The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-02-19
Freight RATES
To Be REVISED
Presidents Of Southern
Roads Make Statement.
Give Reasons For Revision and
Principles Upon Which It
Is Being Made.

OF the South:
An order of the Interstate Com
me7ce Commission, pursuant to re-
duirements of Federal law, compels
a general revision of Southern freight
rates. 1t is proper that the people
of the South should be informed
as to the reasons for this revision
and the principles upon which ii is
being made.
Excepting the Norfolk & Western,
Chesapeake & Ohio and Virginia
Railways. which lie in Official Clas-
siication territory, the railroads Of
the Southeast receive virtually no
part of the five per cent increase in
rates recently acquiesced in by the
Interstate Commerce Commission.
While the need of the carriers of the
South for increased revenue is GER
tally no less than is that of the North
ern and Eastern roads, that need is
in no way related to the revision of
rates now in progress which arises
nearly conforming to the so-called
long and short haul clause" of the
law as amended in 1910, and as now
construed by the Interstate Com
merce Commission.
TIE original Act to Regulate Com
merce forbade the making of lower
rates for longer than for shorter
distance within the same. line or
route under substantially the same
circumstances and conditions. The
carriers were free to meet compe-
tition as they found it and were re-
quired only upon complaint as to the
reasonableness of their acts.
The amendment of 1910 deprived
the carriers of the right to initiate
departures from the long and short
haul requirement, and they may no
longer meet competition as they find
it il the long and short haul require
ment of the law is involved, un-
less they can first obtain the approx
al of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission.
They were furthermore required,
by this change in the law, to apply
TO the Commission for authority to
continue in force rates existing at the
time of its passage which contraven-
ed the long and short haul princi-
pie.
The existing rate structure of the
South is not the creation of traffic
managers of this generation. 1t
is an inheritance from those who
built the roads, and finds its explain
alton largely in the geography of
the South, and in a public policy
which encouraged its creation. The
changes now in progress are not of
the carriers choice.
Water competition, the most i'm
portart factor in bringing about de-
paYture from the long and short
haul principle of the law, has been
peculiarly Influenced on the rate
adjustments of the South, surround
ed as it is on three sides by naviga-
bile water and penetrated by navi-
gable streams. Termini of the first |
roads were on navigable waters and |
rates between these termini were |
FROM the beginning depressed be-
cause OF this water competition.
When, subsequently, railways were
extended to the interior, distributing
points were thereby created, where
there arose competition of two or
more markets, or of two or more
carriers, resulting in deperessions
in rates, even when there was no
direct water competition.
These conditions undoubtedly con-
tribOtad to the commercial and in
dustrial development of the interior
South, and, while they resulted in
more frequent departures from the
long and short haul principle of the
law, the carriers had every reason
TO believe that their practice had the
approval of the public, even when it
was not directly the result of pub
lie demand.
Now, the Interstate Commerce
Commission, pursuant to the require
ments OF an amended law, has con
cluded an inquiry into rates from
the Eastern Seaboard, including the
Virginia Cities. from South Atlantic
and Gulf Ports, and from Ohio and
Mississippi River Crossings. into the
Southeast and Mississippi Valley ter
ritory. AS a result the Commission
has in large measure condemned ex-
listing departures from the long and
short haul requirement. except where
justified by competition beyond the
control of the rail carriers, a phase
which came to be restricted to mean
direct or indirect water COMPETE