Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-09-24
new TARIFF FOR
DAIRY PRODUCE
IS WITHDRAWN
Action Taken During Hear
ing of Refrigerator Rate
Case-Fruit Growers De-
scribe Situation.

One of the immediate results of the
refrigerator rate case heard yesterday
afternoon in the federal court room
before H. r. Disque, an examiner of
the interstate commerce commission,
was the withdrawal of the new tariff
as filed with the public utilities com
mission and which affected the ship
ments of butter, cheese, eggs and
poultry. The gaining of this point was
important as-much as the Boise
valley is fast becoming a dairy section
from which a great deal of produce is
shipped. 1t was figured that the ad-
vance rates would tend to curb the
business.
H. w. Prickett, an attorney from
Salt Lake representing the traffic
service bureau of Utah, took a hand in
the rate investigation and questioned
j. A. Reeves, general freight agent,
who was on the stand testifying as to
certain rates and methods of and cost
of handling fruit as compared with
livestock. Mr. Prickett wanted to
know why it was that the rate of
carload of butter from Boise to Omaha
was $176 more than on carload of
fruit, when the witness had claimed
the fruit loss was by far the greater.
The freight agent claimed that he had
never known a carload of butter to be
shipped from Boise to Omaha, that the
rate was fixed because the company
would handle many more cars of fruit
than butter and further that a car of
butter was of much greater value than
q car of fruit. The Salt Lake attor-
ney asked if the rate was based on that
schedule how was if that R carload of
bullion, valued much more than a car
of butter, could be hauled from Salt
Lake to New York at so cents per car.
At this point in the examination Mr..
Scandratt after some consultation with
railroad officials, offered to withdraw
the new tariff as it affected dairy pro-
duce, letting the old rate stand, which
was agreed to by Mr.. Prickett.
FRUlTGROWERS TESTIFY.
Fruit growers from Boise, Emmett
Payette and Roswell testified at the
hearing that if the advance refrigerator
rate went into effect it would not only
curb the fruit industry of this terri
tory, but would cause many fruit grow
ers to tear up their orchards as they
could not operate with profit and pay
the advanced rates for the reason that
they were now making very little pro-
fit.
Fruit growers who gave testimony
were b. F. Hurst, a prominent fruit
grower of the Boise valley; H. A..
Shearer of Payette, a large prune
grower: j. r. Field of Emmett. a well
known grower and George Steele of
the Roswell district, grower of
prunes and apples.
After going into the details of the
cost of bringing an orchard to bearing,
the picking, packing and loading of
fruit, each of the growers testified that
at present there was very little left for
the grower and declared that if the
advanced refrigerator rates were put
into effect a large percentage of the
orchards would be taken out Mr..
Hurst gave figures of his shipments,
the cost of bringing his orchards into
bearing and OF picking, packing and
placing both prunes and apples of the
car and the results of his shipping to
eastern markets. He testified that in
1915 he shipped II carloads OF prunes
and received a profit on the shipment
of 5000 which only included the profit
of picking. handling and shipping and
not interest on the investment.
II. A. Shearer of Payette testified
that after the expenses We're paid OF
handling fruit there was but very little
profit in the business for the grower
and that he had already grubbed UP
10 acres of apple orchard because IT
did not pay sufficient profit. He felt
that if the advanced rates went into
effect many orchards would be taken
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