Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1922-04-27
RATES
ARE TOO HIGH.
TRANSPORTATION CHARGES ON
FARM PRODUCTS OUT OF RE-
LATloN TO PRICES.
IMMEDIATE CUT is NEEDED
Chairman Anderson Makes Report vM
Findings Of Joint Congressional
Commission Of Agriculture
Should Consider Rates.

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
lngs of the joint congressional com
mission Of agricultural inquiry, an
nounced by Chairman Anderson. MOI
only should these freight charges come
down, the reported declared, but III
the future rate-making bodies and rail
road traffic officers should give great
er consideration to the relative value
Of commodities in the making of rates"
and let existing charges on high-priced
finished products stand If necessary to
remove cost burdens from basic mate
rails"
Exhaustive review OF the transpor-
tation situation has convinced tine
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 so far as practicable /.
TO the relationship existing prior to
1913"
Outside of its general conclusions,
the commission advanced three spe-
cific proposals to better transporta-
ton service for farmers, the first be-
Ing the enlargement Of competitive
avenues 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 breadstuffs. Adequate
Car equipment should also be main
tanned, 1t was added.
Further, the commission found that
"live stock shows marked fluctuation
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, tie
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 Ito 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 Anderson said that "fersl-
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 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 IL per cent.
Coal and steel, being of intimate In
tersst' to the farming consuming pop
ulation, the commission likewise de-
clared that freight charges on steel
represented Al per cent Of its cost,
while bituminous coal should be sub
Jscted to reductions in mine price,
freight rates and sales margins"
AS to lumber, it 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-
lelm products were found TO be influ-
ences sqittle II at all" BY freight exac-
lions. Dry goods and other commodl-
ties wers II this category. too. In the
commissions expressed opinion.