The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-01-29
THE RAILROADS SIDE
OF FREIGHT RATE CA

| L
dence of the railroad officials in the
freight rate case before the Interstate
Commerce Commissions commission
er, and also gives some interesting
points on the manner in which the
commissioner held his court:
There is a great difference between
a hearing before an interstate com
merce commissioner and the trying
of a case before the ordinary tribu.
nails of the law. Instead of allowing
cross examination to go over and over
evidence covered in former testimony
on such expense of time. But no pos
sibility of finding out the truth about
the matter or of learning additional
facts are allowed to be overlooked. If
the attorneys have failed to fully bring
out any point the commissioner ques-
tio1s the witness himself and ascer-
tains the conditions.
A very gratifying feature of the
proceedings is the effort and desire
of the commissioner to keep tech
nical errors from impairing the re-
| suit or obscuring the evidence. Yes
terday after the hearing had pro-
ceeded for some time and certain facts
| came to light concerning shipments of
| Colorado coal, the commissioner call
ed the attention of Attorney Veale
| to some technical defects il his com
plant which might seriously damage
| the case. The errors were natural
mistakes and might easily occur on
| the part of the attorney before the
case was developed by testimony. In
an ordinary case the defects would
have been allowed to remain and in
the judges charge to the jury, that
body would have been instructed to
dismiss the case on account of the
erro.
The commission would regret We
ry mucn," said Commissioner Prouty,
'- to be obliged after ascertaining the
facts in the case and finding an injus-
tice which should be righted to be
obliged to leave the conditions un-
cal error
Says Common Point Rates Unjust.
Vice president and general manager
Avery Turner, of the Pecos Valley
lines who was on the stand for near
ly three hours yesterday afternoon
brought up the contention that is
made the crucial part of the railroads
side of the case. He contends that
the placing of such distant points as
Big Springs and other places in Wes-
tern Texas in the common point terri
tory was not to be taken as a rea-
son for the placing of Amarillo in
such territory. The ruling in regard
to the places in question was a mis-
take, he alleged, in the first place
and resulted il injustice to the roads
which had to make the long haul On
such a low return. In answer to a
question he answered that he was
not ready to make joint rate with
the Colorado & Southern on coal, but
that he could not state the precise rea
sons. Personally, he said, he was in
favor of such an agreement but he
was satisfied that sucn rate would
meet with objection at the other end.
''Wnat do you mean by the other
eid?" asked Commissioner Prouty
We'll at the mines for one thing.
There would be trouble over the car
supply. Another thing I would be
extremely reluctant to make such a
rate now because our line from Belen
via Texico will be able to supply coal
tb-a 20 md hob 1rr 1,o1
Ration fields and l wish to see what
that line can do in the way of coal
carrying before l should enter into
an agreement with another road. The
distance from the fields is such and
direction of the cars empty and load
ed is such that 1 think the road will
make a very satisfactory settlement
of the coal business for the Pecos
valley. 1 think tnat we might be able
to move some coal over the Belen line
in about sixty days"
How Agreements are Reached.
Attorney Cowan subjected the wit
ness to a searching examination to
discover whether an agreement was
reached in 1908 among the railroads
whereby Amarillo was deprived of the
advantages from the state common
point and kept from becoming an in
terstate common point. NO. l don't
know of any meeting" said Mr.. Tur-
ner for the purpose of deciding the
rates which should rule out of Anna
rillo. suppose though that there
was some kind of an understanding
because Amarillo was never made a
common point by any of the roads,"
But how did they reach such al
understanding? questioned Attpr-
ney Cowan-
well, 1 suppose the rate man of
one road said to the rate man of an
other, We are going to make Amarillo
common point. are you?' and then
perhaps the other man would say.
I'VE will not make the common point
rates here. win you? But they would
not enter into any formal agreement
(Continued. ON Fourth Page.