The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-17

scribe to the doctrine, that 1t will be a great public benefit for the carriers to take from their patrons s30 O00,o00 with the understanding that some indefinite portion of this sum will be returned in the form of prosperity" If such theory be sound, why not a similar law-made levy for every kind of business besides railroading?-ple up taxes and reap pros- perity
 The manufacturer or business man who deals In heavy commodities. like coal or lumber will tell you that the carriers have already taken from him more than per cent above legitimate charges by a system of financial pill ferage called "overcharges," and such raise" does not appease them. Let anTone doubtful make the round of the heavy freight payers in this very town and see how much regard the average railroad has for lawful established rates.
 He will find that. in theory charges are assessed from a tariff called "All the Traffic Will Bear;" but In practice, they use supplement labelled And Then Some
 Notwithstanding much bombastic ad- yertising to the contrary, the carriers In themselves, create no new wealth in the sections which they drain. This is
 
 and the manufacturer, the carriers merely conserving or decreasing such wealth by the reasonableness or rapaci ty of their charges for transportation. By placing their rates on reasonable basis carriers assure themselves con tinuous tonnage and steady revenues; since the creators of tonnage can best
 maintain it's flow if permitted to retain a reasonable portion of the profits that exist, somewhere, between producer and consumer. If rates are so high that lit- tie or no net revenue remains for the producer, his capacity to furnish busl- ness for the carrier is impaired and both ], suffer in consequence. Besides, there ], is related loss to railroad employees who are affected by shrinkage in vol tune of traffic-resulting in diminished 1 train service.
 People unfamiliar with rates pre- vailing south of the Ohio river dur | ing past 20 years fail to realize that the present outburst Is part of a long, standing, continuous movement for in- creased rates that goes on unceasing ly-grasping mite here, a penny there; but ever an upward climb n charges assessed against the shipper for a given service.
 Take lumber. for instance, and Gin oinnati a typical consuming center. In the late nineties rate from this section to Cincinnati was IS cents; about 1900 the rate was raised to 19 cents, re- maining there until 1904, when the railroads. acting in concert raised all rates throughout the south cents per hundred making our rate 21 cents. Aft CT several years litigation the inter- state commerce commission declared this last rate extortionate and ordered
 the rate put back to 19 cents, and di-
 rected refund to shippers 6T per cent of the excess collection-the total amount being estimated at S10,000,000. Through
 iapse of time, loss of papers and quib- bling over techncalities the carriers
 were enabled to tire out and get rid
 of claimants after disgorging about two millions of their unreasonable col lections.
 Protests against high rates are usu- ally met with the explanation that rail- road stock is largely held by widows" and "orphans" who would be in ab- solute want should their income from dividends be decreased. It Is possibls that scattering shares of stock in near ly all large enterprises are In the