White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-01-28
WESTERN RAILWAY DISCRlM-
NATION.

iZe the practice OF railway uiSciim
ination against the intermountain
states in favor of the Pacific coast
terminal cities. The opposition took
occasion to charge that the Nevada
senator had been in his Office for
more than six years. yet he had failed
10 Introduce II put through such a
measure at the first of his term. with
the administration politically in sym-
pathy with him. thereby questioning
his sincerity in introducing 1t now
when the party in power Is against
him.
Supporters would now like to know
the status of this bill. what progress
the senator has been able to make,
and will be glad to render whatever
aid may be in their power to bring
about its passage and nave an end to
this unfair and destructive policy of
the transcontinental railways.
It was in the spring of 1887 that
the interstate commerce act was
passed and signed by President Cleye-
land. The senate was republican and
the house democratic. In the upper
house Senator Shelby NJ. Cullom OF
Illinois was chairman of the inter-
state commerce committee and his
name was attached TO the measure
that was proposed from that side. In
the house James II. Regan Of Texas
fathered and was given credit for the
one representing the views of the
democracy and which in principle
was adopted.
The whole thought and purpose Of
the Regan bill was to stop the pre-
vailing practice of charging more for
freight for a short haul than for a
long one, provided the short haul was
included in and a part of the long
one. Previous to that time. in the
absence of a law to the contrary. the
railways were charging from 80 to
several hundred per cent more for
bringing freight to Ogden than 10
carry 1t on to San Francisco. They
pretended that all such freight was
hauled through 10 the coast and back,
arguing that they could not break up
their trains and unload the freight
on the w%estbound trip, and since ii
could not be done in any other way
they were entitled to charge freight
for the mileage hauled or pretended
TO be hauled.
The Regain adherents acceded to
this to the extent that they were will
ing for the railways to charge as
much for a haul from Omaha to Og.
den as to San Francisco, but not
more. With that as the central idea
the interstate commerce act was
passed and signed. The creation of
an interstate commerce commission
defining its powers and limiting its
jurisdiction were mere details. These
were vehicles or instrumentalities for
putting into effect the new law
against the discrimination that had
throttled the growth of the inter-
mountain country from the day the
first railway linked the two oceans.
Later on, when, rs will he shown.
the law was rendered. futile. it was
contended hat when the Panama
canal was completed ocean rates
would remove the discrimination,
provided 1t could be brought about
that the interior could get the same
rates as the coast-in other words,
get rid of the old trouble, the long
and short haul practice.
For in 1887 when the law had been
in effect but a few weeks, by divers
court injunctions the railways had
prevented the commission from per-
forming its prescribed duties OF en-
forcing the law against charging
more for carrying freight merely to
Ogden than to San Francisco. In
which injunctions the railways final.
ly won. The supreme court of the
United States, after the powers of the
commission had been tied up In court
for years. finally rendered a decision
in which II wrote into the law sub
stantially the words except where
there Is water competition" That IL
to say, the railways could charge
more for a short than a long haul
where in the case Of the latter there
was water competition. All coast
points have water competition. hence
the writing into the law of those
words nullifed and defeated the law
in toto.
Since that day various attempts
have been made TO overcome this
Commercial bodies and shippers OF
Spokane, Reno, Salt Lake and vari
Gus other places have fought II
through the interstate commerce
commission. Only one thing have
they gained, and that of doubtful
utility. which is the creation CT sew
eral interior terminals at which
through rates could be granted. But
stripped OF all camoufiage nothing
In reality has been done. In the thir-
ty-six years that this law has been
on the federal statute books its main
object and purpose have been frus-
trated, and IL the interior country
has been built up in that time 1t Is
due to an overcrowding of other parts
of the country and not to any favors
ehnuyu ~ hv tho railways