The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-13
PROTEST IS MADE
 ON SPLIT TICKETS
tContinued from Page Five)

19o9 A great forward movement mas been made in all such matters since that year and the latest word of the Interstate com- merce commission in the matter of split | transportation as general plans and cov- l ering all cases of all kinds coming under l the control of the commission was issued 1 by the commission March Il, 1912 opinion l1S22, and is therefore, the controlling one now in effect and so far it is not only l the latest word, having been issued, say three years ago, but this latest opinion was also issued by the commission to
 cover all cases of all kinds under the jurisdiction of the commission.
 Tn that opinion, dated March II, 1912, the commission stated specifically that | it is lawful to combine mileage tickets, lexcursion tickets and communication with other tickets. In other words, the use of such split tickets is thus specitical- lily declared by the commission to be law full. It is lawful and proper, therefore, | for carriers to proceed accordingly and
 this final opinion might not properly be compared with any fragmentary opin-
 ion previously issued and being set up
 as arguments, such as the trunk lines
 are seeking to make in their denfense at present. Argument in the present matter be- l ing the protest of the Board of Trade
 of the city of Baltimore and other trade
 organizations is to be heard by the en- 1 tire interstate commerce commission,
 sitting in full board in Washington on April 2, next, and at that time the whole situation will be covered and the commission will subsequently, decide the whole matter again. Anyone who de-
 sires to be present at this hearipg is
 not only entitled to do so. but would be welcome.
 "It having been the practice of the ma fn
 extend passengers the privileges of en- toying the facilities of 8 through jour- ney in it's entirety, on the presentation of issues of tickets which are valid and lawful and have been issued for inter- state journey under control of the in- terstate commerce commission, we
 would be regretful at this late date to make any change. Furthermore, there
 is absolutely nothing in the present in-
 hibition of the trunk lines which will have the effect of conserving one penny
 of the trunk lines revenue.
 l T have challenged the trunk lines to
 show in any way where their revenue
 is thus conserved.
 "Instead of revenues being conserved
 think the expense for handling the
 traffic would be increased with a net
 result of the revenues being thus ac-
 tually diminished. If the passenger holds
 one, two, three or more pieces of valid Transportation which have been sold un-
 der lawful tariffs under the jurisdic- ton of the commission, the carriers will
 serve them by allowing all of that
 Transportation to be accepted for one
 through journey.
 | If only accepted in one part or sev-
 eral parts. this will cause duplication
 or multiplication of the transaction If checking of baggage and selling Pull
 man accommodation.
 l Every time such a transaction oc- CUTS, there exists some opportunity for errors. either on the part of the passen- ger or shipper, or on the part of some
 empl0ye or representative of the car
 Tier. In other wards. it is just as easy
 for the trunk lines in making out bag gage check at New York to write in tha destination Atlanta as it is for them 10 Write in the destination Washington. If only a point on a part of the through journey is made the destina- ton, the passenger has to have other destinations supplied at that point, and the carriers have to rehandle the bag gage and recheck in accordance with the Further part of the acceptance. II being fact that these mileage DOCKS have been on sale in New York clty Tor so many years for 25 or more ana no complaint heretofore having Deeh made by the trunk lines or any ] one else, 1t seems to me that no corn. plaint on their part exists, and cer- tainiy hope the interstate commerce commission will decide in our favor and permit us to continue afrording thekc privileges to through passengers on any lawful interstate transportation which they may hold.
 "s. H. HARDwICK,
 asecnger Hrafftc 4enager."