Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-02-02
Fair Rates From the POrfS.

An issue of far-reaching Importance to the
business interests of Georgia and other South At
lanic States is put well the way a just settle
ment by the findings and recommendations of MIR.
Edgar Watkins, acting as special examiner for the
Interstate Commerce Commission in the case of
certain North Carolina petitioners who are seeking
equitable freight rates from ports to interior
points.
Mr.. Watkins affrms the principle that the inland
towns of a coast State entitled, in the matter
of transportation charges, to the benefit of their
proximity to a seaport, without regard to the dis
parity between rail rates and rates. That is
say, in fixing rates on shipments from seaports
to interior points the railroads should charge
enough to compensate them fully, and fairly for
their service. but they should not be allowed to
add to this normal charge a purely arbitrary tax
designed to protect long and expensive rail hauls
by neutralizng sea-route competition.
This is a matter of great moment to the entire
Southeast and of peculiar interest to Georgia,
whose shippers we're pioneers in the cause of fair
port rates. If the position taken by Mr.. Watkins
in the North Carolina is approved by the In
tersrate Commerce Commission and sustained by
the courts the interior towns of Georgia will at
last enjoy the commercial advantage to which their
proximity to the has always entitled them.
They will enjoy their rightful part in the benefit of
ocean rates from Eastern ports to Georgia ports,
and thus will be saved stupendous sums of money
which now go to- maintain and enforce an UNI
natural parity between cheap water rates and ex-
pensive rail rates.
All that Georgia shippers have asked in this
issue that the natural laws of business be LETT
undisrurbed They have asked that the carrier fix
freight rates from Savannah and Brunswick to in
terror points on a basis of the cost and value OF
the service rendered They have contended that
they are entitled to ship goods from an Eastern
port to Georgia port at the water rate without
FORGETTING their right to reasonable rail rate in
shipping the same goods from the Georgia port to
the interior destination. But the carriers go d.
rectIy counter to this principle In fixing rates
from Savannah and Brunswick to interior points,
they charge whatever excess may be necessary to
make the cost of the water-and-rail haul as much
as that of the alLrail haul their object being, of
course to shield the rail routes from the East
against water competition
The injustice and injury of this arbitrary sys-
tenn do not end with excessive rates; they reach
their gravest aspect in discriminatory rates. At
Ianta for example, is only half as far from Sa-
vannah and Brunswick as Nashville, Tennessee, is
Yet under the present rate system, certain staples
of commerce can be shipped from those ports
through Atlanta and on to Nashville much more
cheapIy than they be shipped from the Georgia
ports to Atlanta This is the sort of discrimination
to which the carriers are led by their policy of
maintaining unreasonably high rates from the ports
to the interior
It is estimated that reduction of between
twenty-five and forty per cent in the freight rates
of Georgia and other Southeastern States will be
effected if Just and reasonable methods of fixing
rates from the ports to the interior are established
Hence the far-reaching Importance of Mr.. Watkins
decision in the North Carolina case' affirming the
nrincipIe for which The Journal so long has con-
tended-that all the towns of a seaboard State
are entitled to the natural advantages of prox-
unity to sea routes and that freight rates from
ports to interior points should be based on the
value of service rendered, not arbitrary designs
for protecting long and expensive rail hauls.