The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-06

road company-a necessity or condition which we can recognize as controlling as to rates.
 ''The defense of this rate is not at all unlike that which a railroad might make were 1t to attempt to show that the value of the service which it ren- ders was based upon contracts made with It's bondholders by which the latter were entitled to receive a pro- portion of the proceeds of each indi~ vidual rate, no matter how grossly ex- cessive the resulting amount might be. Neither this commission nor the courts have given sanction to any such in equitable and unscientifc method of rate adjustment.
 For the purpose of Illustrating the position of the express company let us assume a 5O-cent rate, out of which the railroad company receives P 1-2 cents for the service which it renders to the express company under it's con tract There remains 1-2 cents for the express company The agent also takes 20 per cent. of the gross, which is 10 cents. This leaves the express company 1T 1-2 cents, out of which it must pay it's expenses of New York delivery and it's general expenses oi operation, management, and a profit ! This 1T 1-2 cents, we will assume. Is Insufficient to meet these demands. If however the rate is increased 10 cents llet us say, and thus made 60 cents in. stead of 50 cents, and this 10 cents car be appropriated by the company fol the service which it renders apart frcm railroad carriage, it will be al entirely compensatory rate.
 ITO such suggestion the prompt answer of the express company would be: Out of the new 60-eent rate we are compelled to pay 27 cents to the railroad company and F cents to oul agent, leaving us but 21 cents for oul expense in making New York delivery and our general expenses. This is stil entirely insufficient to meet general ex- penses and cost of delivery. We must therefore, SO increase this rate that the margain over and above what is al lowed to the railroad company and our agent will at least compensate us fol our New York delivery service and oul general expenses.
 Thus rate must be imposed upon the shipper, by reason of the contracts which the express company has made with it's agent and the railroad which
 will yield twice or thrice as much tc the railroad and the agent as the ser! vices they render are reasonably worth This very statement carries it's owr answer.
 "An express company can not justify rate which, in comparison with other rates, is excessive and unreasonable
 by showing that it gives service tha
 is exceptionally expensive, where the
 burden of the rate charged therefore
 falling upon the shipper, increases ar already sufficient return to the railroad
 An express company is entitled tC
 charge a reasonable amount for thu
 service which 1t gives; and this service
 being partly rendered by it's own agen J and employees and partly rendered by 1 a railroad, it can not justify by th,
 production of its own contracts mad
 with the agent and the railroad.
 "To pay the agent a commission in.
 stead of salary. and to pay the rail
 road percentage instead of a fixed
 amount; or mileage, or a tonnage
 may be, practically, a very satisfactory arrangement between the express com
 pany and the railroad and the agent : but from the standpoint of the public . such an arrangement can not be helt ito support the reasonableness of an, rate which the express company ma, choose to charge. What if the ex press company had contracted with it agent to pay him 50 per cent of al
 gross receipts, or with the railroad t. pay it 90 per cent. of such receipts?
 Such contracts are entirely between the parties themselves. They are no in the nature of fixed charges, becaus they are not fixed They move upol a sliding scale dependent entirely upo . the rate. And it.would be against tn , highest public policy to permit rate
 to be controlled by such contracts, be
 cause such practice must inevitabl
 tend to promote the increase of rate
 on expresss service. The railroads coult
 through such contracts, control tn - rates to be fixed by the express com
 panies, and it would be to their inter est always to increase rates so long a
 the traffic would move thereon, fc
 thereby their portion of the receipt
 under the contract would be increased.
 The order of the commission require > the United States Express company { . cease and desist from charging the { }. rate after the 18th day of June and d U rects the express company on or bt U fore that date to put in 60-cent raj s from Chatham and Somerville, N. J., S New York city, a 72-cent rate from A n lentown, Pa, to New York city, an - from Philadelphia, Hillside, and Dol e ranceton, Pa., a 9O-cent rate. The ol r der also directs the reduction on ratt v on empty flower boxes from New Yor s city to the points named to the me s chandise rate of 50 cents per hundre .- pounds. s The decision of the Interstate Con - merce Commission in favor of tI
 florists was received with a great det
 of satisfaction by local flower dealer