Arizona republican., 1909-03-25

wanted further information regarding the amount of the revenues received at the Pacific coast terminals and he was told that that would all be set forth in the annual reports. Mir. Costigan then desired a showing of the losses that would have accrued to the companies if the terminal and in termediate rates had been applied to Arizona points There was no objec- tion to such a showing, Special Ex- aminer Lyons suggesting that it be made to cover two months, one in the fall and the other in the spring. Such showing had been made in the Spo- kane case.
 Mir. Costgan then went to the sub ject of physical valuation and asked if the attorneys for the railroads would make a showing of the cost of construction, which" said Mir. Dil- lard, we will not undertake to do"
 Mir. DurburrOw said it would be i'm possible in the case of the Southern Pacific to furnish such information. for many of the records bearing upon construction had been destroyed by the San Francisco fire. It could only be guessed at MT. Norton men tioned that this matter had not been suggested in the pleadings, but he added that the Santa Fe was now engaged in the compiling of such in formation. Mir. billiard quoted a member of the interstate commerce commission as having declared that a physical valuation of a railroad would not be of great weight unless il had been made under the supervision of the government
 The Side Of the Roads.
 Edward Chambers, assistant gen eral traffic manager of the Atchison was put on the stand by Mir. Nor ton and for the next hour and a half he entertained the examiner. attor- neys and audience with an elaborate history of rate making in the west. MT. Chambers has been connected with the Atchison coast lines since 1885, at San Diego and Los Angeles. He took his present position in 1896 He described, at first briefly, the bases of rates and stated that the controlling factor in west bound rates is water competition. This largely determines class and commodity rates Competition by the sea meets the aH-
 
 lantic points, via the Isthmus of Te- huantepec: the Isthmus of Panama. and via Cape Horn, though traffic by the last named route is now incon- siderable The time via Tehuantepec. he said, was twenty-six days. while the time by the all-raI route ranges from fifteen to twenty days. He ad- ded that all kinds of commodities are hr- ha ,.+ such shipments are increasing and that the time of transportation is de- crcasing, thus rendering water com petition more formidable
 Rates in the interior country of the southwest are determined in part by the Fl Paso combination which in turn is partly determined by water competition between New York and Atlantic points and Galveston. The normal rate to Phoenix he said was via Albuquerque, but it had been af- fected by the lower southern route, and the rate to Phoenix was now, therefore, made on the Fl Paso con- binatiOn. Rates are made into this territory, said he on the lowest combination that exists or that ever did exist. Whenever changes, that is decreases. | had been effected in terminal or in termediate rates, the Phoenix rate was lowered if the change had been !. a decerase. ! 4 great deal had been heard about | mixtures, that is the privilege of {. shipping mixed goods in the same car. This privilege is freely bestowed i on coast shippers at terminal points | and much less freely bestowed on Phoenix shippers.
 Mir. Chambers said that discrim- ination was a necessary result of water competition, for in sea ship ping there is no limit to such mix tur-s and merchants are thus en- ii abled to buy goods in much smaller quantities r There is another system known as the Fl Paso and Texas common point mixtures Phoenix has still another special system and partaking of the other two has really three systems of mixtures resulting in confusion. The transition from this subject to that Of minimum car weights was easy. As had been explained by the