Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-08
ADJUSTMENT OF
RATES ADMITTED
CHAMBERS SHOWS QUICK WIT
ON THE STAND
SANTA FE AUDITOR SHEDS LIGHT
ON CLAIM METHODS
Railway Commission Elicits INSIDE
information from Officials of Corr
poration, but Latter Proves
Prolific of Excuses

l. w. HedleEs SANTA II =
state lines, proved one of the most
important witnesses in the hearing be-
sun Yesterday by the state railway
commission now sitting in the chamber
Of commerce building probing charges
of rate discrimination which specific
allv mention Haas, Baruch & Co. and
]. w. Newberry as benefciaries.
Mr.. Healey in the afternoon session
threw considerable light on the mat
ter of claims, etc. He was closely
questioned as to the way and method
with which claims are treated after
their entry at the main office, ana
explained the system lucidly, giving
much valuable information on TINS
feature of freight traffic.
The afternoon session was called at
9 O'Clock. Mr.. Healey Immediately was
called to the stand and explained thor
oughly the method under which claim
was filed when it was received by the
Mr.. Healey had been previously
asked by the commission to produce
all the claim books in which the claims
were recorded and final disposition
noted.
the book holding claims numbering
from 100000 to 146,O0O inclusive could
not be located by Mr.. Healey or any
of his clerks, and no amount of ques-
tioning by Mr. Benjamin could elucl-
date the least bit of information re-
garding it.
Before leaving the stand Mr.. Healey
was asked if he knew of a certain San
Diego iobbing list, to which he re.
plied in the negative. He was also
asked to bring before the commission
tomorrow "C'' and I'D" files of claims
which now are in Mr.. Healey's office.
This request caused some commot1on
among the officials of the Santa F'e,
although Mr.. Benjrmin did not say
why he wanted these particular files.
Chambers on the Stand
Mr.. Chambers was called to the
stand again and questioned by At
torney General Webb The attorney
general wanted to know about rate
of TX cents per barrel given TO the
Standard Oil company for hauling oil
from Redondo to Los Angeles, where
as the published rate of 10 cents per
barrel was charged the Gray Canyon
Oil company.
Mr.. Chambers insisted that this rate
was given the Standard because of the
competition of the Union Oil COM
pany's pipeline from the Fullerton
fields
When asked why the rate to the
Standard was not published Mr.. Cham
bers said he was not sure it was not
published. and if it was not he knew
of no god reason why.
Assistant Attorney General Benjamin
resumed the questioning, and asked
Mr.. Chambers if he remembered case
of rebating to the Calitornla WINE
company, Mr.. Chambers replied
Just after the San Francisco earth
quake and fire the company had a
couple of carloads of wine which was
pumped from the cellars of their sew
eral warehouses, put into barrels and
sent back to their wineries in Watoka,
to be refined and shipped back to San
Francisco. We carried this damaged
wine at a 10-cent rate
Mr.. Benjamin here stated that the
published rate was 2SA cents.
Probes "Act of Charity"
He asked Mr.. Chambers if he wanted
the railroad commission to understand
that this special rebate was an "act
of charity" to the California Wine
company. and if so why the company
did not allow a special rebate on this
same consignment on it's way back
to San Francisco, as a special "act of
charity" to the people; or, if it was
not an "act of charity to the Cali
fornia Wine company did the earth
quake shake the rate down from 2S1a
cents TO 10 cents?
This question caused a ripple of mer-
riment to wave over the audience.
Mr.. Chambers replied in the affirma-
tive when asked if he was aware of
a list called San Diego jobbers."
He denied the list included only a
few of the jobbers in San Diego, but
said it included all who had been re-
ceiving shipments of goods from job
bers in San Francisco.
He explained to the commission that
the same rate prevailed from Los An
geles as prevailed from San Francisco,
thus putting the Los Angeles jobbers
into what he considered their field.
Mr. Benjamin wanted to know if
Mr.. Chambers was the one who de-
cided whether the San Francisco job
bers or the Los Angeles jobbers should
deal with the jobbers of San Diego.
Forenoon Session
w. G. Barnwell general freight agent
for the California lines of the Santa
Fe railroad was the first witness
called in the forenoon by Attorney
General Webb.
Under the questioning of Attorney
General Webb, who resumed along the
lines of special rates to milling COM
panies, particularly the Capital Milling
company of Los Angeles, it was
brought out that secret rates We're
given this company on grain from
points in the San JOAQUIN valley to Los