Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-11
PUT ON PERCENTAGE BASIS
Complaint Heard by the Interstate
Commission.
ROAD OBJECTS TO TESTIMONY
Commissioners Knapp and Harlan De.
eide That Relative Evidence
Be Received

Coal car distribution and shortage unde,
the new rate law was taken up for tn,
first time today by the interstate commerce,
commission, the complainant being the Pea
body Coal Company of Ohio and the de-
PENDANT the. Baltimore and Ohio, on whose
line the complaining mine is situated.
Chairman Knapp and Commissioner Har-
Ian were the only commissioners on the
bench. The railroad was represented by At
torney George Wilson. The first witness
for the coal company was William Job the
president of the concern. The gist OF the
complaint was that the Peabody company
was equipped for mining and delivering to
the cars 1900 tons of coal a day. but that
the railroad could not or would not furnish
the cars, and the company had been obliged
to cancel contracts and lose business while
other mines of the region owned and oper-
ated wholly or in part by officials Of the
railroad company were enjoying the use of
all the cars they needed.
Distribution on a Percentage Basis.
Attorney Wilson for the railroad explain
ed that the Peabody Company was awarded
cars on a percentage basis In proportion to
Its rated capacity and that 1t always got
its full percentage and sometimes more. He
wished the case to stand on that statement
In view of the fact that the coal company
had a damage suit against the railroad and
he did not want the facts relative to the
damage suit brought out before the COM
mission.
Chairman Knapp, however, said that he
would not rule out any testimony that
might be relevant to the complainant and
the hearing went on with objections inject
ed at every turn by the attorney for the
railroad company.
Mr.. Job said that he had begun life as
a miner and had filed every position from
that to president of the coal company. He
went into a good deal of detail as to the
equipment of the mine and said that while
its capacity was given at nominally 800
tons daily they were In position to mine
and ship LOO tons a day IL they could get
the cars. that they had a market for all the
coal they could ship and that they would
easily Increase the output of the mine up to
$500 tons daily IL they could get the cars
to ship the coal He said that they calcu-
lated the actual operation of the mine In
days work" whether this was in whole
day or part day stretches and that they
had been running along with from one to
three days work week. averaging per-
haps eight days work month.
A Contract Given Up.
The specific instance of a contract can
celed to which the railroad representative
objected to having Mr.. Job testify was the
case of the Northwestern Fuel Company
which wanted to make contract for the
delivery of 10000 tons of coal for its
lake trade during the shipping season of
from seven to eight months. Mr.. Job said
that he had been doubtful about taking the
contract till he was sure of having cars to
fill 1t, and he. in company with the presi
dent of the fuel company, called on Mr..
Fitzgerald of the Baltimore and Ohio road
in Baltimore and laid the case before him.
Mr.. Fitzgerald told them that they would
be furnished with enough cars to do the
work, and they were furnished with cars to
move about $1,000 tons. Then the railroad
shut down on them, announcing that they
were to be furnished cars on percentage
basis, without telling them what the per-
centage was, and they had never been able
to get enough cars since. They had been
obliged to cancel the contract with the fuel
company and had been working on a very
restricted output since August, 1904.
The case was still proceeding when The
Stars report closed.