The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-28

reached the public than other shippers all over the South began filing claims for overcharges with the Interstate Commerce Commission. and now there are several thousand cases pending be- fore that body.
 These cases are as varied in nature as they are numerous and 1t means that no fna1 settlement will be reach- cd for several years. If ever. Practi- cally every line of trade and industry in the South Is . party In some form to the new complaints. Shoe dealers. dry goods men. cotton shippers. cante- loupe and watermelon shippers. peach growers, stove manufacturers. hard wood manufacturers and practically all other lines are in the same game. When or where 1t will end is the aues- ton the railroads are considering.
 All of the thirty or more railroads of the Southeast or at least all those who are members of the Southeastern Freight Association, are interested. The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad is ono of the roads most sfrected The peach shippers over this line have filed complaints asking for refunds. The shoe dealers at Rome. Atlanta and other places have done likewise. The melon shippers are also in the game, and where 1t will end the management does not venture to guess.
 SO"~A has claims aggregating hundreds of thousands of dollars against ono of the roads and the others have about the same deal on hand. The marble ship pers at Knoxville, Tenn, and in North Carolina have a similar complaint and want the cash as soon as they can get it. At Memphis the hardwood mill mon arc in the same game and asking for a refund similar to that granted ( Val lS throughout the South and with every railroad doing business in this section.
 Every day new complaints arrive and the Interstate Commerce Commission are about as tired as the railroads arc. The Commission can only be annoyed. however. for no expense Is attached to their part of 1t except what can be | charged to the Government. It IS quite different with the railroads and has set them wondering what their legal status Is after all.
 In the past years the railroads of the South could at least estimate their assets and liabilities. Now they can only estimate the assets. for the liabili- ty matter has passed them and gone into the doubtful column. It is said | that no railroad in the entire South could pay the claims now pending against 1t without going into the mar ket and borrowing money on new bonds. Were they all to go at once the market could not accommodate | them and bankruptcy would follow for a number of lines. Naturally the | railroads will fight each case to the finish and hope to defeat each one of them. Even at this. however. the cost | will be enormous. and the time taken up with this matter will greatly hinder the operation of the roads.
 | One of the most serious results from this state of affairs Is the impairments of the credit of the roads. With all these numerous suits pending their credit cannot be as good as before, and even in the past. at least in the past I six months, money has been so scarce that. some of the roads have had te 1 pay seven per cent for money to make | Improvements.
 | The legal department of the roads 1 have requested the claims department to furnish the facts fin each individual case that answers numerous caucuses on the question have been held at cen tral points throughout the country. but the lawyers have found no way to get out of a hearing in each case.
 | The lumber case was a precedent, and | the result is the same as in all cases | of a precedent. Every shipper wants | money from the railroads if he can get 1t and he Is pressing his claims | with the Commission with vim The Interstate Commerce Commission is not attending to hearings just now. the members being on their vacations
 When they return to their Washington offices about September 1 they will find | themselves completely swamped
 Since the last Congress, when the In terstate Commerce Commission law was amended hy the provisions of the Hepburn bill. there has been q decided change In this division of the govern | ment anyway. but greater change seems to be waiting the Commission.
 In former years. prior to the last l Congress. at any rate. the five com- missioners had fairly easy time | handling the affairs of the department l At that timo the Commission had g few suites of rooms in the Sun build | ing at Washington, while about q score of clerks were employed a few hours a day. Then the five commis- l sioners or sometimes two or three oi
 them travelled over the country and
 heard the cases filed here and there
 After hearing the cases they would SC
 home and wait for another case tc | come up.
 The Hepburn law. however. gave
 them something more to do. Instead
 of having two floors of the Sun build.
 ing the Commission has practically al | of 1t and has leased several floors 1T
 other buildings across the street ant
 around the corners both ways. In
 stead of twenty clerks there are now
 nearly 800 and there is plenty for al
 of them to do.
 The expense to the government ha.
 grown from $60.0o0 or $7o,000 per year
 to something over s500,ooo and the en'
 is not yet. With all the new claims
 coming in additional clerks.s printed
 matter. advising attorneys etc. will
 have to ba employed and if is estimat
 ed that before Congress meets agaii
 the expense will mass $1.000.000 pc
 year Instead of travelling togethe
 and hearing cases whole. the com
 missioners now act singly or, in mos
 matters. after a short consultation
 with other members.
 Attorneys who have had bushes
 with the Commission, and who hay
 visited the offices and seen the con
 gested condition of things. opine tha
 the Commission will be complstel
 swamped in another year, and totall
 unable to handle the vast volume Co
 business.