The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1910-08-18
RAILROAD OFFICIALS CONFER
Subjects of Conference Have
To Do With Nevada's
Freight Rates.

A meeting of great Importance be-
tween William F. Herrin and Robert
S. Lovett, president of the Union and
Southern Pacific railroads, is now be-
ing held in Portland, Oregon. This
meeting bears directly upon freight
rates in Nevada. The two railroad
men will discuss figures said to have
been prepared by Director of Traffic
j. c. Stubbs, showing the rate reduc-
tion plan of the interstate commerce
wherein they will reduce the revenue
of the roads annually it is claimed,
something like Sc, 900. 900.
Recently the interstate commission
ordered the Southern Pacific and Un-
ion Pacific roads to reduce their class
rates on freight into Nevada and Ari-
zona. Passenger rates within cer-
tain district were also ordered low
ned. The commission also contem-
plates a large reduction in the com
modify rates of both roads into Reno
and Phoenix, Ariz., territory, similar
to those it expects to give Spokane
Should all those new tariffs be finally
enforced by the commission, as is
expected to be the case, the revenue
of the Union Pacific and the Southern
Pacific will, it is said, be reduced as
Stubs figures out.
Herrin and Lovett will be together
ten or twelve days. The latter is now
en- route there from New York.
In general way, it is known that
the two prominent railroad lawyers
and officials will discuss in addition
the new interstate law and the pend
ing suit of the government to dissolve
the so-called merger of the Union
and Southern Pacific.
1t is believed that both Lovett and
Herrin, unlike some of the big East
ern railway authorities, are not in
favor of a suit to contest the consti-
tutionality of the interstate law
adopted by the last congress and ap-
proved by President Taft.
1t is probably not too much to say,
judging from what their friends assert,
that both men believe the new law con-
stitutional and that wise policy die
tates it should be fairly lived up to by
the railroads.
Whether they will decide to contest
the recent rate reductions made and
proposed by the interstate commission
is not known. J. c. Stubbs has given
them an estimate of what these rate
reductions mean to Union ard Southern
Pacific revenue in their last analysis.
1t is said ,tubbs figures that the reduc-
tion will affect their revenue fully six
million dollars year.
The disposition of the United States
supreme court could not interfere with
the commission as the sole judge of the
reasonableness of the rates it sees fit
to make is what makes railroad law
yers today hesitate about contesting
rate rulings of that body. Whatever
decision Herring and Lovett arrive at
in Portland on this subject will, there
fore, be of very general interest.
Lovett and the bankers of the Har-
riman system are spending $26, 900, 900
on railroad Improvements and extern
sions in Oregon to protect the property
against the invasion into the state of
James j. Hills system. 1t is said
Lovett and Herrin will study the situa-
tion as it exists today and how the
work of building new lines is progress
sing. Central, eastern and southern
Oregon, as well as Nevada, are the
contested territories between the two
powerful and rival systems. Hill is
building down through central and
southern Oregon to the California line.
That he is coming into California
with San Francisco as his ultimate
object, is fully realized by Lovett and
his associates. Hence it is apparent
how important it is that Lovett should
frequently study the situation on the
ground. Reno Journal.