The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-02-20
RAILROADS LOSE
BY PARCEL POST
SHOWN BY FIGURES OF THE
TONOPAH AND GOLDFTELD
COMPANY

COMPANY
The government parcel post ser
vice has taken from the Tonopah e
Goldfield railroad a tonnage of close
to 100000 pounds of freight an
nually, according to testimony offer
ed this morning before Interstate
Commerce Commission Examiner II.
Thurtell, by w. ID. Forster, general
manager of that railroad, says the
Reno Gazette. Forster held the wit
ness stand all morning and he spent
all of thai time explaining the pres
poets that induced the construction
of the road and the causes of the
annual fluctuation in tonnage.
Before the parcel post law became
effective several hundreds of ton
of merchandise taking first, second.
third and fourth class railroad
freight rates was carried to Tonopal
and through that city for adjacent
camps by the railroad as regular
freight matter Forster explained
Since the Inauguration of the parcel
post service nearly all of that bust.
ness has been lost to the railroad,
although the railroad carries it at a
compensation that does not pay even
the expense of transporting the mail
car to and from the terminal OF the
road, he said.
He declared hat the annual cost
of handling the mail matter ever his
road was approximately $1,000,
lille the government paid only 500
or $500 above that amount for h
s,.r! ice.
I'VE practically handle the mail
matter for nothing" he sail. Mr..
Forster, while he did not make h
statement, intimated tha: if the
small railroads had to depend on the
profits from handling parcel ros.
E.atter in the manner and quantity
il which it is now bling shipped, the
re ads would starve quickly. The
1'onOpah and Goldfiell bad is los
ing approximately $1,000 every
lccnth in handling parcel post, he
declared.
The testimony offered by the Las
Vegas and Tonopah and the Bull
started on Tuesday afternoon, was
concluded yesterday The story If
the decline of the canEs of ~Ithyolite
and the BullfrOg district, Beatty anal
Amargosa, was followed by the de-
tailed explanation CT the sacrifices
made by bond and stockholders of
the two railroads ahau the "onso'-
idation was ~effecto.i and the efforts
made to assure the pcrmanency of
the camps.
When the cons)I.:t on Of the
Las Vegas and TonuJ4i and the
Bulifrog and Goldfield roads vas
effected in Philadelphia July 20,
1914, 100000 of stoc'x and ST.
coo 900 in bonds were surrendered
anC invalidated without a cent of
compensation to The ownors Of these
sec ~urities, a%ccordi.; TO tie testi-
mony offered.
Eighty miles of railroad were abb
solutely thrown away AMI the emily
property saved from the wreck vas
secC nd hand rails and tie plates.
The ties were useless and the work
Of constructing on" u the roads
which paralleled the other vas
wasted.
The loss through abandonment
of the parallel road from oea:,y to
Goldfield is fixed at Sl.36n."00. and
the cost of construction is said to
nave heen 100000 more than the
Abandonment loss sustained.
All of this testimony is being III
PRODUCED at the instigation If the
interstate commerce commission, but
it gives the roads operating in that
section of the state the opportunity
of demonstrating to the satisfaction
of the commission that the rates in
effect are justified and that Gold
field and Tonopah r not being
Disseminated against because of The
alleged excessive rates.