ColilerN con,nanv was represented by Its counsel to be a perfectly harmless l1ttie coal connanY with it's life in danger or pelhS crushed out by a great railroad, packeu hv the powerful Pennsylvania system. oh the other hand the counsel Tor the de- fendant represented the Colliery company fin he hut the Representation of the big interests that were building the new Nir- einia railroad, which eventually threaten ea to swallow up the defendant and mieht also in the end make a breakfast of inc powerful Pennsylvania system.
 Here is a sample complaint or an or dinarv citizen. A gentleman from Ten nessee went to the Jamestown eXpos- tlon with his wife. He bought a ticket from the Louisville and Nashville rail road which entitled him to passage from Norfolk to Washington on the steamer, including sleeping accommodations. He could not get the berth he had paid for. and the commission will find thS reason why In this case his recourse will he on the railroad selling him the ticket. and the commission will take 1t m informally by correspondence, and see if inc matter cannot be adjusted with out the filing of formal complaint.
 Here is another complaint, illustrative of what can be done by the average