Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1908-01-24
NEW TARIFF SHEET
0. S. L. Preparing New Schedule
Of Freight Rates.
SOME RADICAL CHANGES MADE
New Rates Are Based Oh Inoerstate
Commerce Regulations Mistakes
will Prove SerioaS.


commercial freight and passenger
agents of the Oregon Short Line
will have in their hands circular
of new rate regulations and freight
charges which ls now in the making
at the general offices of the COM
pany, says the Salt Lake Tribune.
Primarily the circular will come
from the freight department, but in
reality it will be circular of freight
charges coming from the Office of
the general counsel of the road,
Farley L. Williams.
1t will be by far the most import
ant, complicated and indispensable
rate circular the road has ever issued,
and it will cover thirty five or forty
long type written pages.
Every agent of the Oregon Short
Line must familiarize himself with
this circular upon its issuance. Back
of its compilation and prospective
issuance there lies an extremely in
teresting story--a story that every
, traffic manager, every business man
and the general public itse6 is
rapidly finding must be famlliarized.
The Intricate and exhaustive read
justment of the charges made for
hauling freight on railroads that has
been put into effect by the Inter-
state Commerce commission is at
the bottom of she trouble.
So rapid have come these changes
and so radical have the majority of
them been that most serious con-
dition exists today among the rate
experts of railroad systems east and
west, and especially among the COM
mercial agents of the thousands of
lines throughout the country, and
particularly in Salt Lake.
Commodities have been taken
from one classification ndplaccd in
another and charges split up, raised
and lowered until the tariffs of the
roads are of such an intricate nature
that even railroad men are expert
encing the greatest difficulty in
understanding them.
This is the nucleus of the existing
uncomfortable condition Of affairs
among local railroad men who rep
resent eastern and western freight
and trunk lines. TO say nothing of
the traffic officials OF the roads with
in the state.
The Interstate Commerce COM
mission holds the railroad companies
Immediately responsible whenever a
shipper is charged a wrong rate,
either too high or too low, or when
his goods are shipped under wrong
classification, Formerly an agent
upon inquiry could quote shipper
rate per hundred on all ordinary
commodities without trouble. With
the tariffs SO changed and altered
that it takes an expert to under
stand them and with The elassifca-
tlon of goods altered many times,
agents have found that they must
use the utmost precau ion in quot
ing rates.
Let mistake occur and the Inter-
state Commerce commission get
wind of It, and forthwith The rail-
road company Is called to account
Nd the agent, in turn, probably
lpssa his job. Business houses en-
py traffic managers to wa Lch the
SHIs ana nee Lnat the letter OF the
terstate Commerce comm misslon's
gulations bey, d. Careful as it
essible to be, it has been found
'arly impossible to get ali rate
potations correct, and as a result
gents are on the anxious seat.
For instance, before the Interstate
commerce commission rearranged
pc tariffs SO thoroughly, marble
and granite could be loaded -cnto
the same car and shipped from Yer