Evening star., 1940-04-21
Southerners al Odds
Among Selves on
Freight Rates
Complaints Are Made
BY States Against
Neiehbors' Actions

city and State trade bdrrters.)
1y the Associated Press.
ATLANTA, April 2O.-Southern
States, united in campaign against
"gross discrimination" in class
freight rate differentials with the
East, are at odds among themselves
over hurdles they have placed in the
path of their own interstate COM
nercial activities.
The Mississippi Legislature. irked
at laws sharply restricting Missis-
Hppi fishermen in Louisiana waters,
has slapped back with a measure
that would ban nonresident shrimp
fishing in Mississippi waters and
charge nonresident freight boats a
$4,000 annual license Its avowed
object is to force compromise.
A large-scale Georgia farmer and
marketing specialist, Hamilton
Rails. voiced a spring complaint
that Georgia was bordered by States
with restrictions which made 1t un-
profitable for Georgia farmers to sell
produce in them, while Georgia had
insufficient restrictions against farm
ers of other States dumping" pro-
6uce culls on Georgia markets.
G. E. Brehm, University of Ten
nessee extension director, called
State trade barriers IAN indictment
Of Embellishments in the marketing
relationships in local areas"
Hobo Express Used.
Miami has hobo express" to
send INDECENT Florida sun-seekers
northward. Patrol wagons loaded
with vagrants set out at dawn for
the Dade County line, where their
cargo is put afoot and they are told
to keep moving. In operation for
10 years, 1t is practically the only
organized barrier to human move
ment remaining in the South.
f. A Florida patrol that for several
seasons turned back at the Georgia
line would-be visitors If they had no
visible means of support has been
discontinued.
Southeastern cottonseed producers
inveigh against Wisconsin's Is
cents-a-pound tax on oleomargarine,
. cottonseed oil spread Some cot
tonseed men urge a Southern boy
colt of Wisconsin butter, others
want retaliatory taxes.
Yet, Arkansas and Tennessee tax
oleomargarine sales at 10 cents
pound. North Carolina has a S75
tax on margarine dealers. Virginia
requires that stores and restaurants
selling or using butter substitutes
conspicuously display signs so
stating in black letters at least one
Inch square.
Variety of Taxes.
Sales taxes and companion "use"
levies on goods brought from out
of-State locations. wine levies that
discriminate heavily against import
ed products, restrictions on fresh
cream, luxury" levies on tobacco
and soft drinks are in the welter of
Southern trade barriers.
But they are undertoned when the
States sound their call for leveling
Of sectional class freight rates.
Charging rates in the East ran as
much as 80 per cent less than SIM
Aar rates in the South and are
therefore unfair" the Southern
Governors Conference has plugged
vigorously for a PARITY revision.
Eastern industrialists, contending
rate leveling would propel manufac-
turing into the South, and railroad
officials, contending that ton-mile
revenue from total freight shipment
IS nearly equal the country over,
oppOSe the Southern nlea
Eight States have Joined in cam
paign to remove differentials on live
stock shipping rates which they
consider discriminatory. Farm and
utilities boards of Georgia, Florida,
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Tennessee have banded for a drive
on rates In Western and Eastern
territories.
Cattle Raising Aid.
The campaign is directed mainly
at helping Southern cattle raising.
Virginia imposes license tax of
$3.50 on each carload, or equivalent
number, of horses and mules brought
into that State by any person hav-
ing no established place" of business
In the State
Mississippi, North and South Car
DINA and Alabama employe the
"use" tax to guard their sales taxes.
In Mississippi it is 2 per cent except
for automobiles and fresh milk q
per cent? and each resident gets
$500 annual exemption. North Car
olina's is 3 per cent up to SIS on a
single article. This is bolstered with
. tax on goods so displayed that
orders may be taken for shipment
from outside the State.
A "use" levy which Arkansas
appended to its per cent sales tax
recently was invalidated by the
State Supreme. Court. The State still
collects the tax on automobiles,
however, through requirement
that the tax must be paid before a
license tag is issued. New autos
towed across the State are charged
g for the trip under another pro-
vision.
Motor Carrier Requirement.
Virginia has 1910 requirement
that interstate motor carriers buy
within the State gasoline commensu-
rate with their mileage on Virginia
highways.
Motor license reciprocity provi-
sions cause intermittent pickering in
nearly all Southern States.
In the general State levies on
tobacco, Florida and Virginia are
exceptions. Taxes range at 20 per
cent, 60 as high as Arkansas five-
cents-a-package cigarette tax. South
Carolina levies 20 per cent on soft
drinks.
Liquor is tagged for revenue re-
Hardless of where made.