The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-24

new petition direct to the Commis
sion, and on May 18th the Commercial
Club Traffic Bureau was requested by
telegraph to furnish such new petition
Every effort was Immediately set IN
motion by the Bureau III its prepara'
tion, a large clerical force was IN
stalled and, under the direction OF the
Commissioner Of Traffic, the new pctl-
tion was worked out. When the final
draft of the petition proper was com
pleted it was sent to the Utah Senators
at Washington, with request that 1T be
examined and passed upon as to It's
terms and merits generally by the
proper authorities at Washington, and
it was returned with the information
that it was satisfactory in form and
method and completely covered the
case for Utah Since the petition was
accompanied by much tabulation and
rate statements, the progress In Its
preparation by the printers was neces-
sarIy somewhat slow, but the finished
product was handed TO the Bureau on
| Monday, June 2lst, and immediately
forwarded 10 Washington, where it is
now filed with the Commission.
1t is we'll to recall that the pc
tition and complaint Of the Com
mercial Club Traffic Bureau is entirely
original in its methods and demands,
since it asks for a basis of both class
and commodity rates, in both dlrec-
tions, only between Chicago. and Cali
fornia terminals and intermediate ter
ritory. as specified proportioned to
mileage. with the exception that for
commodities not specifically enumer-
atcd, the rates applying between Cali
fornia terminals and Chicago or inter
mediate territory must IN all cases be
maximums for Utah. In the Spokane,
Reno, and Phoenix cases, petitions
were made for California terminal
rates only, but which would by no
means afford satisfactory basis for
| Utah.
The petition clearly asks for nothing
improper nor what the people OF this
State should not justly and lawfully
have. That the readiustment Of trans
portation rates for Utah was not long
ago taken up and accomplished was
simply owing to the fact that the trans
portation lines by their exceeding lib
erality in the payment Of rebates and
the dealing out of free transportation
were then able at all times TO quiet
any disaffection or feeling of. unrest
that might present itself from the i'm
portant shippers. These rebates
ranged anywhere from ten TO fifty per
cent of the tariff rates, while free
transportation was simply given out
ad libtum, which is n matter Of com.
monest knowledge to every shipper OF
any consequence within the State. and
yet under the later drastic Federal
legislation on the subject, with these
rebates and the issuance of free trans.
portation cut off, the railway compa-
MICS not only would make no reduc-
tions of any consequence in tariff
rates, but IN addition to retaining the
enormous value of the rebates and the
free transportation, have even been
disposed in their greediness TO make
advances in the tariff rates themselves
1t would appear that the people of
Utah were looked upon simply as lambs
TO be preycd upon by the transporta
tion lines at the simplest pleasure Of
the latter.
The method Of rate making en-
ploycd hitherto in this intcrmountain
country is not and would not be toll
Grated elsewhere in this country, and
the only plea which the railway peo-
pie set up is that of water competi-
ton, condition that exists as much
on the Atlantic seaboard as on the
Pacific coast; and YET, while in the
country cast of the Rocky mountains,
great cities grow up in the interior
because transportation rates there are
based upon mileage only, to this terri
tory between the Missouri river and
the Pacific ocean any such basis is de.
nicd, with the result that the growth
Of cities and the esta blisbment of
prosperous communities IN this great
region is thereby almost entirely pro-
hibited. The time has come for a
change Justice must be given to the
people, and that is all the people want,
The cost of living in this city and
State, which is now higher than else
where throughout the whole West,
must be brought to a reasonable ba
sis, and which never can be done until
transportation rates are first properly
adjusted since that is really the foun
dation of all domestic economy.
The traffic bureaus of the great
cities Of the middle West, as Chicago,
st. Louis, Kansas City and others,
sent assurances that they are anxious.
ly watching the development of this
Utah rate case, and are vitally inter
ested in its successful progress, for the
struggle is likely to resolve itself into
a ''battlc royal between those cities
and the cities of the Pacific coast, as
we'll as Of Utah. Every man within
this State who has the slightest in