Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-07
READY
FOR RAILROAD
INVESTIGATION
Prominent Officials
Subpoenaed
Members of Interstate Commerce
Commission Are Determined to
Sift Thoroughly All the
Evidence at Hand

Evidence at Hand
Probing of railroad affairs will be
started this morning in the supreme
court.
Franklin X. Lane, the California
member of the interstate commerce
commission, arrived in Los Angeles last
night for the purpose of conducting the
hearing.
Assisting Commissioner Lane will be
| C. A. Severance of St Paul, general at
torney for the commission, and Frank
G. Finayson, local counsel of the com.
mission. All arrangements for the hear
ing, which promises to be the most i'm
portant ever held on the Pacific coast,
have been completed.
During the past few days many prom
inent out of town railroad men have ar
rived in Los Angeles, and at the hear
ing the railroads will be represented not
only by many leading officials but by
an array of counsel.
To Attend the Hearing
Amnog the railroad men who will be
in attendance are the following:
j. C. Stubbs, traffic director of the
Hartman lines, and his secretary, r.
F. Wilson of Chicago; P. S. Dunn, San
Francisco, attorney for the Southern
Pacific; w. A. Bissell, assistant traffic
manager of the Santa Fe, with head
quarters at San Francisco; Edward
Chambers, general freight agent or the
Santa Fe coast lines at San Francisco;
C. B. Seger of San Francisco, auditor
of the Southern Pacific.
In addition to these, a number of local
railroad officials will be in attendance,
either as spectators or witnesses.
Among these are j. Ross Clark, vice
president, and E. w. Gillett, former
general freight and passenger agent of
the Salt Lake. T. E. Gibbon, former
chief counsel of the Salt Lake, and who
was recently succeeded by Judge w. r
Kelly, former attorney for Harriman's
Union Pacific, also has been suo-
poenaed and it is expected that Judge
Kelly will be requested to testify, as II
was the latter and Mr.. Gibbon who
drew up the papers in the agreement
between Hartman and Clark, if the
charge is true that such an agreement
was perfected.
Employees Are Subpoenaed
1t is reported that in addition to a
number of officials of the Southern IA
cific, Santa Fe and Salt Lake numerous
Iemployes who may have knowledge of
various agreements and whose testi-
mony is desired by the commission have
found 1t convenient to be out of the
-.k 40
put in an appearance, but this Is de-
MED at local railroad headquarters,
where the declaration is made that the
railroads care very little about the in
vestigation and that no thought has
been given as to what viii be said or
done by the commissioner or his attor-
neys.
On the other hand, it Is intimated by
the attorneys for the commission that
all those whose evidence is desired have
been served with subpoentes, and the
presence of all those thus served is con-
fidently expected, as the consequence of
ignoring the summons would be serious.
1t Is expected that the hearing will
be concluded Saturday, although there
is possibility that it will be necessary
to continue it until Monday.
4 Commissioner Lane will proceed
direct to Washington and report TO
hHdpp
News to Fruit Men
Discussing the report that j. c. Stubbs,
traffic director of the Union Pacific and
the Southern Pacific, had, as soon as he
had investigated the car shortage af-
fecting the citrus fruit shipments, sent
kilograms ordering all available cars
sent here at once, F. @. Story, president
of the California Fruit Growers eX
lphapUa and the Semi -TrOnip ErI1it ax
change, said:
I'VE have received no notification
from officials of the Southern Pacific of
a movement on their part to rush
empty cars to Los Angeles for the re-
lief of the fruit growers, But we have
been notified by the Armour Car COM
pany, which supplies the Southern Pa
cific, that we can have a certain num-
Der of cars next week, which, l think,
will meet our demand during that time.
1t is difficult to look more than a week
ahead.
"CandidlX, however, think that the
Santa Fe and Southern Pacific are do
ing everything possible to relieve the
situation. Further than this, e. o. Nc
Cormick, assistant traffic director of the
Union Pacific, is issuing daily reports
of the location of all the fruit cars
moving toward the coast. In this way
1t is easy to ascertain whether the rail-
roads are delaying them needlessly.
This tends to encourage the railroads
to exert themselves.
I'VE have been on the anxious seat
for some time, owing to the fact that
the keeping qualities of oranges have
been affected by the rain. They should
be shipped within forty-eight hours
after being picked. But provision has
been made for the next week, and we
haves reason to hope that the railroads
will be able to supply us with all the
cars that would prove good for the
orange market"
Ic7AR CONFIRMS TEN-YEAR