Arizona republican., 1921-11-27
GAL I LAKE HARD
 NUT TOCRACK IN
 RATE HEARING |
Great Injustice Of Appli- cation of the Carriers To Change Rates Shown By Many Business Men At The Hearing

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 25 Salt Lake today laid its freight rate situation on the table, played its hand for the interstate commerce to see how adversely the city, state and the intermediate ter ritory will be affected if the applica- ton of the railroads for exceptions to the long and short haul clause of the transportation act is granted.
 Examiner William A. Disque of the heard the evidence of the rate expert who tabulated in detailed and statistical form the effect of the proposed reductions in transconti- mental rates on the intermediate territory, where no change is asked for or contemplated. He heard, like wise, the evidence of business lead CTS who, although without a detailed knowledge of individual rates, told how, in the light of their general business judgment, gained through experience, the proposed discrimina- tions will result in harm to the com mercial and manufacturing interests.
 The importance attached to the hearings, which began yesterday and will continue through today, was in- dicated by both the presence of many shippers from various parts of the state and by the array of counsel representing the carriers, the rner- chant marine and the Pacific coast terminals.
 Fighting Hard
 Salt Lake has been a hard nut for the railroads to crack. The shippers have been fighting against what they have believed to be rate discrimina- tions since 1893, one witness t1stified. But the testimony yesterday differed in many respects from that of pre- xious contests. In the first place, the issues involved for the country at large are more important, more fundamental. Economic factors be- hind the making of freight rates have been altered in many ways, as has the whole question of transportation So the witnesses who took the stand yesterday changed in some respects their application of the old principles to the new set of conditions. Now and again, however, the old acrimouy which so often characterized the early discussions of the subject was dem- onstrated-
 The rate experts, H. W. Prickett, W. $. Mccarthy and Stephen H. Love. who testified on behalf of Salt Lake shippers yesterday. are all old hands at the game of rate making. H. A. Schweikart, yice-president and general manager of the Salt Lake Hardwood company. was the other witness who appeared. He confessed his lack of intimate knowledge of rate affairs, but expressed with force and clarity his opinion of the serious ly restrictive effect on his and other business of the proposal to make the low rates to the coast without com pensatory reductions to the inter mountain country.
 The witnesses were interrogated as to both their facts and their deduc- tions by IT. A. Scandrett, chief coun- sel for the carriers; by Frank Lyons. counsel for the Lukenback and United American steamship lines. and by S. J. WettriclS. traffic man.
 of the Seattle chamber of com merce. Karl Knox Gartner, special attorney for the Intermediate Rate association, conducted the direct ex- animation.
 State Their Position
 To summarize the position taken by the representatives of Utah's commercial and industrial activities, they oppose giving the railroads per- mission to charge a lesser rate for a longer haul of the more than 60 com modities concerned because 1t would result in restricting the distributing territory of the jobbers operating out of Salt Lake and Ogden by from 90.000 to 150,000 square miles. de- pending upon the commodity; 1t would seriously restrict the volume of business which jobbers and manu- lecturers now enjoy, while rates to the Pacific coast are no lower than to the intermediate territory.
 Although Salt Lake Is now 800 miles nearer the eastern points of origin for the westbound traffic it pays the same rates as the Pacific coast. To grant the application would seriously disturb a rate rela- tionship which even now is discrim- inatory. If the carriers can afford to carry transcontinental traffic at the rate proposed and still show a profit, the much higher rates now in force to intermediate cities must of necessity return a much greater profit, and to maintain those rates in the face of the reductions to the coast would be unfair and discrimi- natory. To restrict the business done in the intermediate territory is to deprive the producers, particularly of agricultural products, of markets at home they need badly.
 The carriers are blind to their own interests in fostering the upbuilding of the Pacific coast at the expense of the interior when they could much more profitably to themselves devote their energies to the upbuilding of the inland country and originate ton- mage of their lines. To grant the application would result. not in meet ing of water competition, but in kill | ing it.
 If the carriers are victorious, new enterprises, new manufacturing bus mess entering the intermediate field will be discouraged and prevented. These were the essential reasons presented There were others, and today will hear still more why the | intermediate country, led by Salt 1 Lake, should oppose the railroads in | their present desire to lower the ! transcontinental charges.
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