Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-08-01
TRAFFIC MEN PLAN
CONFERENCE HERE
Representatives from Several
Cities to Work Out Applca-
ton of New Rate.
TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY

A conference of traffic men from
Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Atchison,
Kansas City, and possibly Chicago,
ST. Louis, Lincoln, Hastings, Ere
mont and Beatrice, is to be held in
Omaha the first part of August. E.
J. McVann, manager OF the traffic
bureau of the Commercial club, just
returned from Washington, at once
decided to call this conference to see
what can be done toward working
out the application of the new freight
rates as ordered by the Interstate
Commerce commission in the ruling
just made in the noted Nebraska
rate case. The conference will prob
ably be called for Friday. August 4.
This is the order in which the In
terstate Commerce commission de-
clared the rates made by the Nebras-
ka commission in Order No. 10, to
be discriminatory in favor of Omaha
as against Missouri river towns in
other states. The Interstate Com
merce commission ordered new
scale of rates, which puts the figures
back practically where they were be-
fore the Nebraska commission re-
duced Nebraska rates, effective Sep
TENDER E, 1914. Nebraska and Omaha
have enjoyed this reduced rate for
two years, until now the interstate
BODY has declared it discriminatory.
Creates Delicate Situation.
The new order creates a complica-
ted and delicate situation.
Regarding this, Mr.. McVann had
the following to say on his return
from Washington:
81 know that the railroads have
been puzzled over the action that
must be taken by them, and they
recognize the practical impossibility
of getting out any final figures by the
middle of August, which they must
do in order to get the rates into legal
effect on September rs. In view OF
this fact, it seems likely that straight
distance tariffs will be published. ap-
plying the Interstate Commerce COM
missions maximum scale that is pre-
scribed in the order alike to all of the
contending cities.
"Of course this will not be salts
factory to anybody, but it will furnish
a basis from which to work in estab-
fishing the new relations, and it is
known that the Interstate Commerce
commission entertains the view that
the railroads are free to place the con-
tending cities back where they were
prior to the issuance of the Nebraska
commissions order, except insofar as
the new scale modihes the rates then
in effect. This is shown by the pro-
viso contained in the opinion, reading
as follows:
provided, however, that said order shall
not restrain said defendants from estab-
fishing, maintaining and applying class rates
between the said several named cities which
will restore the relationships between said
cities as they existed prior to September
8, 1914
Entitled to Relief"
Omaha shippers regret that the
Interstate Commerce commission
should have felt obliged to make a
decision that would advance the scale
prescribed by the Nebraska commits
sion, which was very satisfactory
scale, but no representative of Oma-
ha has ever claimed that the situa-
ton produced by the refusal of the
railroads to readjust the rates from
the outside cities was fair to those
cities. They are entitled to relief
against that condition and the ques-
ton of whether the Interstate Com
merce commission went outside Of the
jurisdiction conferred on it by the
supreme court of the United States
in the Shreveport case is close legal
question and one that need not be
considered by Omaha, because the
state authorities must take care of
that feature of the case. What Oma-
ha is concerned with, vitality and I'M
is the question of working
out the application of the commits
sion's order in the best possible way.
This work was commenced as soon
as the opinion of the commission was
made public and it will be carried
on in a spirit of cooperation and
so far as both the rail-
roads and the competing cities are