w
SEPTEMBER 28, 1905
The Commoner.
15
through Kearney ana Grand Island
and other points. In other words,
they charge a dollar a ton more to
stop a car at Kearney than they do
to haul it 200 miles further to Omaha.
And Lincoln is in the same class with
interior cities. Southern coal pays
nearly $5 a car more into Lincoln
than it does through Lincoln to Oma
ha. An estimate given me is that
six thousand cars of southern coal
is brought yearly to Lincoln. The in
defensible discrimination which the
commission would remedy if it had
power costs Lincoln something. The
southern lumber rate into Lincoln is
a cent a pound greater than the rate
on lumber hauled through Lincoln to
Omaha. This makes a higher rate
here by practically $5 a car over Oma
ha, and a low estimate is that 3,500
cars are used and distributed each
year in Lincoln. These discrimina
tions cost something year upon year
to Lincoln. I have only time to give
a very few illustrations of this kind.
The California fruit rate to all com
mon points is $1.25. A carload of
California fruit pays the same freight
to Lincoln and Omaha that it pays to
New York and Boston. Is it a reason
able rate to haul it for nothing for
half the distance? If we here accept
the discrimination, do we get an equal
ization in return? This is becoming
a great fruit state. From southeast
ern Nebraska points to southern South
Dakota points, a distance of 250 miles,
the apple rate is from 50 to 52 cents.
From New York to the same South
Dakota points, a distance of 2,500
miles, the apple rate is 39 cents. A
Lincoln wholesaler yesterday told of
shipping two cars of dried fruit from
California. For convenience in dis
tribution he had one car stopped at
Sheridan, Wyoming, and it cost him
to have it stop there $135 more than
the other car cost him brought on
to Lincoln. A friend recently cited
a case where he had a small shipment
of family relics sent from his old
house at Pittsburg, Pa. He paid 22
cents on the shipment from Pittsburg
to Chicago, it cost him 75 cents from
Chicago to the Missouri river, and
$3.78 from the Missouri river to Sher
idan, Wyoming, a shorter distance
than the Pittsburg-Chicago haul. In
stances by the hundreds of injustice
to this section could be cited, and they
are everywhere. Wichita's corn rate
was 9 cents more than the Kansas
City rate was through Wichita to Gal
veston. The commission recently
heard this case, found it unreasonable,
and after allowing the railroad claim
of competition at Kansas City, fixed
five cents as a sufficient differential in
favor of Kansas City. The roads re
duced the nine cents one-half cent,
and the commission was powerless to
enforce its findings. How can we es
cape the conclusion that common jus
tice demands the power be given to
the commission which the president
asks?
"In a auestion of such magnitude
there is of course another side and the
railroads undoubtedly believe that
they are justified in their interests in
combatting the giving of this power
to the commission. A number of
briefs have been made from the noint
of view of the roads. One that was
widely circulated was an attack upon
the commission, in which with infinite
elaboration the work already done by
the commission was minimized. It
Bhowed that the commission had cost
the government 3,804,000; that it had
In its life held trial on 353 cases, mak
ing the cost of each case $i 0,778, and
that but two of the cases had been
carried' through the court of last re
sort and won, making the cost of fin
ally adjudicated case3 up to the mil
lion dollar roint. If this wro nil th
work of the commission, it would be
a better argument; but the commis
sion has had before it 3,525 cases, a
jarge majority of which the roads
tnemselves remedied as they did the
Lincoln case, without letting a ver
dict be reached. The work of the
commission in requiring safety appli
ances and in publishing statistical in
formation is worth all it has cost out
side of trial cases; and the fact that
it has been a means or publicity for
rate cases causing 90 per cent of them
to bo settled without trialbecause
of the fear of publicity on the part of
the roadsmakes the argument of this
brief a matter of little force.
"The most complete statement of
the railroad side that I have found is
incorporated in a brief prepared by
th president of the Southern Railway
system. 1 can only briefly summarize
from it. The brief holds that rates
are now reasonable in themselves, and
cites that since 1870 to 1893 the aver
age earning per ton per mile has de
creased from 1.9 to .76; that prefer
ences between individuals that have
existed through secret rebates have
been greatly exaggerated; that they
preferences between localities have
been greatly exaggerated; that they
always will exist, and that present
statutes are sufficient to .meet them;
that the change proposed Is not de
sirable as a future system, because
Ic changes the rate-making power from
the railroads to the commission, and
that this would be dangerous to val
ues of railroad properties; that it
would be a step towara socialism in
volving manufacturers, shippers, and
carriers alike.
"Again the argument is made that
the legislation would arrest commer
cial progress. That present methods
are in aid of shippers, extending their
business, which rigid legislation pro
posed would curtail and abolish. The
proposed legislation is defined as
drastic beyond constitutional limits,
although In this the fact that the
courts are the final arbiters is overlooked.
"The proposed legislation, it is fur
ther claimed, would not secure antici
pated results, because of the volume
of litigation that would be opened
and the inability of the courts to pass
upon it all. The remedy offered in
this brief is for the commission to
promote better relations between the
parties, and that a more rigid enforce
ment of present laws be followed.
"The argument, both that made in
briefs of this kind, that made by rail
way adherents in public print, and
that made by represented railroad in
terests in congress, all finally center
in the demand to be let alone. When
the Esch-Townsend bill passed the
lower house, carrying the idea urged
by the president, the Hepburn bill
that was side-tracked only proposed
remedies through a tortuous court
process, involving the creation of new
courts, and a long highway of appeal
that would wear out the litigants be
fore final results would be obtained.
"The proposed legislation ought to
be such as to get fixed results quick
ly. It ought to be such as to safe
guard the rights of property through
a review by the court of last
resort. It ought to he enacted be
cause injustice exists now, because the
spirit of the interstate commerce act
is violated, and its provisions Inopera
tive. Corporate power more and more
unrestrained does injustice to Individ
uals and communities, through its es
tablished policy of building up a few
localities at the expense of many, and
through a rate-making system that,
brought to its initiative, is based not
upon the rights of shipper and carrier,
but on what the traffic will bear."
REAL CAUSE OF HUNGER
A learned physician says that hung
er is the sensation felt because of the
contraction of the musdularis either
oL the pylorus or possimy aiso tne
entire stomach or of the duodenum,
or of the contraction of the muscula
ris of all these structures. The con
mh, nf thn. nonketbook caused by
the heef trust price list may also
have something to do with it. Wash
ington Star.
uuaui2auaQaDauuQaQuuut2umuau
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