The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-11-16
LUMBER FOOTS BILLS
PAYS TOTAL FREIGHT HAULING
EXPENSE OF HILL ROADs..
Broad Allegation Made in the
Complaint Filed With the liz.
terstate Commerce Commission
that AllOther Traffic Is Profit.
Hanford Has Jurisdiction.


Their aver upon information and belief
that the tonnage of forest products
constitutes 1873 per cent of the entire
tonnage and pays 1850 per cent of the
entire gross earnings of the Great
Northern Railway Company, estimat-
ed to yield $l3,946, $50 gross freight
revenue, and constituted 1882 per
cent of the entire tonnage and 1915
per cent of the gross earnings OF the
Northern Pacific Railway Company,
paying a gross revenue estimated at
$40, 8OS, O6O. Petitioners charge that
the gross revenue derived by the
Northern Pacific Railway Company
from it's tonnage of forest products ex-
ceeds by several million dollars the en-
tire operating expenses of the railway
company attributable to freight bust
ness, SO that the revenue derived from
all other freight traffic may be CLASH
fed as net earnings from operation;
and petitioners submit that a low grade
commodity which bears such burden
and contributes so substantially to
gross and net earnings, is highly profit
able to the carrier"
The foregoing is one Of the most
startling of the allegations made in the
appeal of the Washington lumber man.
ufacturers to the interstate commerce
commission, which was sworn to by
ocfiers of the mill mems association
and sent to Washington Saturday.
Another equally notable fact stated
lis that the charge per car of lumber
and shingles, made for hauling it to
st. Paul or Chicago and ether Eastern
points, is greater under the old tariffs
than the value of the product at the
mills.
Court Has Jurisdiction.
Federal Judge G. 81. Hanford's de-
cision Saturday afternoon, which clos
es the door of the local United States
circuit court to further discussion, Of
it's jurisdiction over tho matter at issue
between the railroads and the lumber
men, is based on sections 4 and of
the Sherman antitrust law.
The power of the court to restrain
the six railroads appearing as defend
ants in the suit from putting into
effect advanced rates on eastbound
lumber shipments, Judge Hanford
maintains, is expressly conferred. by
the provisions that 1.-THE several cir
Quit courts of the United States are in
vested with Jurisdiction to prevent
and restrain violations of this act,"
and whenever it shall appear to the
court before which any proceedings
under section may be pending that
the ends Of justice require that other
parties shall be brought before the
court, it may cause them to be sum-
moned, whether they reside in the dis
trict in which the court is held or
not"
After admitting that jurisdiction
could not be maintained by him on
the ground of diversity of citizenship,
and citing the provisions Of the Sher-
man antitrust law, Judge Hanford
said in his decision:
Law Provisions Cited.
"Here we have suit, the object of
which is to prevent and restrain vio-
lations of this law, and in express
terms the law invests this court, as q
circuit court of the United States, with
power to grant the preventive relief
which the compliments have sued for.
''The defendants say that they CAN
not be sued in this district because
they are not inhabitants Of this dis
trict, but the law provides that when
justice requires it, parties may : be
brought before the corut, whether they
RESIDE in the district or not, and GER
tainly in this case Justice does require
the presence Of these defendants, be-
cause they are accused Of having en-
tered into an unlawful agreement to
increase the cost of interstate COM
MERGE, and decree which sutsains. or
annuls that agreement will affect the
pecuniary rights Of every party to the
agreement; therefore, they are all en-
titled to have their day in court.
"They operate connecting lines Of
railways traversing state boundaries,
and to obtain adequate protection, ex-