Weekly journal-miner., 1918-03-27
REPORTS !. ID |. OF |. ON
 HAYDEN BILL
PROPOSITION TO AL T E R LONG AND SHORT HAUL
 LEGISLATION FINDS NO
 FAVOR WITH TRAN FORMATION COMMITTEE.
(From Saturdays Daily0

| iOSdl Ol SdIiIdllOh tO gu lllO llS merits of a piece of legislation re- gently introduced in congress by Congressman Hayden. The Yavapai C. of C. referred the matter to w. A. Drake, chairman of the transpor- tation committee, and at the meeting of Thursday evening. Dr. Drake made his report, the full text of the com- munication being as follows:
 'Mr. President and Members Yavapai
 County Chamber of Commerce:
 "On March 7th, at a regular meet ing, you referred 10 the Transpor- tation Committee letter which, on l February 23rd, President and Secrc- tary of the Phoenix Chamber of | Commerce wrote you concerning a bill that Representative Hayden had introduced in the house of represen- tatives in Washington, and was at tempting to put through. That was also accompanied by a letter ad- dressed to the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce by the Arizona Corpora ! ton Commission.
 "The long and short of it is that the Corporation Commission, and president and secretary of the Phoc- nix Chamber of Commerce, want the bill enacted into law, and they want the Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce to help pay for it. In other words. they propose to use money to pay for legislation.
 Wears ago, congress enacted a law commonly called "Thc Long and Short Haul Law" which, of course, provided that a railroad should charge no higher sum for short haul of commodities than long haul over the same route.
 "At the same time. there were such conditions written into the law as to give the Interstate Commerce Commission the power of making ex- captions when it thought it advisable after thorough investigation of the particular case in point.
 Now, we all know that members of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion are appointed by the president of the United States. He is thought to be a wise man, and that he will name wise men for this Commission, and it is further known that they will make no decision without care ful investigation and consideration and when these decisions are made, they arc supposed to be wise, just. and for the good of the public at large, as well as for the railroad car riers, and that their object is to de- tcrmine what is for the greatest good to the greatest number.
 "Now the whole object of the Hay den bill is to take away from the commission that option, make the whole law obsolete, and place the commission in contempt and without discretion.
 "You arc all moro or less familiar with the fact, that, in some cases, the commission permitted the car riers to collect a larger sum for some commodities billed to inter mountain points than to the Pacific coast terminals. Most of you know why that was done, namely: to en- able the rail carriers to haul in com petition with water carriers. In other words, the object of that rul- ing was to permit rail carriers to haul some commodities to the coast with little or no profits, in order that they might haul other things and de- rive some revenue as compensation for the construction, maintenance and operation of the transcontinental lines, their competitors, as above stated, being the water carriers.
 'Thc Hayden bill allows the com mission no discretion and Nill forccl a raise in the rates to the coast, which cannot obtain when ships come again, or lower intcrmountain rates.
 "A raise of coast rates will not stop coast shipping. That does not help intermountain people, except that it may give a jobbcr at Prescott, who can buy in carload lots, chance to job short distance away from Prescott, until he meets a. Wicken- burg, Mayer or Jerome jobbcr. I'm other words, such shipping would help Arizona people but little, if at all. It would be case of dog eat dog" all the time with would-bc jobbers or any man who can buy a carload of any commodity.
 Some ono will say that the car riers would lower their rates to in tcrmountain points to comply with the law and make them equal the coast rates. Do not fool yourself. 1 They will not. They will raise the coast rates. That cuts you out of anything from that direction, and sometimes things from the coast arc worth while. Do not forget that the higher rates to inside points apply only to comparatively few commodi- ties.
 Now. just word in the matter of competition. Is there a business man