The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-17
RAILROADS SCORE.
They Make First Point in the Rate
Hearing Case.

The railroads won a point of some
| Importance in their fight against the
! reduced rates ordered early last spring
| by the state board of railway commits
| sioners Wednesday when Special Mas
/ ter H. T. HaZen. who was appointed
| by the United States supreme court to
/ try the cases rendered his decision. The
| decision is made in the case of the
| Leavenworth & Topeka Railway COM
pany and Judge Hazen holds that this
Is separate and distinct railway pro-
perty and that the proposed rates must
be applied to this road alone and not
to the owners of the Union Pacific and
Santa Fe lines.
Judge Hazen holds that the freight
rates are not at the present time suf-
t1c1ent to support the Leavenworth &
Topeka line and that any further re-
duction in freight rates would tend
to reduce the earnings of the road to
such an. extent that the road would be-
come a bankrupt On all Important
ion Of Judge Hazen was in favor of the
railroad company.
If the decision of the United States
circuit court is based on the findings
OF the special master the permanent
injunction asked by the railroad COM
pany preventing the state board of rail-
way commissioners from putting the
rates into effect will be granted. The
findings of Judge Hazen are of espec-
ial Importance inasmuch as it is like
ly that all of the railroads in Kansas
will ask the court to grant permanent
injunctions on the findings which have
been made in this case.
If the court takes this view of the
controversy the freight rate schedule
proposed by the board last winter will
fail in it's puroSe and there can be
no change in the present distant tar
ifs without legislative enactments.
Early last spring the state board of
railway commissioners prepared a new
distance tariff and after it had been
n detail DlaCRd
in effect on all of the roads in Kan
sas. To this ruling Of the board the
railroads objected most strenuously
and finally took the matter to the
courts and asked for temporary re-
straining orders preventing the order
of the board from becoming effective.
These injunctions were granted and
the Leavenworth & Topeka railroad
which has always been one of the
poorest paying railroad propositions in
the state applied for permanent in
junction against the board. This line
is owned Jointly by the Santa Fe and
Union Pacific lines. the former owning
81 per cent of the stock and the latter
40 and is operated by the Santa Re
company as a branch line.
When the state came to the con-
clusion that the railway company
would attempt to prove that the pro-
posed freight schedule was unreason-
able and unjust with the Leavenworth
& Topeka railway as basis they be-
gan to dig up evidence to the effect
that it was not a separate line. 1t
developed at the hearing that the
Santa Fe owns a majority of the stock
in the road and that the books of the
line are kept at the Santa Fe offices.
Notwithstanding this evidence Spec |
ial Master Hazen held the line to be
separate railway property and as such i
must be self-sustaining. The evidence
adduced at the hearing shows that the
line is not paying expenses and that |
the deficit is made up by the Union
Pacific and Santa Fe roads according
to the amount of stock held by each |
That being the case the reduction in
rates would increase the deficit and
assessment of Union Pacific and
Santa Fee. 4
The state attempted to prove that the
Leavenworth & Topeka line is a por-
ton of the Santa Fe system and If 1t
had been successful the proposed rates
would have applied to the entire sys-
tenn and not the branch between To-
peka and Leavenworth. The Santa Fe
as a system is a paying proposition
but the branch lines taken separately
do not seem to be. If the permanent
injunction is granted in the case of the
Leavenworth & Topeka line and the
schedule is ordered in on all other
lines in the state this branch of the
Santa Fe will be exempt from the ap-
plication of the rates which amount to
a reduction of about 20 per cent.