The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-16
BURDENsoME FREIGHT RATES

criminations now existing. Rate injustices having been removed, the way will then be cleared for more intelligent considera- tion of the rate fabric. It might very we'll be that vertical reduction would not be immediately necessary if those practices by means of which the roads exact discriminatory charges were dis continued.
 An example of such discrimination is shown in Alabama in the application of ules. Because of this practice, although authorized by the Interstate Commerce Commission, it costs less to haul freight between a given Alabama point and Me ridian than to haul the identical load be- tween the same Alabama point and an intervening point. Thus, as a result, some Alabama consumers would find it cheaper to haul hay from Meridian than from some intermediate Alabama pro- ducing center. This practice results from the application of the long and short haul clause of the transportation act. It is even believed that the federal commission interprets this clause without due regard for the public welfare.
 As described by bulletin of the h. termediate Rate Association, in consid- eration of discriminations in effect throughout the country:
 Under this system, the railroads
 u
 short distance from distributing
 center to. an interior city than they
 charge to haul an identical shipment
 to a waterway city. For example, rail-
 roads today carry fertilizer from Savan- | nah Georgia, to Corinth, Mississippi,
 distance of 5SS miles, for $6.64 a ton;
 but they carry it right on through
 Corinth and haul it to Memphis, SIS
 miles from Savannah, for $5.29 ton. Corinth is in the heart of Mississippi's
 agricultural district but the farmer
 there must pay 1.35 more per ton for
 his fertilizer than the stevedore in Mem
 phs pays, according to the commerce
 commissions records.
 In similar manner it is shown that the farmer at Alexandria, Louisiana, pays a freight excess of $3.20 on every ton of agricultural implements he gets from St. Louis, as compared with the freight charge to New Orleans, two hundred miles farther on. Recipients of molasses at Spartenburg, North Carolina, pay lS2.7O a ton more than consignees at Norfolk, more than four hundred miles farther. Spartenburg pays big penalty for not being seaport. Ashville, an- other inland city, pays $3.70 ton more for New Orleans molasses than Norfolk, 356 miles further on.
 It appears that the railroads, far from seeking to cooperate in readjustment plans, actually contemplate further in- creases on inland freight rates. Accord ing to the bulletin quoted above: Rates on which the railroads are seeking to discriminate against the interior cities and towns of the South includes such staple commodities as canned goods, cot ton-bale ties, drygoods, iron and steel articles, leather goods, mill-board, sal soda, saws, shovels, tinware and wire." These determinations now ramify to such an extent that it requires experts to un- derstand them.
 What Is the purpose of the railroad effort to keep interior rates high? It is nothing more nor less than shrewd railroad plan to make interior shipping points pay for the railroad warfare on coastwise competition. The railroads reduce their rates sometimes even to the cost of haulage to ports served by coast wise steamship lines, and recoup them selves, with the help of the federal com missions interpretation of the long and short haul clause, by taxing interior shippers with an excessive charge for freight. The same thing is seen in Ala bama in the low rail rates to seaboard in order that the roads may discriminate against the barge lines. The barge lines are forced to compete, not with normal rail rates, but with abnormally low com petitive rail rates. The roads recoup themselves by higher than normal charges on hauls in non-competitive territory.
 The Republican administration, al- though having before it the Gooding bill to correct these abuses, is too much given to privilege to allow hope that either a Republican congress or a Republi- can commission will rectify the public wrong thus brought about. The Demo- cratic task is to reform the freight abuses and to abolish unjust rate dis criminations at the expense of helpless interior shipping points and producing centers. The Democrats offer the only hope for substantial relief, for the Re publicans have shown that they will not give such relief, while the/ LaFollette program is manifestly destructive in its nature. The welfare of the country de- mands relief at the earliest possible date.
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 STRENGTHENING THE PORT PULL
 Whatever apprehension may have haao fo1 +o bo Of +Lo