Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-04-07


troduced to discuss rates IN general,
dealing principally with the freight
and telephone rates now in effect
here.
BIaine's Address
Blaine, who used many figures and
much prepared data, built his talk
around the fact that the present
freight rates in this section of the
country and in Arizona especially
are not only too high but greatly dis
! criminatory. He traced the history
of freight rates, telling how they
were raised and why, in various
sections of the United States, ana
then went on to deal with the growth
! of the railroads and the work OF the
interstate Commerce commission.
Acting under a law of 1920, the l.
| C. c. divided the country into four
rate-making sections, the speaker re-
marked, two. of these sections being
west of the Mississippi river. The
uniform rates for each of these sec
tions were established in 1922 by the
II. C. c., according to Blaine but the
freight rates in the Arizona district
have been, and are now, he asserted,
80 per cent higher than in the rest
| of this general western section.
Through complaints by ). S. Douglas
and Others, however, the Arizona
state Corporation commission started
an investigation of that SITUATION
the speaker declared, and the case
is now before the I. c. G.
Nevertheless, Blaine stated, the rail-
roads in this section of the country
/ are asking for still higher rates on
/ the general basis that increased rates
will bring them increased revenue
which they say they deserve. This
argument, however, Blaine termed
4 falIacious, as, he said that when the
rates jumped, the traffic originating
within the state of Arizona decreased
and the products of the mines dropped
/ as far as shipments were concerned
Thus in truth, the speaker stated, in
creased rates do not actually mean
increased revenue for the railroads.
Copper Production Cost
| Talking on the increase in the
production cost of copper mined in
i Arizona in the last 10 years or so,
Blaine offered figures to prove that
3S per cent of this production cost
! jump could be traced directly to
higher freight rates. This, in many
instances, he asserted, cut down pro-
duction and shipments of Arizona cop
! per while foreign countries produced
more and were able to more success
fully compete with the American
mines
He then offered convincing figures
| IN a
the southwest which tended to show
what he termed unnecessary in
creases in rates and unfair discrimina-
tion for Douglas mining as against
points further >distant in other west
ern states and even in the case of
shipments between Ell Paso' and Kan
sas City and Douglas and Kansas
City.
{ From Douglas to New York the
rate on a ton of copper in the 1918
period was approximately So, Blaine
stated, while today for the same
haul, it is more than $12 ton.
This he offered as discrimination, yet
despite these general increases, Blaine
said that the railroads are arguing
] that they are not making the 3-4
per cent earning in the western dis
trict which the I. G. c. has said they
are entitled to clear, and the COM
panies want the rates still higher
Compares Rates
Blaine then mentioned particularly
the rates from Ell Paso to Kansas
City and from Douglas to Kansas
City, on copper and other commodities
! in general. The average first class
I freight rate between Ell Paso and
Kansas City, he said, is about $147,
while between Douglas and Kansas
CITY it is about $2.14, or nearly 40
per cent greater for simply the ad-'
ditional PIT miles between this city
and Ell Paso. Such high rates he
offered as evidence of what he be-
lieves is the policy of the S. P. and
Santa Fe railroads to stifle new in
Edustries in Arizona and to show un-
fair discrimination to the Arizona
producer as compared with the Texas
producer, or specifically as regards
the Douglas and E. Paso producer.
Turning to telephone rates, Blaine
summed that situation up by saying
1 that instead of the rates coming
down after the 1918 war period they
continued at the same high level and
lin some cases even went up AiiSS
should have dropped when conditions
came back to normal and other COM
modities fell, he said, but instead
they stayed where they were ana
! often jumped up further Since the
Mountain States Telephone company
took over the Douglas system, Blaine
said the toll charge between Doug
las and Bisbee jumped SS 1-S per
cent.
He gave the business phone month
Jly charge in 1913 here as but $4.Oo
as contrasted with $500 under the
Mountain States company with the
resident phone monthly charge just
the same as now. He did not go
further into this issue however, sa?-
ing that he had not obtained many
comparative figures but that in gem
eral, the telephone rates in the state
and in Douglas in particular are
hieher than they should be- he
also mentioned that the Mountain
States Telephone company is a SUP
sidiary organization to the Amerl-
, aon TaIanhone and Telegraph COM