Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-03-23
FREIGHT RATES
ON GRAIN BELOW
POINT Of PROFIT.
Foty-one Western Roads In
siSt Upon 100000 as
Minimum Increase of Rev
enueS They Must Hove,
10, uoss,so JOURNAL srse,,, ,sAsso w,su

iHy poBNiva JOURNAL SPECIAL trAsro wiEu
Chicago. March al. r.. Wettling. /
staustician for the furty-uue western |
railroad systems which have asked for
an increase I'm freight rates ON certain |
commodities testified before Inter |
state Commerce Commissioner W. NJ /
Daniels to-day as to the amount the
railroads hoped 90 add 60 their am /
uual revenue ON the proposed Increase
u the rates of grain and grain pro-
ducts OF $t0.000.000 which the
railroads estimate would bc added to
their annual revenue through AN the
proposed increases, SA252,iAa, MI
WettlinE testified would come from
grain and grain products. This, he
said. would be about one-third of
one per cent of the total revenue. The
witness presented "a statement con-
corning an the grain moving out on
proportional rates from Minneapolis
In Mississippi river cities aud beyond,
including southeastern Atlantic ports
and To gulf ports for exports To
these were added movements from
Omahu. South Omaha. Council Rluffs.
Kansas CITY, Atchison. kan. Lcaven-
worth. Kan. and ST. Joseph, Mo. to
the same destination ass well as the
movement Co Texas. ON five of the
principal railways out of l3,000,0oo
tons of grain handled only iNOO,ooO
TONS hc said. would he affected 10y the
Increase
Figuring In All Roads.
Applying the same ratio to AN
roads. I'm The case. said MI
Wcttlng the total increase Tor AN
the ronds would be S9.252.493. or one
third of one per cent OF the total
freight revenue. The same calculn-
ton hes been made, applying To AN
roads with an appnrtionmcnt ON a
la mileage basis instead Of tonnage
basis as above. aud ON this calculation
the amount would be 42.il3,Id0 ur
less than four-tontns of one per cent
of the total revenue.
4. H. Helm. counsel for The Kansas
Ipuhlc utilities commission, in CROSSE
examination asked the witness just
one question. Your figures are based
only on the fiscal year ending with
dune. 1914. and do not take into con-
sidcrution the big crop that followed,
do they
Yes my figures end with the fIs-
cal year"
Attorneys for the railroads had pre-
viouslv said that all their calculations
"PIll'N "NlN ~ wv F''' '' ~ wa w.
1 IT, 1914.
~ u Ballantine assistant to the
second vice president of the Chicago
Rock Island and Pacific railroad, tcs-
I titled to what he termed excessive
cost of handling grain. This cost
he said, greatly reduced the appm-
ent profit ON grain hauling
Holding Up the Cars.
I taggt-
/ fled The witness, I'VE had two thous-
land ears held back ON account of em-
barge and congestion on export grain.
/ Cars were held up as far as thous-
and miles from the ports The grain
/ heated and it was necessary To inspect
an of It and transfer and elevate a.
large portion. We had more than
So 600. 600 worth of pershahle grain
ON our hands and it entailed large
expense There is an excessive empty
haul on these export ears, ON one d.
vision northhound the empty boz cars
are one hundred seventy-four per cent
of the loaded box ear mileage.
Export cars are not loaded to ca
pacity as the commission found in
1907. The load is not more than to
within fifteen or twenty per cent OF
capacity
There is great added expense and
delay TO other freight trains where /
side tracks are filled with empty cars I
stored for export grain loading
Mr. Helm cross examined Mr. Bal |
lcntine as to the cost Of loading, La /.
Dor ana Cu-operage of grain
Rock Island Road Typical
"Do You consider the Rock Island .
typical road in Kansas for export I
shipments by way Of Galveston
1--WE SO consider it,
"Do you consider the assembling of |
empty freight cars i'm expectation of /
crop movement as profitable busi-
ness2'
1--WE assemble cars to get the bust
ness and we consider the more bust
moss we get the more the profit
Wasn't the Rock Island one of the
roads which were criticised by the In
tcrstatc Commerce commission for
not providing labor far the loading Of !
grain
"It was not ON the other hand the
Rock Island was considered an cXCep-
ton in that It supplied ample labor
for loading
Questions were asked as to the cost
Of coopcrage ana grain doors The
witness said he had no figures, but
that il would be impractca-
bic on account Of the heavy weight 10
place grain doors on box cars which
were used only part of the year for
the hauling Of grain