The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-15
UNIFORM RATES
 FOR WHOLE NATION Committee of Fifteen Begins Work In Chicago SOUTH WELL REPRESEN TED Browder, Lenestreet and Pewe Are All We'll Known In Birminsham=The
 Work VIII Require Mere
 Than a Year.
SOUTH WELL REPRESENTED

A bit of valuable information. hitherto unpublished leaked cut in Birmingham yesterday and deals with the fact thet the railroads of the United States have appointed committee of 15 prominent officials to arrange a uniform freight schedule for the entire country te take the place of three general and several sectional classIfcstiens now existing. While it has been nolsed abroad that such committee had been appointed and while the impression has been that the committee was in the employ of the government, named by the Interstate Commerce Commission. nothing of defl- nite nature has been known The infer- nation contained herein is official, and comes from an authoritative source. Such a committee, consisting of Is prominent railroad officials, therefore, has been appointed. The committee was ap- pointed by the railroads themselves, and not at the suggestion of the government or the interstate commission. Each of the three general territories, west of the Ms slssippi. east of the Mississippi and north of the Potomac, and west of the Missis- sippi and south of the Potomac and Ohio, known respectively as the western, the eastern and the southern classifications, Is represented by five men in the traffic departments of railroads. It is there- fore. taken as & matter of considerable importance by local officials that the southern territory has as many represent atives as that vast territory west of the Mississippi, and that densely populated territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Potomac and Ohio
 Birmingham Represented. Birmingham congratulates itself that representatives of three of the. roads en- tering this city have places on this gen eral committee of uniform classification" the Louisville and Nashville. the South ern, and the Illinois Central, represented respectively by D. M. Goodwyn general freight agent. Louisville; G. R. Browder, assistant freight traffic manager, Atlan- ta; and D. w. Longstreet, general freight agent, Memphis. w. R. Powe of Atlanta, who is chairman of the Southern commit tee, is also a source of qualification, in that he was, until recently, assistant gen eral freight agent of the Frisco, having charge of the Memphis Birmingham line. The work to be done by the general committee is to make a uniform freight rate for the entire United States. It is estimated that it will require from six to IS months to perform this task, and in the meantime, the officials assigned to this special work will be detached from their regular and routine office duties, these duties to be performed hereafter in the name of the official by the assistants
 First Meeting Held Today.
 The first meeting of the general com mittlee will be held in Chicago today. The committee will continue in session from day to day until the general classi- fication is completed.
 The railroads took the action of ap- pointing the general committee because the variation in the method of packing; description of articles; eorload minimum weights; mixed carload rates, and differ ence in the rating of many articles of freight through the three general terri tories as outlined above. For the above
 
 the part of many shippers, who are send ing goods into or out of two or more of the general territories, for uniformity of rating and rules. The desire of the ship pers for uniformity Is given as another cause for the appointment of the com mittee. Still another reason given is that the railroads themselves realize the values to be gained from uniformity in freight rates all over the country.
 The interstate commerce commission, while it had nothing to do with the ap- pointment of the general committee, has shown much interest in the matter, and has demonstrated it's satisfaction.
 Personnel of Committee.
 The following is the personnel of the general committee:
 Representing the Eastern Lines-E. P. Bates, general freight agent of the Penn sylvania lines Philadelphia; D. O. Ives, general traffic manager of the Wabash, St. Louis; S. P. Shane, traffic manager of the Erie, New York; F. B. Holbrook. general freight agent of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, Boston; Ames Webster, general freight agent of the New York Central, Cleveland.
 Representing Southern Lines-D. w. Longstreet, general freight agent of the Illinois Central. Memphis: G. R. Brow der assistant freight traffic manager of the Southern, Atlanta D. NJ. Goodwin, general freight agent of the Louisville and Nashville, Louisville; W. R. Powe chairman of the southern classification committee Atlanta; A. s. Dodge, chair man of the general classification com mittee, St. Louis.
 Representing Western Lines-E. H. Wood, general freight agent of the Union Pacific. St Paul; w. B. Hamblin, general fraiarht aoent of the Chicago. Burling-