Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-06-26
FIGHT FOR
FREIGHT RATE
Brief in tie Spokane Case
Submitted to Commits
sion Today

SPOKANE, Wash, June 2s.-"Had
James ]. Hill in the Northwest re-
manned the agent for the government,
entrusted with the administration of a
great public work, he would have been
a benefactor to his country and his
age; as a sovereign he has proved q
greedy despot"
Brooks Adams Of Boston, counsel for
the compliments in the Spokane rate
case against the Hill and Hartman
lines, charging rate discrimination
emphasizes the foregoing words in
terstate commerce commission. for
final argument at Washington, D. c.,
| today.
The suit the first instituted under
| the law enacted by the last congress
and which applies to every inland city
in the united states under the pres
ent system of rate-making, is in the
name of the city Of Spokane. the
Spokane Chamber Of Commerce, the
Spokane Jobbers' association and the
county of Spokane, petitioners and
eomplainants, against the Northern
Pacific, the Great Northern, the Union
Pacific, the Oregon Railroad and Navi-
cation company and the Spokane
Falls and Northern Railway company.
Other defendants, by order of the
commission, are: The Canadian Pa
cific, Chicago Burlington & Quincy,
Chicago & Northwestern, Lake Shore
and Michigan Southern, New York
Central and Hudson River, Pittsburg,
Fort Wayne. and Chicago. Pennsyl-
vania, New York, New Haven and
Hartford and the Boston and Maine
Railway companies. The Pacific Coast
Jobbers and Manufacturers associa-
ton, Portland Chamber of Commerce,
Merchants Protective association Of
Seattle and the Tacoma Traffic assoc
citation are intervenors.
The specific charge is that upon
practically all the interstate and trans
continental traffic transported from
points east of the state Of Washington
equal to those made to Seattle, Tacoma
and Portland, with difference in haul
age of from 339 to 563 miles added plus
an arbitrary rate back to Spokane
This means, according to figures from
the railway company's published tar
ifs. that the people of Spokane are
forced to pay about $4,000 900 year
more for their freight transportation
than could be charged if the rates
were equalized with those of coast
terminals.
Mr. Adams contends that when, in |
1906 congress empowered the commits |
sion to fix reasonable railway rates. |
thereby reversing the construction
which the supreme court of the United
States had given to the statute of
1887, regulating commerce, it was gem
orally conceded that the United States
had entered upon new era, adding:
1.-THE act of 1906 should be con-
made 1t, and to comprehend the era |
we have entered we must seek the
causes which produced the movement
of which this act is the effect Re- !
duced to its last analysis. / apprehend |
that the struggle whose first phase
terminated in with enactment approx
ed June 20, 1906, touches the possess
sion ofsthe national sovereignty, for I
take it to be demonstratable that he
who controls a nations highways is
that nations sovereign. / suppose it
will hardly be disputed that prior to
1906 the American people, in their cor
porate capacity, did not control their
railways, and that the control of these
highways rested with somewhat mar
row class of capitalists