The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1915-02-11
SOUTHERN
RAILROADS
INDIGNANT
REVISION OF FREIGHT RATES
ORDERED BY COMMISSION
SOUTHEsN ROADS DENIED
The Right to Participate in Five Per
Cent Advance In Freight Rates
Although Badly
Needed.

Atlanta, Ca, Feb. 4.-The recent
order of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, enforcing the Long and
Short haul clause of the Act to regu-
late Commerce. has made necessary
a general readjustment of feright
rates throughout the Southeastern
territory, according to the following e
statement addressed ITO the ePople
Served by the Railroads of the South
and signed presidents j. r. Kenly of
the Atlantic Coast line, W. A. VIM
burn of the Central of Georgia, NJ. H.
Smith of the Louisville and Nashville,
w. j. .Iarahan of the Seaboard Air
Line, and Fairfax Harrison of the
Southern: ..
An order of the Interstate Com
merce Commission, pursuant to re-
quirements of Federal Law, compels
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 it lis being
| made.
Excepting the Norfolk & Western.
Chesapeake & Ohio and Virginian
Railways, which lie in Official Classi-
fication territory, the railroads of the
Southeast receive virtually no part
OF the five percent increase in rates
recently acquiesced in by the Inter-
state Commerce Commission. While
the. need of the carriers of the South
for increased revenue is certainly no
less than is that of the Northern and
Eastern roads, that need is in no way
related to the revision of rates now in
progress which arises solely from the
necessity of more nearly conforming
to the so-called 'long and short haul
clause" of the law as amended in 1910
and as now construed by the Inter-
.sctate Commerce Commission.
The original act to. Regulate Com
merce forbade the making of lower
rates for longer than a shorter dis
tance within the same line or route
unde substantially the same circum-
stnaces and conditions. The carriers
were free to meet competition as they
found 1t and were required to answer
only upon complaint as to the rea-
sonableness of their acts.
The amendment of 1910 deprived the
carriers of the right to initiate de-
partures from the long and short haul
requirement, and they may no longer
meet competition as they find it if
the long and short haul requirement
of the law involved, unless they con
first obtain the approval of the In
terstaire Commerce Commissfonl
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 con-
travened the long and short haul prin
ciple.
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 explanation
largely in the geography of the South |
and in public policy which encouraged
its creation. The changes now in |
progress are not of the carriers
: Water, competition, the most inn
portant factor in bringing about de-
parture from the long and short haul
principle of the law, has been pecu-
liarly influential on the rate ADJUST
ments of the South, surrounded as it
IS on three sides by navigable water
and penetrated by ravigable streams.
Termini of the first roads were on ma
v!gable waters and raSes bdtween
hose termini were from the begin
ning. depressed because of this water
When, subsequently,,
were extended TO the inter-
or, distributing points were thereby
created. where there arose competi-
ion of two are more markets, or of
,wo ror more carries, esultings in de-
in rates even when there
was. no direct water competition.
These conditions undoubtedly con-
.ributed to the commercial and in
lustrial- development of the interior