Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-27
SEEK NEW EXPRESS
RATES FOR STATE
Companies Apply to the Public
Utility Board for
Change.
WOULD ADOPT SYSTEM OF
INTERSTATE SHIPMENTS
Hearing Is Held at Court House
for Expressions of
Opinions.

In an effort to have the new Inter-
state Commerce Commission express
rates apply to intrastate business as
we'll as Interstate. the express COM
panies yesterday applied to the Board
of Public Utility Commissioners for
permission to adopt the new system
within the State. The board held a
public hearing in the freeholders'
room at the Court House yesterday to
get the opinions of the manufacturers,
shippers boards of trade and others
that might be interested, but only a
few persons appeared.
The express companies represented
were the United States, Adams,
Wells Fargo and the National. C. w.
Stockton appeared as attorney for all
of them. George S. Lee, of the Wells
Fargo Company, and ]. F. Keane, OF
the Adams Company, experts on
rates, testified before the board.
In opening the hearing Professor
Winthrop M. Daniels, of Princeton
University, q member of the Utility
Board, who has made a study of the
new interstate system of rating, said
In part:
ION February l. the end of the pres
ent week, the new rates for interstate
express business becomes operative.
Over these rates this body has no con-
troll. Somewhere from two-thirds to
three-fourths of all express shipments
in this State are interstate shipments,
meaning that the new rates will APP
ply to between 66 2-3 to rs per cent. of
the express business.
1.-THE outcome of this on the first
of the month will be either conformity
to the rates laid down by the l. C. c.
or two separate and distinct sets of
rates, one for Interstate shipments
and one for interstate shipments.
1.-THE basis for the new rates is the
so-called block system, which the
experts will explain in detail. The
new system is so simple that any
shipper can readily compute rates to
all points. Under the new way the
total number of rates possible to Sc
cure is 100000, as against three or
four hundred million under the old
way.
1.-THE Interstate Commerce Commits
sion in fixing rates has designedly IA
vored package shipments against the
100 pound and over shipments. They
felt that in the past the small pack
age has born too heavy a burden of
the expenses, while it should have
formed the main part of the express
business. The average express ship
ment weighs from 30 to SO pounds. The
heavier shipments should more prop
erly be called freight.
This hearing has been called to
give shippers and others interested
a chance to protest if they desire to
have the old tarigs remain in force
in interstate shipments instead of
adopting the new rates, or to advo-
cate the new system"
Disappointment was expressed be-
cause no Newark Board of Trade men
or others were present. James M.
Reilly, secretary of the Board of
Trade, said today he had received no
.notice of the hearing.
AFTER hearing the experts of the
cypress companies the board re-
Served decision on their application.
The finding of the commissioners will
have to be announced within a day |
or two If the companies are to put |
the intrastate rates in effect on the |
same day as the interstate ones, Feb |
ruary l.
The system adopted by the Inter |
state Commerce Commission is what |
is known as the block system. The |
country is divided in blocks, approx |
are from block to block, and have no !
relation to the individual point from |
which the shipment is made or to |
which 1t is consigned, with the excep- |
ton that If it Is shipped and received |
in adjoining blocks a sub-block sys-
tenn of rating is put into effect.
The sub-bloois . the division of the !
'-TrSer blocks into sixteen smaller !
ones. Rates are fixed for shipments
between blocks. Without the sub |
block idea a shipment from a point |
near the edge of one block to a point |
a mile or two distant in another block |
would be charged at the same rate as |
shipment between the extreme ends
of the blocks, a distance of about 100 |
miles.
These rates and blocks, of course, at |
present exist or will exist after Feb
ruary /, only where the shipment is