The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-07-18

should be sufficient ground
upon which to eXpel him.
M7s<M
CURLING THE EXPRESS GIANT.
After three years of inquiry into
the express business of the United
States, the interstate commerce com
mission in an admirable report or
ders "a sharp reduction in express
rates and marked reforms i'm the car
rying on of their business.
Briefly stated, the inquiry, con
Quoted by Commissioner Franklin f.
Lane, developed the fact that small
packages have borne more than their
fair share of the cost of tr%ansporta-
ton, the express companies have en-
ployed an ~unscientific and almost
hopelessly confused system of rate
schedules and have in great numbers
of cases collected express charges
twice simply through faults in their
own system.
In order to maintain a set of rates
from every express office to every
other one in the country, requires no
less than 600, 600, 900 rates. To pre-
sent them requires several hundred
volumes of 200 to 800 pages each,
now on file with the interstate COM
MERGE commission. They are so intri-
cate that an expert is needed to de-
termine many of the rates. Further,
the report declares that these rates
have not been based upon the value
of the service rendered. On the con-
trary, it is stated that the express
rate schedule sis the product of years
of shrewd manipulation, has no justi-
fication in the minds of the express
men themselves, and is the richest
example yet brought to IL attention
of a tariff based exclusively upon the
theory that the charge should be
what the traffic will bear"
The commission then proceeds to
give several rules thai should govern
in the determination of express rates.
One alone of these is in reality suf-
ticient and in this single sentence il
abundant reward for all the effort
that may have been made to bring
the express companies into proper
subsection to the authority of gov.
eminent. 1t is as follows:
I'm the fixing of it's rates an ex
press company should lot be allowed
to charge more than a railroad com
pany if the latter undertook to ant
did, give the same service"
There is the fundamental princi
pie that must underlie a just rela
tionship between the express com
panies and the public. They own no
a mile of railroad, not a locomotive
or a car. Should they, when the,
, have not the means of transporta
ton, be allowed to increase tn,
! charge for transportation abov'
l to a railroad company? To do 81
I would be to say that it is proper Il
charge those buying transportation
portation. That in fact is what ha
, been done by the express compare
and explains the enormous and out
) rageous profits they have made fror
> the public.
The new rates are based upon
minimum of 81 cents per pound an
increase according to weight and dis
l lance transported in proportion t
: the cost of the service rendered
: That is to say, the commission allow
the same amount for terminal chare
es for a package of given weight, re
CARELESS of the distance it is Cal
1 ried. If the distance increases, tn
difference in the charge represent
the increased cost of carrying tn
: parcel.
Notable among the other reform
: inaugurated by this most importan
decision is the establishment of a
entirely new system of maxim
! charges. Under this plan the Unite
> States is divided into blocks of abou