The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-30
OFFICIALS HAVE
FINISHED HERE
testimony in Railroad Merger
Case Now to Be Taken
at Portland.
INTERESTING DETAILS
WHOLESALERS AND RAILWAY
MEN ON STAND YESTERDAY.

The taking of dispositions i'm Salt Lake
CITY i'm the railroad merger case closed
Yesterday Afternoon. Sylvester Williams.
-necfaI examiner; c.. A. Severance. spe-
cfsI prosecutor. and the other govern
ment employees, as well as the attorneys
for the IA lrOad companies. left last
evening for Portland, where the taking
of depositions will be continued Mon
day.
Several local wholesalers We're on the
witness stand yesterday testifying with
reference to the rates charged on differ
emit commodities To and from salt Lake
The point the government sought to
make by this testimony was that where
rheIe was competition between rail-
roads the rates were lower and the ser
wee was better.
The government also submitted more
testimony tendinS to show that the
builders of the Salt Lake Route pro-
posed To make it a railroad absolutely
independent of all other roads between
Utah and California. There was some
evidence given with reference to the
plan of the construction of the road
through southern Utah. This was large
r technical testimony by construction
engineers.
Senator Kearns Testifies.
senator Thomas Kearns. one of the
builders of the Sd'J Lake Route. was
called to the stand by the government
Yesterday morning. He said that the
salt Lake Route was projected as an
independent railroad to the coast. TrOu-
bic arose. he said. with the Oregon
short Line people who had a parallel
.ieht of way. He related several in
teryiews he had had with Senator ".
Il l..
advised Senator Clark. he said. after
.ourt decisions had gone against the
salt Lake Route. to purchase the right
uf way controlled by the o. :. 7. in or
deer that the business Of the territory
might not be divided between two rail-
roads. since there was not enough bust
ness to- support two roads.
j. w. SummeThays. prominent wool
NAN. TOLD of alleged unfairness in wool
rates from Salt Lake to the east. he
said there were numerous instances
where money had been saved by ship
ping wool first to the Pacific coast in or
der to get the through rate TO the east.
out of Salt Lake. he said. there was
practically no competition for WOO
shipments He said that the consoh-
dation of the Hartman railroad inter
csts was responsible for higher rates
and poorer service
J. 3. Oglesby. former representative
Of the Rock Island. was recalled BY the
defense to testify as TO the length OF
time a Union Pacific fast freight was
operated on a fifty-two-hoUr schedule
between Council Bluffs and Ogden He
said he thought that this train was
operated about eight n.Ontbs.
Somewhat Longer.
In the Afternoon w. :. Mccarthy. for
ver coutrac citing FIRE ght agent for tlte
Union Pacific. was called by the gov
eminent TO contradict this testimony of
An Oglesby- Ir- Mccarthy said that
this train was in operation to his GER
tain knowledge seven years.
Senator Stephen II. Love had some
interesting figures on railroad rates
which he presented when he was re-
called to the stand Yesterday afternoon.
Mr. Love took the average rate for ten
commodities on six roads 200 miles out
or Salt Lake and compared this with
the average rate out of Denver for the
same distance In Denver this rate
was 81 and in salt Lake s13.24.
Through d stenOgraphiC error Mr.. Love
was somewhat at a loss to explain the
way the calculations were made, since
mis- calculations made on the stand diff
fered with those on the statement sub
mitted by him. A checking Of each rate
gave the figures as given above
Mr. Love admitted that the figures
were higher i'm the statement than they
would have been had he left the West
ern Pacific ont of consideration. The
Western Pacific does not quote a tariff
for 200 miles, so he took the rate TO the
junction point on the Nevada Northern,
and the rate from there on the Nevada
Northern to Curries. New. d point 200
miles from salt Lake. The rate to this