The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-11
RATES, SPOKANE AND SALT LAKE.

Salt Lake is now ready and pushing
for the hearing BY the Interstate Com
merce Commission of its complaint
against the railroads on account of the
excessive and uriust freight charges i'm
posed upon this region. But it looks rs
though there may be delay, unfavor-
able 10 us: and a mixture Of our case
with that of Spokane, which may com
plicatc matters little. but in the end
will probably be helpful, inasmuch as
Spokane has already won the first bat
tle' in the general campaign which is
on. on lines practically the same as those
of Salt Lake, so far as the general prin-
ciple goes.
In the Spokane hearing, the Inter.
state Commerce Commission laid down
certain principles and general PROPOSE
tions that are as applicable TO Salt
Lake as they were and are TO Spokane.
But the complaint of. Spokane is that
while laying down those principles. the
Commission does not carry them into
effect in the details of the schedules
And Spokane s case, it appears, is large
" founded upon the class rates; whereas
Salt Lake. case is based upon commod
ity rates. IT is, Of course, true that the
general principle of protesting against
excessive and unjust charges in one class
of rates is Just The same as in another.
But the application of the principle is
quite different in the matter of class
rates 10 what it is in the matter Of com
modify rates, And. inasmuch as Spo
kane S case simply went to the point
that charges to Spokane should not be
Salt Lake demands n rate which will
bring her through freight from the East
at lower rates than the rates TO the
coast
What justification, for instance, can
there possibly be in the operation of
freight schedules which will allow the
shipping OF wool, lei us say. from Utah
points TO Los Angeles, and then sending
that wool from Los Angeles east. di-
rectly through Utah, at less rate than
the wool could be sent from Utah i'm the |
first places Think of the idea of ship
ping wool seven hundred miles south
west, baling it there, when it could |
Just as we'll have been baIed here in the |
first place, and shipping ii back, right |
through the same place, for less rate !
from the East than it could be sent from
the original point of shipment; that is
The West shipment and the through East
shipment. combined, are less than the
Utah East rate alone. There is haul
of upwards of fifteen hundred miles, not |
only at no cost. but actually at pre-
MUM to the shipper. The shipper
makes money by first sending that wool |
to Los Angeles and shipping it back
through Utah. and on to- Philadelphia or
Boston, compared with the freight
charges that he would have to pay
if he shipped it direct from Utah |
to Philadelphia or Boston. This,
of course, is mere illustration,
and is not by way of singing
ont any one road or any one commodity |
for apprehension. But it illustrates the
general determinations against which |
Salt Lake and Utah protest.
When the Spokane case was decided. |
Mr.. Hartman entered a protest against |
having that decision applied 10 his
roads. But if The complaint is made
general. as it would be by the union of !
the Salt Lake and the Spokane cases, !
the rates of his roads will necessarily |
come under the ruling, with the expect
alton and lively hope here Of relief
from excessive and unjust charges.
Mr.. Hartman obtained relief tenn.
porariIy on his protest as relating to |
Spokane; but on the final decision of |
the Interstate Commerce Commission, |
MS plea for relief with respect to Spo-
kane will not cut much Of a figure
The dispatches Yesterday morning an
that the Spokane case had, by !
agreement. been put over until next fall, |,
when the Interstate Commerce Commits !
sion will take up the whole subject |
There seems TO be no reason, however. |
why the Salt Lake case cannot be heard |
in the meantime. and any points not !
fully covered IN the hearing Of our case |
can be closed at the same time as the |
final hearing for Spokane.
CUMULATIVE PROOF.