Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-11-02
FEDERAL Rail
HEADS RESTORE
Ignite RATES
State Railroad Commission
Saves 100000 on Coal
Bill, is Estimate.

Bismarck, N. D., Nov. 2.-North
Dakota's wirIter coal bill will be from
$500, 900 to 100000 less as a result
Of an iLeistent campaign waged by
the North Dakota railway commits
sion unreluh:tingly since early April.
and whose success was announced in
an order resolved today from the fed
eral railway administration restoring
the freight rates on Ignite to h IA
vorable schedules which prevailed
tration's horizontal advance of all
rates last April
The saving on local shipments with
In q radius Of .125 miles, and which
will affect Is par cent Of North Da-
kotA's coal consumers, will be 80 to
40 cents per ton, stated James A. Lit
tles rate expert for the North Dakota
hauls. up to $50 Males, the saving per
ton will be proportiomtely greater,
and on interstate rates into Minnesota
and South Dakota territory the saw
ing per ton will be from ninety cents
to s..
Consumer Rates Tower.
Under the regulations enforced by
the federal fuel administration, this
saving will be passed on to the con-
sumer. For instance, Bismarck will
pay but $3.50 to $40 per ton, for
Wilton and Benlah Ignite, instead Of
S. as at present. Fargo's saving will
be between SO cents and 81 per ton,
in all probability. while the reduction
to the Twin Cities would be 50 per ON.
enabling North Dakota Ignite mines
to sell their product in competition
with the cheap Indiana and Illinois
bituminous Goals.
: These rates will be made effective
on one days notice following the pub
LEGATION of the new tariffs, which
be out by the middle of the
month. The reduction, will then auto
matically affect alf>retaif sales Of lig-
mite in North Dakota. The new sched-
ule of rates is practically the same as
that which prevailed in North Dakota
for several years prior to the general
advance in freight rates ordered by
the federal railway administration last
April. This order not only applied the
horizontal increase of Is per cent to
wiped out entirely the preferential
rate which the state railway admin
%istration had succeeded in establish
ing after a several yearS' battle. and
applied to the interstate tariff or lig-
mite previous advances from which
this special tariff had been immune,
making the entire boost somewhere
between 40 and IS per cent.
: Tke-North Dakota railway commits
sion, acting entirely on its XVI initia-
tive, Immediately protested this ad-
vance. A conference was heh at Far
go, where all the producers, shippers,
retailers and man. u were
represented, from South Dakota and
Minnesota as we'll as North Dakota,
IN May \ second conference was held
In the Twin Cities, where the railway
commissions of Minnesota and. South
Dakota joined with the North Dakota
board in presenting a memorial to the
federal railway administration. Rate
Expert James A. Little made a triI
to Washington and spent two weeks
there in May n June DINING into
the ears OF administrative officials the
injustice of the new Ignite rates
Then, in September. there was a. third
and final conference in the Twin Cities
The National Association of Railway
commissioners helped the North Da-
kota board with it's fight, which has
finally resulted in one of the mos,
complete and satisfying victories in
the history of this body.
Unfortunately the reduction in rates
comes too late to permit North Da-
kota Ignite to contribute materially