Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1915-09-16
THE PUBLIC AND FREIGHT COMPUTATIONS.

If the Standard Oil company, or the steel trust, We're to conduct
business in the slpshod manner in which freight is handled by the
railroads congress would be mohbed if it failed to provide a remedy.
If any business house in Watcrtown were to practice the loose
methods employed by the railroads in their freight departments 1t
would be compelled to go out Of business because those dealing with
it would not tolerate its system.
We know of a case involving the sale OF a carload Of goods. The
freight rate was ascertaned from the local agent. But one rail
road was concerned, the place of shipment and the destination being
on the same line. The goods were sold, the freight prepaid. and the
purchase price RENTED.
Weeks and weeks aSter tie transaction had been closed, the rail
road company came in with a bill for deficiency equal to the profits on
the entire shipment.
We know of another ease involving two carloads Of brick. They
were bought +. o, b.. at destination. They We're shipped at different
times but each contained the same number OF brick. me 1rlcght
was not prepaid, but the conigncc paid ii at destination and deducted
from the bill rendered by the seller. The amount Of freight varied
over twenty dollars on the two cars. Eventually, We assume, there
will be a bill for deficiency, but never, o + so rarely as to amount to
never, a refund.
Ii such cases were isolated, or occurred but occasionally, and if
the errors Were about as numerous on one side Is on the other, we
might withhold criticism, but they are not. They are the rule rather
than the. exception, and the presentation of bills for Deficiencies is
the rule and The refund Of excess paid the are exception.
Ii the common run of humanity had full swing, these mistakes
would not occur on one side of the ledger only. 1t goes without
question that if the railroad companies representatives, can figure
out what the freight should have been after 1t IS pmd, they could
figure out what it should be before it is paid.
1T has come to pass that when a firm quotes prices f o b it must
do some rapid-hre guessing concerning the amount that the freight
man guessed, in his figuring of freight.
We are not asking for the impossible. We have no disposition
70 carp with reference to railroads They are necessary institutions
and are entitled to fair treatment but if there be any reasonable eX-
euse for their annoying ineffcency in computing freight we would
be pleased to receive the explanation.
So other business Institution in the world could follow these
methods and continue to survive. The inadequacy of its system
would force it upon the financial rocks.
If the railroads themselves fail to supply a remedy for this bust
ness inconsistency, we think the public may eventually take a hand.
H no other course be open to compel relief from a tyrannical system,
we are not sure but that the people may be goaded into a demand
for congressional action.
II ought to be a part Of the business O. the railroad manage
ment to reduce friction to the minimum. The old theory of 1.-The
pubic be damned was followed until some of the leading railroads
OF the country have been brought to the verge of bankruptcy. and
through tins disregard OF the interests of the people in the avenues
q transportation the demand for governmental ownership has been
Eostered.