The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-12
Commission HAS
LAST REPLY BRIEF
Utah'S Case in Fight for Fair
Freight Rates Is Now
Completed.
ON WATER COMPETITION
OLD ARGUMENT PUNcTUREp BY
TRAFFIC BUREAU.

The reply brief in the case Of the Com
mercial club traffic bureau against the
railroads. heard before the interstate
commerce commission last September,
has been forwarded to the commission.
It is a printed document Of forty-fve
pages, and answers in detail the various
points of the overworked defense Of the
railroad companies that the excessive
rate 60 Salt Lake territory, as COM
pared with san Francisco, is due to the
waterway competition to the latter
point.
The filing of the reply brief puts the
case finally up to the interstate com
merce commission, which viii decide
whether the railroads Of the country
have the right TO charge higher rates
TO and from Utah than they charge any
other community in the United States.
The completion of the brief ends the
prosecution of the case so far as the
local traffic bureau is concerned, and il
represents nearly a years work on the
part of S. H. Babcock, commissioner of
traffic, and the members OF the bureau
who have assisted in preparing the APP
peal of the people Of Utah for fair
freight rates.
The case will probably be considered
by the commissioners Immediately after
the holidays and, inasmuch as it is
probably the most important and far
reaching case ever presented to the COM
mission, a decision on all of its points
is not expected for several months.
In opening the reply brief. the COM
plainant insists that the evidence to be
considered in the case clearly estab-
Ian Tr1 asrrrf oh
so find. as ultimate facts:
Il. That the rates complained of are
unjust and unreasonable under section
1, taking into consideration the public
interests, as we'll as the interests of the
carriers.
80 That the preference in favor Of
San Francisco is undue, and the dis
elimination against Utah common
points is unjust under section 8, in rela-
ton to the schedule of rates principally
complained of. viz: between Chicago,
Mississippi river and Missouri river rate
territories, and Utah common points in
both directions"
Various decisions of the supreme
court are cited which involve the con-
strUction of the provisions Of the act to
regulate commerce.
It is replied that separate and indie
pendent of any relation TO San Fran
cisco rates the rates we complain of
are both relatively and per Sc, clearly
unjust and unreasonable for the extent
and reasonable value Of the service per-
formed" The defense that water com
petition forces a lower rate to coast
points is refuted, and in the showing of
railroad earnings, it is said:
High Earnings.
"The Southern Pacific company. for
its entire system of 9,yJ5.61 miles. in
Guiding the Central Pacific, received an
average amount of S3.11 per ton, and the
Union Pacific system an average
amount OF S404 per ton. for each ton of
revenue freight, respectively, transport
ed by them during the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1908. These excessive revenues
per ton were neither equalled nor ap-
preached upon any other important
railroad in the country in that period,
with the single exception Of the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe, which was also
largely engaged in transcOntinental
traffic. The net earnings Of the entire
Southern Pacific company's system for
the fiscal year ending June 80, 1909, were
much greater than for the previous
year. while the operating ratio fell from
66.94 To 60.61 per cent
THE growth and commercial impOT-
lance Of San Francisco rests wholly
upon its sea location. 1t is likely fully
desired by the rail carriers purely as an
advantageous commercial proposition
that some degree Of water competition
should remain, but particularly i'm
largely controlled form as apparently at
present. The alleged element of water
competition has many years faith
fully served the interests of the rail
% rrrfore in e10r7r5r4cr for tho latter
long and most profitable haul Of the
traffic; the promotion Of the CONNER
cial prosperity and growth of the cities
of the Pacific coast, and the continuance
of the expressive and discriminative
methods of rate making for the inter
mediate interior country with its added
revenues; an arbitrary system applying
I'm both directions virtually restricted to
this intermountain region; since its ap-
plicatiOn would lot be tolerated by
Omaha. ST. Louis, Chicago, or any other
of the vastly more powerful cOmmuni-
ties anywhere I'm the whole country or
east Of the Missouri river.
Salt Lakes Claims.
"Salt Lake City was perhaps the pio-
neer of ali settlements and certainly OF
all cities in the entire vast region of
this country west OF the Missouri river,
including the Pacific coast It's loCa-
ton was adopted by reason of its being
the most central as we'll as the most
promising of the whole interior Some
twenty years after its settlement and
when il was a prosperous city, the orig
inal Pacific railroads were constructed
through the district also because of its
being on the most central and best route