The San Francisco call., 1909-04-21
COMMISSION HAS
BIG TASK TO Do
Railroad Commissioners Begin
Work of Drafting Regulations
Under New Rate Law
Representatives of Great and
Small Concerns in Confer
ence With State Board

Between the little transportation
companies that asked to be protected
from the forceful operations of the
bigger concerns and the big cor
pcrations that asked to be guarded
from their smaller competitors the state
board of railroad commissioners had an
enlightening session in the ferry build
ing yesterday morning when they
seated themselves to the task of pre-
pairing rules and regulations. under the
new state rate bill, for the control of
all common carriers.
The full board was present, includ-
ing President A. c. Irwin and Commits
sioners H. D. Loveland and Theodore
Summerland.
LARGE REPRESENTATION
Practically all carrying interests in
the state were represented either per-
sonally or indirectly. About 40 railroad
and steamboat men, attorneys for rail-
roads and traffic associations and man
ayers of traffic associations were pres
ent. The commissioners devoted the
morning to a discussion of the change
in regulations and heard the remarks
and views of the railroadmen. who
1
conform as near as possible to the reg
ulations of the interstate commerce
commission.
During the afternoon the commission
sat in executive session, which will
continue all of today and possibly to-
morrow.
PLAN OF COMMISSION
The plan of the commissioners is to
study carefully the circular of the in
terstate commerce commission entitled
Rules and regulations governing the
construction and fling of freight tariffs
and classifications and passenger fare
schedules" Where applicable the COM
mission will adopt the federal provis-
ions for Interstate control. At the con-
clusion of the hearing circular con-
tanning the new regulations will be
published.
Under the new rate law and the regu-
lations of the railroad commission
freight tariffs and classifications and
passenger schedules must be filed by
May Is. Some Of the companies which
have already filed tariffs have asked
the commission If they simply may
stamp those schedules alread printed
with rubber stamp to accord with
the identification system provided for
in the new rules. This will be allowed
where practical. The carriers also de-
on less than 80 days notice. Commits
sioner H. d. Loveland stated that the
interstate commerce commission has
permitted change on short notice and
he said that the railroad commission
could permit it in certain cases on short
notice, but he thought the minimum no.
tice would be five days.
EXPRESS AND PULLMAN
The novelty of the proceedings was
the appearance of Wells, Fargo & Co.
and the Pullman private car company
before the commission. 1t is only un-
der the new law that the commission
ers have jurisdiction over those cor
porations. The two concerns agreed
willingly to accept the jurisdiction.
William r. Wheeler, the new traffic
manager for the Merchants exchange,
and Seth Mann, attorney for that bu-
reau, appeared and aided the commits
sion. Others present were Manager
Bradley of the Sacramento traffic asso-
citation, f. P. Grayson of the associa-
tion of jobbers of Los Angeles, James
Keller, traffic manager for Baker &
Hamilton; j. W. Chapman of the Pa
cific hardware and steel company, Mr..
Detrick of the Auto dealers association
and the following railroad and trans
portation company men: G. S Fee. H. J.
Jones. C. W. Durbrow and F. E. Batter
of the Southern Pacific company; Ed
ward Chambers and j. J. Byrne of the
Santa Fe, J. McMillin and Attorney w
E. Dunn of the Pacific electric company
of Los Angeles, w. +. Botsford John
T. York and superintendent Mcintyre
of the Napa Valley electric road; f. A.
Wann, traffic manager, and Attorney A.
s. Halstead of the Salt Lake road; F.
W. Frost of the Key Route, A. D.
SCHNEIDER of the Northern electric, J.
]. Geary of the Northwestern, w P
Johnson. w. r. Alberger, w o. Hinch-
man and w. w. Cahill of the Tonopah
and Tfdewater; Captain Hatch of the
Monticello steamship company and A.
Z. Andrews of the California transpor-
tation company triver boat line)
Captain Hath asked that the small
fellow be protected in his competition.
and Manager Andrews of the line of
Stockton river boats asked that pro-
vision be made to protect the organized
lines from ruthless competition on the
part of individual owners of launches.
The commissioners assured the river
boat man that the board had jurisdic-
tion over small carriers as well as
over large corporations.
Make Traffic Arrangement
SAN BERNARDINO, April 2o.-Au
thoritative announcement was made
here today that the Southern Pacific
and the Santa Fe have entered into a
traffic arrangement whereby the South
ern Pacific's San Francisco freight
from the east is to be diverted in Ari
zona over the Wickenburg cutoff cross