The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-02-13
RAILROAD men
GIVE TESTIMONY
RATE HEARING BEFORE EXAM
INER OF INTERSTATE COM
MERGE COMMISSION

The rise and fall of Rhyolite, the
Bullfrog district, Beatty and Amar-
gosa, which blossomed at the time
of the Goldfield boom of 1907, but
began to fade within a year, was
told in figures of freight receipts and
tonnage this morning in the court
room of Judge Moran, where Henry
Thurtell, examiner for the inter-
state commerce commission, is taking
testimony in the cases involving the
rates on commodities used by smelt-
ing and milling companies in these
sections, says the Reno Gazette.
1t has been a hard struggle for
existence during the last few years,
officials, say but conditions are i'm
proving and the carriers are now just
about able to make both ends meet.
The railroads are offering testimony
to show hat their have
been reduced as a result of orders of
the state railroad commission. They
offer exhibits to prove that orders of
the interstate commission also have
tended to reduce their n
The Las Vegas & Tonopah and the
Bullfrog-Goldfield railroads which eff
fected a consolidation only a few
months ago, gave, through testimony
of officials and by exhibits, a de-
tailed story of the roads that were
constructed to handle the business of
three thriving communities of from
5000 to $4,000 population, told of
the business handled during the ear
ly days of Beatty, Rhyolite and Amar-
gosa, when freight reception amount
ed to hundreds of thousands of dol
lars and shipments of freight weree
reckoDed in the thousands of tons.
These roads today, consolidated,
serve the same three towns, but
Beatty has a population of approx
imately $50 people. IRhyolite has
less than 100 souls and Amargosa is
a deserted station.
How close to 100 miles of costly
railroad construction was abandoned
and the Las Vegas & Tonopah as
sumed a loss of several hundred thou
sand dollars by taking over the Bull
Irog-Goldfield road, all to maintain
a railroad business in the southwest
section of Nevada and to serve the
business people of Tonopah and
Goldfield with a regular freight and
passenger service from the southern
cities of the Pacific coast and from
the east, is just a part of the story
that teens with human interest
which was recited this morning in ex-
hibits of the carriers and by the tes-
timony of c. A. Redman, traffic man
ager for the Las Vegas 4 Tonopah
road. How the receipts declined
from 1903 until 1912, when they had
reached so low a level that it was
impossible to guarantee the running
of trains at all, because absolute
bedrock had been reached, was an.
other feature brought out by the tes-
timony at this mornings hearing.
The principal transcontinental car
riers have completed the Introduction
of testimony. and several of the rep
re%sentatives of the Southern Pacific
and Santa Fe have returned to their
headquarters in San Francisco and
Los Angeles. By the stipulation of
the attorneys for the Nevada freight
claim bureau, compliments that the
same line of testimony offered in
other cases would prevail in the case
of the Goldfield Merger Mines com
pany against the Las Vegas & Tono-
pac and allied carriers, a saving of
at least three hours of testimony and
cross examination was effected.
William Donnelly was again on the
stand yesterday afternoon. He con
tended that the rate per ton per mile
was greater to Goldfield than to
other points of equal or longer dis
tances The rate on mining machin-
cry and on cyanide was at issue dur
ing the entire afternoon session.
Counsel for the railroads secured an
admission from DOnnelly that COM
petition between carriers would have
some effect, but the witness would
not admit thai they had any effect
in the cases at issue. The railroads
introduced evidence to show that
comparative rates offered as evil
dence by the cOmplainants were in
effect two or three years ago. while
the rates complained of are effective
at the present time and should n0t
be allowed to enter as arguments as
to discrimination.