Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1910-07-22
TRAFFIC DECISION
BENEFITS NEVADA

accomplished by the efforts OF the
r Nevada State Railroad Commission
in their advocacy of a reduction
o. freight rates for Nevada, before
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion, the Railroad Age Gazette has
the following to say:
The proposed reductions in class
rates from Chicago and the Missis-
sippi and the Missouri rivers to
Spokane, Utah common points and
other places similarly situated are
from 8 to 20 per cent, and even
greater cuts in commodity rates to
lntermountain points are proposed.
Reductions of 20 per cents are also
proposedin the socalled 'distributive'
rates eastward from Seattle. San
Francisco and other Pacific coast
points. For some of the foregoing
reductions no date is fix cd and no
order is now made.
The roads are required to
furnish an accurate for
the months of July. August and
September, or for such representa-
tive months as may be determined
on by the commission after con-
ferences with them, showing the
differences between the earnings in
tarfhc actually moved under present
rates and what the earnings would
have been had the proposed rates
been in effect.
when the commission has this
data it will make its final orders.
by far the most drastic reductions
proposed--and tkese reductions are
ordered to be made effective on Oc-
tober ARE those in the rates of
the Southern Pacific from Sacra-
mento, Cal, to Reno, Nevada.
which are cut approximately SO l-3
per cent, and in the East to Nevada.
which are cut so per cent. The
latter reductions also will be felt
mainly by the Southern Pacific.
The commission found that the
rates from Sacramento to Reno are
the highest in the United States.
and that the rates from the East to
Nevada are the highest for long
hauls in the United States.
mo n is surprised that the
commission decided on substantial
reductions in the rates to the YVES t.
ern intermountain territory, and
particularly in those from both the
East and the West to Nevada. All
these rates EEL made when both
transportation and industrial con-
ditions in the section affected were
widely different from wkat they
are now. In consequence of there
changes of conditions many of the
rates had become plainly too high.
The only question was as TO
how great reductions would be
required. Whether those ordered
and those the commission has in
Dictated it probably will order are
too drastic-and they are drastic.
indeed-can be best determined by
the three months record which the
commission directs to be kept.
Even if the reductions finally
ordered r substantially less than
those now proposed, the earnings
of the railway are sure to be mater
ialy curailed. But this curtaiment of
earning is apt to be temporary.
For irrigation. the growth of min
ing development and influx of
population are causing a rapid in
crease in traffic in the West which
will in a comparatively few years
repair the breach made i'm railway
earnings, if it is not too large.
"On the whole, the opinion in
these cases should, it would seem,
inspire optimism rather than
pcssimism about the future of rail.
! way regulation and railway de.
velopment. They have been inter.
preted in some quarters to indicate
that the commission is pretty sure
a not to allow reasonable advances il
freight rates in other parts of tn,
: country. This is not a fair view
While most of the rates to the East
on the products of the Pacific coas
, and Western intermountain countr!
u r low, the rates both westbounC
- and e%astbound into the intermount
f ain territory have been relativel,
k high some of them exceedingly so
!. The commission might, therefore
d without Inconsistency, order rcduc
=, tim. - tb,gn ,oN,. ,nI - Al.