The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27
UTILITY BOARDS @ HANDS TIED BY
 MERIDIAN CASE
State Commission Unable To Establish New Rates
 Under Peculiar Ruling
tSTATE CAPITAL BUREAU)

1 z ESTATE CAPITAL BUREAU)
 MONTGOMERY, Ala, Jan. c6.- Evidence of the progress. which has been made in taking power from the several states and centralizing it in Il commission created by Congress, is shown in the decision of the intcrstate commerce commission in the famous Meridian case, which the Alabama pub lie service commission is now trying to upset. Probably few people know that i the clause of the constitution giving the federal government authority over in terstate commerce has been so con strucd in this day as to give the federal ! commission the right to fix rates from Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and other Alabama cities to many points within Alabama, on shipments which never cross d state line and never fig ure Ill interstate commerce.
 1t is, perhaps, not matter of com mon knowledge that the Alabama com mission, if it. desires to change rates within wide area of the "sorergn state of Alabama must apply the fed eral commission on each and every commodity in order to be permitted 10 do so. The Alabama public service ! commission IS today waging a fight to regain the authority originally pos sessed sby the state over rates within it's own borders, and to remove the Meridian decision which is declared to be thorn ill the Alabama rate struc- ture.
 Sums Up Case
 1 The. Meridian case, about which so much has been heard, is summed up briefly as follows:
 i In 1918 the Meridian traffic bureau took to the interstate commerce com mission complaint alleging that rates generally from Meredian to points in Alabama on the Southern, Alabama Great Southern, Mobile and Ohio and Alabama, Tennessee and Northern railroads were unfair and discrimina- tory as compared with rates to points i'll the territory mentioned from a num- Der of Alabama cities. Meridian claimed that Alabama concerns were better able to compete with Meridian in the. Alabama territory mentioned by reason of the more favorable rates eS- abolished by Alabama law.
 The decision of the interstate com merce commission made in 1922 was favorable to Meridian, and resulted in tie setting aside of Alabama state-made rates on purely interstate shipments ill order to remove the alleged discrimina tion from Alabama cities to Alabama territory within distance of 2OO miles of Meridian. The order of the inter- state commerce provided that the rates from Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, Demopclis, Selma and Tuscaloosa to the Alabama territory within POO miles of Meridian ill which Meridian com peted should be as high as the rates from Meridian to this territory. The result was a raise in the rates from the Alabama cities to their Alabama trade territory by the order of the federal commission based on complaint from outside Alabama.
 Commissions Hands Tied
 As result of this order, when the Alabama commission today in its gen eral revision of interstate freight rates seeks to change tie rate on any com moditY, it must go before the interstate commerce commission with each and every change to secure the application of the new rates within the territory affected by the Meridian deciSion In the case of new rates on cotton and clay products recently ordered by the Alabama commission in Alabama, two of the four railroads involved in the Meridian case, the Mobile and Ohio, and the Alabama, Tennessee and North ern have agreed to the new schedule ordered by the Alabama commission. The other two, tine Southern and Ala bama Great Southern, have refused to apply the rates on cotton and clay products as laid down by the Alabama commission ill the Meridian territory, as a result of the interstate commerce commissions decision.
 The Alabama commission is now en- gagged in d general revision of rates within this state to meet changed con- ditionS after the war. Unless the Meridian decision is set aside, the car riers can refuse to apply in the Me ridian territory the new rates ordered by the Alabama commission on the plea that the new rates conflict with the in- terState commerce commissions de- cisions i'll the Meridian case. The state commission will thus be compelled to go before the interstate commerce commission in Alabama every time it seeks to change generally the rate on any commodity and plead with the fed eral commission to allow Alabama to fix freight rates within her own bor- ders, which is striking evidence of what has already been done in the name of interstate commerce.