The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-27
[ RATE FIGHT .0RES ALABAMA
4mous "Pittsburg Plus" Battle Renewed By AS-
 sociation Of 19 States

Alabama has not received an in- vitation to join '"The Associated
 States Opposing Pittsburg Plus
 which held it's first meeting in Chi
 Gago last week as far as o. L. Bum,
 general manager of the Chamber of Commerce, has been informed Mir, Bum said Friday that he had re- cieved no communication from the
 new organization, which is said at
 present to embrace 19 states.
 The Birmingham Chamber of Com
 =.erce has not joined forces with
 other organizations which in the past
 have waged fight on the Pittsburg
 passing point practice, through which
 the price of steel articles, wherever manufactured, is the Pittsburg price
 to destination.
 The formation of the Associated
 States Opposing Pittsburg Plus fol- . lowed the appropriation of sum
 aggregating $55,000 in the states of
 Illinois, Iowa Minnesota and Wis
 consin to fight the Pittsburg basing.
 A joint commission formed by the
 nucleus of the organization in those four states Invited the cooperation i, of other states with the result that
 the governors and attorneys general
 of 15 other states have given the
 movement their support.
 O o 0
 Plan Testimony Digest.
 Eighteen thousand pages of tes- timony and fifteen hundred exhibits have. been taken and filed in a series of lengthy hearings that have been
 held before the federal trade commis-
 sion on this much mooted subject. H. c. Pickering. attorney for the West ern Association of Rolled Steel Con- suiners, is to make a digest of the
 testimony and exhibits. It Is under stood that a brief will be filed before
 the federal trade commission which
 will be signed by the governor and
 attorney general of each state par ticipating.
 The joint commission representing
 the four original states has been ae-
 tive in pressing the case before the 1 federal trade commission. The talk ing of rebuttal testimony has been ; postponed until December 10. Mean time, an inquiry is being made into the economic phases of the case. The
 United States Steel corporation, as respondent, bases it's defense on the grounds that the Pittsburg basing point practice is the result of the op- eration of the economic law of SUD- f ply and demand, and Pittsburg, as l the point of surplus production of rolled steel, should naturally dom l mate the market and set the price. !, The Associated States organization, on the other hand, claims that the !; practice is artificial and unjust" and 1 has obtained the services of Dr. John i R, Commons, professor of economies . at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. : Frank A. Fetter, instructor in econom- l, les at Princeton, and Dr. W. z. Ripley, 1 professor of economies at Harvard, l all three of whom will testify at 1 the approaching hearing.
 !, Action Of Commission.
 An interesting point bearing on the ] Pittsburg plus controversy was the 1 recent action of the interstate com merce commission. which, in refusing : to permit increases in rates on iron 1 and steel products from the Pitts
 burg-Buffalo territories and terri
 tories east to Virginia cities and
 points taking the same rates, took
 the position that inasmuch as steel
 prices are fixed on the Pittsburg
 base. an increase in rates from Pitts
 burg would mean an increase in the
 price of steel.
 The commission said:
 "In the iron and steel industry the price of steel articles, outside of ! Pittsburg wherever manufactured. is the Pittsburg price plus the freight rate from Pittsburg to destination. Because of this so-called Pittsburg passing point flor steel practice an in crease in thevrate from PittSburg in-
 creases in like amount the price of { steel no matter where the purchase is | made This, however, respondents state, is no fault of theirs, and they 4 do not benefit therefrom."