The daily times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1902-1936, 1918-12-09
FRENCH MAKING
PREPARATIONS
FREIGHT RATES
UP AGAIN
Maxwell Shows How Proposed
Rate Making BY Adnl;nlstra.
ton Will Place Us
UNDER VIRGINIA CITIES

Washington, Dec. 9.-"Such al
adjustment would leave us as com
pletely under the commercial domi
nation of the Virginia cities as Ger
many will be under the military
domination of the Allies when they
complete their occupation of the
Rhine forts" is the ringing indict
ment of A. ]. Maxwell, of the North
Carolina Corporation Commission
in describing the proposed uniform
scale Of freight rates. The views OF
the North Carolina Corporation
Commission are contained in a let
ter written by Mr.. Maxwell to Ed.
ward Chambers, director of traffic
United States Railroad Administra-
tion.
Senator F.. M. Simmons will this
week break away from his engaging
duties elating to the revenue bill to
make determined fight on the pro-
posed mileage class rate scale. He
will confer with A. c. Prouty. of the
Railroad Administration. and will
spare no effort this side Of the White
House to halt the alleged discrimi-
natory rate basing undertaken by
the Railroad Administration. The
Senator will fight the proposition to
the bitter end. The presentation Of
A. j. Maxwell follows:
In my letter of the 1st instant,
to the Director General, considera-
tion was given particularly to the
measure of the rates in the propos-
ed local scales That letter was
written soon after the receipt of the
proposed scales, and in something of
that such high scales
had been proposed, after investiga-
tion, by the Railroad Administra-
tion. / had not 4: that time analyz-
ed the matter sufficiently to give
consideration to the question of re-
lationship as affected by the propos-
ed adjustment, AMI after considera
tion of this feature of it l am much
more alarmed for the interests of
North Carolina than l was by the
measure of the proposed rates.
1T is hardly necessary that l
should observe IN correspondence
with you, that rate relationship is
the life of commerce and industry
of communities and states. 1t is not
too extravagant to say that freight
rate relationships have caused more
bad feeling in North Carolina than
any other economic question in the
last twenty years. You can readily
why this should be so,
with no rate basing point in North
Carolina, while just across the State
line there are strung out a series of
points all along its
northern border like forts along a
defended line-Norfolk, Portsmouth
Petersburg, Lynchburg
and Roanoke) and to which favored
rates are made from every point OF
the compress, even when all-rail
hauls clear across North Carolina
are involved to reach them.
"The rate-basing point system of
long distance rates in
to the southeastern territory has
been condemned by every unbiased
text writer who has analyzed the
subject. Before the roads were tax
en over by the government, the In
Lerstate Commerce Commission had
shown a decided tendency to work
out such unjusttiflable favoriteism.
Professor Ripley, in his work on
rates, says:
And then, finally, it is indubit-
able that commercial competition as
q compelling factor has been some
what over-emphasized by the rail
roads. Too often conditions in part
brought about by themselves, or in
which at least they have acquiesced,
have been set up as a defense for
rates favoring certain points. This
Is especially true of the southern
basing point cases.
80 that 1t was in the confident
Continued on last psge)