The Mena weekly star., 1908-12-24
SUGAR TRUST HIT
AN IMPORTANT RULING MADE BY INTERSTATE COMMERCE
 COMMISSION.
SHIPPERS MUST PAY FOR ILL CARTAGE
Allowances for Transfer From Refin- cries to Trains Are Rebates and Are in Violation of the Law--No Order to Be Made But That Shippers Must Obey.


 ! Washington, Dec. 22-In a decis ion made public Sunday, the Inter | state Commerce commission declares that allowances for the transfer of su gar from refineries to the trains are essentially rebates and in violation of the law
 This important determination was reached by the commission only after several months of consideration oi the matter of allowances for the trans fer of sugar and, so far as the com mission is concerned, brings to an end controversy which has long ex isted between the refineries in New York and those in Philadelphia
 The investigation of the subject was begun by the commission on it's own initiative. In it's decision the com mission lays down four general con clusions as follows:
 "1 The commission has jurisdic. tion to make an order in any inquiry on it's motion in the same manner and to the same effect as though com plaint has been made.
 '2. It is not part of the carriers duty to bear the expense of transfer of goods from the shipper to the car rier. For carriers to undertake to compensate shippers for performing services which the shippers are legal ly bound to do for themselves is for the carriers to violate the act.
 "3 The publication of gross and net rates would needlessly add to the complexity of tariffs. Wherever it is possible for carriers to file a net rate as such, it is their duty to do so
 A. The allowances here consid. cred are rebates, and violate the law. No order is issued, but the carriers are expected to conform to the law without delay"
 It was disclosed that the payment, as at present in New York, of two cents per 100 pounds to the shippers as carriage was really in the nature of rebate from the through rate fixed by the railroads on shipments of su- gar. The allowances. or rebates, m one form or another, have been in vogue since 1885 and they range from the present allowance of two cents per 100 pounds to as high as AZ cents per 100 pounds.
 In 1903, after the passage of the Ekins act the railroads in the pool ing arrangement as to sugar ship ments from New York and Philadel- phia, generally ceased to pay the transfer allowance, holding 1t to be unlawful. Then the American Sugar Refining company refused to protect the pool percentages in its shipments of sugar, holding that the pool and the transfer allowance were related as service and consideration.
 Subsequently the allowance was re stored by the railroads and actually made retroactive for the shipments forwarded during the period of it's dis continuance. The allowance since that time has been paid on basis of two cents per 100 pounds for "cart age Practically all of the railroads doing business out or New fork nave operated under this arrangement for allowances.
 In view of these facts the commis. sion holds that the allowance is re bate and therefore unlawful. The con clusions reached are argued at length in the commissions report and the broad intimation is made that the payment of carriage or transfer allow ances, in the circumstances set out, hereafter will not be permitted.
 No order will be made at this time" the report concludes. but the commission will expect the carriers in Grc stion at once to conform their tariffs and practices to the principles here announced"