The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1907-01-15
CLAIM HILL BROKE
RATE PROMISES

SPOKANE. Jan. 1.-THE personality
of James J. Hill figured conspicuously
in the first days hearing of the Spo-
kane freight rate case before the In
terstate Commerce Commission. H.
NJ Stephens of Spokane and Brooks
Adams of Boston, counsel for the Spo-
kane Chamber of Commerce. put a
number of witnesses on the stand and
introduced extensive extracts from
Spokane newspapers TO prove that
Hill. when he obtained In February,
1892, free right of way through the
city valued at $1.0O0.000, pramised this
city terminal rates or bett&.
w. w. Cotton, for the Hartman lines,
and Attorney Cannon, for the Northern
Pacific, protested against their roads
being bound by any promises which
Hill might have made at that time.
Commissioner Prouty said, in reply to
these protests, that in hearing of this
character the acts of one company
could not well be disassociated from
others, and that IL Hills company had
been required to reduce rates into Spo-
kane the other companies would neces-
Earily have TO meet the new rate. That.
he said, was their misfortune.
n. w. DAirham. editor of the Spokes
man-Review, was put on the stand to
ally obtained from Hill in February,
1892. a proof Of which was submitted
to Hill and received his approval be-
fore it was published in the Review
the following morning.
In this interview Hill said that the
policy of charging Spokane shippers
the through rate TO the coast plus the
local rate back to this city was Illegal,
and that jury of twelve men could
not be found TO approve it. He said
that the people of Spokane. who then
had a case before the Interstate Com
merce Commission, had made a mistake
in going before that tribunal; that they
should have gone direct to the United
States Court In the interview Hill
declared that his company was not
afraid of water competition, and that
if a canal ten feet deep were dug along
side the Great Northern from st. Paul
To Puget Sound his road would con-
tinue doing the business.
W D. Norman, one of the owners OF
The Spokane Hotel and A. W. Doland,
president of the Spokane Drug Com
pany. testified that they had heard Hill
while in Spokane make repeated prom
ises that when his road should be built
to this city he would give Spokane
terminal rates or better and rates
which would enable it to compete
with any point to the south or the
west"
Cross-examination of these and other
witnesses by attorneys for the rail-
roads was along the line of showing
that Spokane had enjoyed extraordi-
airy prosperity under existing rates.
and to show that under the present
rates the jobbers of Spokane were do
ing business in points half way be-
tween Portland and the Puget Sound
cities and Spokane. Doland testified
that his drug company broke even
with the coast cities at Wenatchee on
the Great Northern, Kennewick on the
Northern Pacific and Pendleton on the
Oregon Railway and Navigation Com
pany, although the terminal carload
rate on drugs was so cents a hundred
less than to Spokane and the less than
carload rate s1.35 a hundred less. The
large courtroom in the county court
house was filled to overlooking all day
with interested spectators