Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-12-20

duce rates to lnter-Rocky MouIltdi1
cities and prevent the railroads from
exacting from shippers the Pacific
coast rate plus the local rates from
Pacific coast terminals to the inter-
mediate points. The orders of the conf
mission, on application of the trans
continental carriers, were enJoined by
the Commerce Court and the matter
has been carried on appeal to the
United States Supreme Court,
In it's report to Congress today the
commission declares that at Is a waste
of transportation and therefore I'M
economical and wrong to maintain q
system of tariffs which are expressly
intended to develop the Pacific coast
cities and to arrest the development
of the interior points.
water Competition Figures.
The report indicates the desire OF
shippers from points in the interior or
the country to obtain the same rates
to the Pacific coast that are accorded
by the railroads to their competitors
on the Atlantic seaboard. The rates
are made the same by the trans-con-
tinental lines on the ground of market
competition.
ITO Justify their rates from coast to
coast says the report, "the railroads
advance water competition, II TO
Justify the same rates from interior
points to Pacific coast points they rely
on market competition, under which
they give lower rates from all the in
terror cities two-thirds on the way
across the continent to the same coast
cities than to in~ter-mountain points,
This is the kind of discrimination the
commission has attempted to mini
miZe."
While the commission recognizes the
full effect of the water competition
upon the rail rates, it say 1--WE have
the rank admission of the railroad
managers that they nave subsidized
or bought some of the steamship ines
and terrorized others until they can
make the boast that the effect of the
sea has been 'neutralized.'
"A railroad policy Of rate-making
must certainly be subject to hmita-
| ton OF the law, or else there is no
law.
1.-THE Commerce Court intimates that
the mistake of the commission is in
having attempted to fix a relation OF
rates instead of establishing reasonable
rates; but, as we have already pointed
out, there is no way in which the
discrimination found to exist in these
tariffs can be prevented except by
fixing a differential. since we have
no power to establish an absolute rate
or fix a minimum charge below which
the carrier is not free to go.
Cannot Justify High Rates.
I'VE feel strongly that water COM
petition. even when the widest reason
able latitude is given to the effect of
market competition, cannot by any
possibility Justify a higher rate from
Omaha to Reno than from Omaha TO
San Francisco; from st. Paul to Spo-
Kane than from st. Paul TO Seattle.
Upon the other hand, it should be
noted that the opening of the Panama
canal may so add to the intensity oil
this water competition as to call for
some modification of the conclusion
now reached
The report declares that during the
last year Coz cases, embodying 5O7 for
NAL decisions, were disposed of, Dur
ing the year SS1 formal complaints
were filed and IL proceedings of in[
curry were instituted by the COM
mission on its own initiative. In ad-
dition there were instituted 4S pro-
ceeding of investigations and suspen-
sions of tariffs containing proposed in
a and rates; 1926 informal COM
plaints 1858 claims and SIPS applica-
ions for relief from the operation of
the long-and-short-hau provision.
At sessions of the commission held
in Washington and elsewhere, 943
hearings were held, at which more
than $4,000 age of testimony were
taken. In the twelve months ended
November 30, 1911, 121,S2e tariff publ
cations were filed, an average of more
than 400 for each working day.
Secured ~Sixty-twO Indictments.
An elaborate discussion is presented
of the work of the division Of inquiry
showing thai since December l, 1910, 81
indictments for criminal violations OF
the act to regulate m were re-
turned. The aggregate of fines as
sessed was $214,225. Many investiga-
tons were made that disclosed prac-
tises not of sufficient gravity to war
rant prosecution, but of such b
propriety that the commission ordered
their discontinuance. In this connec-
ton the commission a y significantly
cit becomes increasingly evident
that entire freedom from discrimina'
ton can be secured only by a complete
separation of the business OF transpor-
tation from every form of commercial
or industrial enterprise"
In conclusion, the commission recon-
mends that the law be amended so a;
to require telephone, telegraph ant
cable companies to publish, file and
post their interstate tariffs; to make
the Elkins act applicable to such com
panies; that transportation companies
be required to adopt a system of uni
form classification of :~eight; to pro
vide additional safeguards in railroad
transportation for employees and thu
public; to relieve the commission o
the jurisdiction of the street railway
of the District Of Columbia; to pro
vide for the regulation n control o
capitalization and suitabls provision
for the valuation Of railway property
and that q suitable building be pro