Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1922-04-28
FREIGHT RATES
ARE TOO HIGH ON
FARM PRODUCTS
JOINT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT
TEE OF AGRICULTURE MAKES
REPORT ON FINDINGS.
REDUCTION SHOULD Be MADE
Transportation Charges On Agrieuitu.
raj Products As Well AS Many
Other Commodities Are Out
Of Relation to Price.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS rates
on products of agriculture, as on many
other commodities, now bear a dis
proportionate relation Of the price of
such commodities" and should be i'm
mediately reduced, according to find
ings Of the joint congressional COM
mission Of agricultural inquiry, an
nounced by Chairman Anderson. Not
only should these freight charges come
down, the reported declared, but Ill
the future rate-making bodies and rail-
road traffic officers should give great
or consideration to the relative value
Of commodities in the making Of rates"
and let existing charges on high-priced
remove cost burdens from basic mate
rails
Exhaustive review OF the transpor-
tation situation has convinced the
commission, Chairman Anderson said,
that "pyramided per cent advances" OF
freight rates during the war and fol-
lowing years caused dislocation or
long-standing relationships between
rates on agricultural and industrial
products and between competitive en-
terprises and competitive territories"
which dislocation should now be re-
moved. The object of ratemaking
bodies should be, he said, in present
Ing the commissions views, Ito read
just rates 30 far as practicable . .
to the relationship existing prior to
1918"
Outside Of it's general conclusions,
the commission advanced three spe-
cific proposals to better %transporta-
tion service for farmers, the first be.
Ing the enlargement Of competitive
n of distribution through which
the largest number of consumers can
reasonably be reached" the second
was the extension Of through rates on
grain ito points Of consumption
through two or more competitive pri-
mary markets." and the third, the ex.
tension Of the principle that coarse
grains, such as corn, should take lower
charges than b%readstuffs. Adequate
car equipment should also be main.
tanned, it was added.
Further, the commission found that
"Hyn gtnrk chnpc n,arkn1 Pl,oty,ottnn
In shipment volume and that rail
roads, stockyards and shippers should
cooperate to even out the supply at
market points, thus preventing prices
and charge impositions, while hay, as
the bulkiest farm commodity, required
"a reduction in both freight and sales
margin before there can be resumption
of normal shipments" Costs on live
stock distribution also must be brought
down, it was held.
On dairy products and on cotton, the
commission concluded that freight
charges had not had so serious an eff
feet as upo nsome other farm stuffs,
and as to wool, Mr.. Anderson remark
ed that its prices ''to the producer has
been depressed somewhat by freight
rates but primarily by disorderly and
unscientific marketing"
Moving to the study Of indirect
freight costs affecting farmers as they
enhance prices of things farmers buy,
chairman AnAnPonp uoiI chat 1fo,x
lizer prices were found to be close to
pre-war basis except for freight COSTS
Forty prices of farm implements, it
was concluded, are now rapidly reced-
ing to a lower price level" but freight
rates now accumulate to the point OF
being Is per cent Of the price farmers
pay for machinery, while before the
war the freight charges constituted
but II per cent.
Coal and steel, being of intimate in.
terest' to the farming consuming pop
u%lation, the commission likewise de-
clared that freight charges on steel
represented Al per cent Of its cost,
while bituminous coal should be sub.
iected to reductions in mine price,
freight rates and sales margins"
AS to lumber, 1t was suggested that
railroads could better afford .
assessments Of relatively higher rates
on short haul business to give needed
relief to long haul traffic" while petro.
leum products were found to be intlu.
ences little If at all" by freight exac.
lions. Dry goods and other commodl.
ties were in this category, too, In the