Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-02-26
LOSSES OF REVENUE 70 RAIL.
ROADS THRU SPECIAL FAvoRs
70 az REVEALED.
ovERsHADoWs DEMAND FOR
INCREASED FREIGHT RATES
QUESTIONS 70 Gene squarsiy Before In.
tsrstats Commerce Commission on
March 1s-rsstisnony % TO Adequacy
Of Prssent Rates to 10 Shown by
Commissioners Thorns.
,pecial to Times Republican.

Des Moines, Feb. 26.-Losses of rev.
enue to the railroads from free SER
vice, reduced switching charges. spe-
Gil favers to big shippers, allowances
to Industrial railways, and in similar
ways, will come squarely before the
interstate commerce commission on
March 16. The opening up of this big
subject will arouse much more inter-
est turnout the country than the more
important one of the proposed rate
advance or the valuation work.
First among the associations to pro-
test against any order to abandon the
free service is the Cedar Rapids Com
mercial Club 1t is expected that others
will fall In line and do the same. bu-
unquestionably there will be meny
shippers, in Iowa and elsewhere, insist
ing on abandonment Of the practices
which are now declared to be akin to
rebating.
The taking up of the free service dis
elimination question will be sand
WICKED in between other phases of the
rate advance case. The testimony as
to the adequacy Of the present rev
! enues of the railroads in their rela-
ton to the public, which is the spe-
cial phase Of the question ON wF!ch
Chairman Thorne, of the Iowa com
mission, and other western commls-
sions, have been working, will be taken
up on the 9TH. Preliminary to this
conference of the commissions of eight
western states will be held next Satu1-
day at Kansas City.
The free service question and it's re-
lation to unfair Determinations and
loss Of revenue will have the right
of way for some time. =
Discriminate Confessed.
Confession that many forms OF UNI
fair discrimination are regularly prac-
ticed by the railroads is made now.
anent the recent disclosure of immense
losses to the railroads from giving free
service to favored customers, and the
Railway Age Gazette. speaking for the
carriers, admits that similar discriml-
nations are being worked by the MAX
ing and keeping in effect of many
rates which are too low relatively 10
the general level Of rates" and thai
Sin most cases these rates are so made
as to favor some large community at
the expense Of the small communities,
or some large shipper at the expense OF
small shippers" The remedy sug-
gested for this is to authorize and re-
uuire the Interstate commerce commits"
sion to raise rates.
This Is the main form Of unfair dis
elimination which the Iowa railroad
commission, acting in conjunction with
the shippers organizations OF Iowa,
fla 8 been seeking to kill on, not by rails
ing rates, as the railroads suggest, but
by raising and lowering OF rates
simultaneously to remove the discrimi-
nations. 1t is this special evil which
has caused all the effort in Iowa to
secure revision Of rates so that Iowa
will not longer be pocketed In a rate
hole and Iowa industries be kept under
tremendous handicap as in the past
fifty years. And those who are in the
fight complain that 1t Is against this
proper adjustment that the railroads
are fighting desperately.
A very interesting phase Of this lat
est sensational turn in the nation
wide controversy over rates 10 that the
railroads seek to justify conditinos be-
cause not directly and positively con-
demned by statute. The Age-Gazette
denies that these allowances and free
services are in the same class with re-
batting. and insists that "rebating has
practically ceased to exist. But the
practice condemned in the industrial
railways case was provided for in tar
IFS published and filed with the in
terstate commission. 1t adds:
Another important point to be con-
sidered is that, while it was clear when
in former times a railway deducted
even q single cent from Its published
tariff rate that its act was criminal.
neither the law nor the decisions Of