The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-08-17
SPOKANE CASE DECIDED
TARIFFS TERMED REASONABLE"
SET FORTH IN STATEMENT.
United States Divided into Five Zones
Carriers Required to Put Rules
Into Effect by Nov. IS.

Washington, d. C.-Formal or
ders in the Pacific coast freight rate
cases, experimenting the decisions
rendered two weeks ago, were issued
by the interstate commerce commits
sion.
Material reductions in both class and
commodity freight rates are made from
Atlantic coast points of origin to inter-
Rocky mountain cities - Spokane,
Wash, Reno, New, Phoenix, Ariz., and
others similarly situated-although the
carriers are permitted, on account Of
water competition, to exact rates ONE
what less to Pacific coast terminals
than to the intermediate points.
The reduction ranges from about 4
per cent to as much, in a few instances
as 30 per cent. All the rates pre-
scribed will become effective on Nov.
10, 1911.
The orders issued define explicitly
the rates indicated in the opinions as
reasonable and require the carriers en-
gagged in trans-continental traffic to
establish the rates fixed by the COM
mission on or before Nov. Is, 1911. To
insure an equitable and convenient
disposition of all cases, which involve
a construction of long or short haul
provision of the law, the commission
divides the United States into five
zones described as follows:
Zone No. ALI territory lying west
Of a line called line No. /, which ex-
tends in a general southerly direction
from a point Immediately east of
Grand Portage, Mimi, southwesterly
along the northwestern shore of Lake
Superior to a point Immediately east
of Superior, Wis, thence sCd:herly to
the intersection oft he Arkansas and
Oklahoma state line, thence along the
Kansas City-Southern railway to the
Gulf of Mexico.
Zone No. ALI territory lying east
of line No. ! and west of a line called
line No. 2, which begins at the Cana
dian boundary, Immediately west of
Cockburn Island in Lake Huron, pass
es westerly through the straits of
Mackinaw, southerly through Lake
Michigan to Paducah, KY, thence
southerly to the Gulf Of Mexico.
Zone No. 3-All territory lying east
of line No. 2 and north of a line ex-
tending from Norfolk, Va, to Paducah.
Ky, and west of line No. 3 from Buf.
falo, n. Y, to Wheeling, w. VT, and
thence along the Ohio river to Hunt
w. VT.
Zone No. ALI territory east of line
No. 3 and north of the Norfolk-Padu-
cab line.
Zone No. 5-All territory lying south
of the Norfolk-Paducah line and east
of the Mobile and Ohio railroad known
as the southeastern territory.
The railways are not permitted to
exact higher commodity charges from
points in zone No. / to intermediate
points than to Pacific coast terminals.
From points in zone No. 8 permission
is granted to charge commodity rates
to points intermediate to Pacific ter
7 per cent higher than to the
terminals; from zone No. 3, Is per
cent higher and from zone No. 4, %
per cent higher. No order is made as
tO the rates from zone No. 5.
The order in the Spokane rate case,
which affects the rates not only to
Spokane, but also to Walla Walla,
Wash, and LaGrande, Baker City and
Oregon, follows precisely
the principles and rates land down in
the long and short haul order, the diff
rerontials of Z, Is and % per cent in
of Pacific terminals being main
tanned.