28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



the last witness in the morning, and testified that to separate 

 transit from • non-transit shipments -would require twice the room, 

 one-thiid more labor and far more handling. He said the office 

 separation would not be sufficient, and maintained that mixed car 

 shipments would be seriously affected, because if the millman 

 wanted to move a half car of transit with a half car of non-transit 

 stock, he could not make his sale because of his inabilit}' to get 

 his allowance on the half car. Another objection is that some 

 roads would not give due bills on shipments less than five thousand 

 pounds. It was also Mr. Sledge 's opinion that a shipper should be 

 given credit for full minimum weight on shipments of less than 

 minimum, as he had to pay for the full amount in freight. 



Mr. Cassell again had the stand for a short time at the opening 

 of the afternoon session in order to go into further details as to 

 proper allowance for milling-in-transit based on certain tests of 

 weight. 



W. A. McLean of the Wood-Mosaic Company of New Albany, 

 Ind., which concern has a sawmill in Louisville, and is closely 

 affected by milling-in-transit arrangement, devoted most of 

 his testimony to the time limit of the transit laws. Mr. McLean 

 maintained one year is not long enough inasmuch as under certain 

 logging conditions it is difficult for a millman to log his timber, 

 manufacture it, dry it and at the same time take advantage of the 

 transit privilege. The feature which militates again his interests 

 is the fact that he is often compelled to hold logs on the yard. 



E. L. Ewing, speaking for the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association and the Northwestern Shook Manufac- 

 turers' Association, considered the effect of concentration rates 

 on the market for low-grade material such as goes into box shooks. 

 He stated northern milliuen were compelled to market a consider- 

 able amount of inferior lumber and that they found shook fac- 

 tories to be the most satisfactory type of consumers for these 

 grades. He spoke of concentration rates, as applied by railroads to 

 this material, going from sawmills to the box shook factories. He 

 stated they are based on re-shipments of the finished product, 

 which goes out under the regular tariff rates to its ultimate destin- 

 ation, but must be shipped over the initial route. 



Referring to the possibility of shipping under proposed regula- 

 tions, the speaker averred that the cheap character of the material 

 would not allow of any policing expense, but stated that the 

 adoption of uniformity in the direction of transit regulation on 

 lumber would put the northern manufacturers on a parity with 

 millmen in other sections. 



A. L. Washburn of the Brown-Mitcheson Company, Marinette, 

 Wis., stated that fifty per cent of the box material would be 

 absolute waste if it were not transported to the shook factory 

 under the concentration rate, which is now in use. The nature of 

 the material makes it impossible to do any amount of grading or 

 assorting, and necessitates the shipment and receipt of mixed 

 cars. 



Mr. Washburn claimed that in shook material there is a shrink- 

 age of twenty-five to forty per cent in weight, this being due to 

 dressing. There is a further loss of weight of forty per cent on 

 sawmill refuse and eighty per cent on round bolts. According to 

 present concentration rates, re-shipments on regular local rates 

 are possible, there being, however, no refund available. Eeports 

 showing volume of receipts and shipments are not necessary. 

 Seventy-five per cent of the shook material utilized in transit 

 comes under the concentration rates, while the remainder is 

 either hauled on wagons or switched from Marinette plants to the 

 shook plant. Only five per cent of the total could be classed as 

 interstate business, the remainder, ninety-five per cent, being 

 shipped from shook factories to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and 

 Ohio. 



In speaking of the ratio of transit and non-transit material, 

 Mr. Washburn said twenty per cent is made up of the latter, and 

 that provisions compelling separation of the two would work a 

 distinct hardship. Necessary records are kept by the railroads 

 themselves who figure that the outbound tonnage would be in 

 proportion to the inbound as about one to four. No arrangements 

 are made to prevent substitution, it being overlooked because of 



the fact that there is no refund and no opportunity for substitution. 



Mr. Ewing again having the stand said that outbound tonnage 

 always takes the full local rate without any refund. He further 

 stated that concession on inbound rates, which is seen in the form 

 of the concentration rate, is merely a plan whereby the carrier 

 delivering the material will get the outbound tonnage. In speak- 

 ing of the regulation as to the handling of lumber in transit 

 according to milling-in-transit tariff, the speaker said the slightest 

 additional cost of handling would result in an unreasonable hard- 

 ship on the handlers of shook materials as the margin of profit 

 is already extremely light. 



D. L. Goodwillie of Chicago, in speaking of the ruling of the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission as to maintaining the identity 

 of stocks in milling-in-transit shipments, said that his firm had 

 decided to give up the use of the privilege which it had enjoyed 

 on certain shipments, and in which it surrendered the expense 

 bills and received refund on the regular rate. He said that by 

 doing away with transit arrangements, a considerable hardship is 

 revealed on the firm's buying operations. In the event that ship- 

 ments are received over two or more roads, the milling-in-transit 

 rate would be preferable to the concentration rate. Mr. Goodwillie 

 also testified that the former milling-in-transit arrangement pro- 

 vided for no policing, and that no records were kept as to non- 

 transit or transit territor_y. He said it would be impossible for 

 his concern to make a physical separation of transit and non- 

 transit material, but believed they might do so on their records. 

 W. A. Holt of the Holt Lumber Company, Oconto, Wis., followed 

 Mr. Goodwillie. This company's plant, according to the speaker, 

 produces thirty million feet of lumber a year, manufactured from 

 twenty different varieties of timber. The operations are conducted 

 on a regular rate based on reshipment of products over the line 

 bringing in the logs. The concentration rate applied to all lumber 

 handled. The company enjoys no reshipping lumber arrangement. 

 Only between five and ten per cent of the shipments are sent 

 to Wisconsin points, the remainder going to Indiana, Illinois, 

 Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. Mr. Holt agreed 

 that a log rate concession and the requirements as to reshipment 

 constitute a transit i]rivilege. He further stated that the per- 

 manence of the transit arrangement is doubtful in his mind, and 

 he anticipated the installation of a flat rate on logs which he 

 said he believed will be higher. When asked how much higher, 

 he stated it would probably be as high as the carrier could get. 



In support of Mr. HoJt's testimony photographs were ex- 

 hibited, showing the type of logs manufactured in Wisconsin 

 mills, which demonstrated pretty conclusively that Wisconsin 

 manufacturers cannot operate on a large percentage of high- 

 grade stock, but must necessarily find a market for the low- 

 grade material. Therefore practically all shipments are of a 

 mixed car character and physical separation of such would be 

 absolutely impossible. 



In concluding his testimony Mr. Ewing forcibly stated that 

 the combination of the interests he represented are not based 

 entirely on selfish motives, but that they had the interests of 

 conservation very closely at heart. He stated that he hoped he 

 had made it clear that the value of the material used in the 

 shook business is of too low a value to permit of policing that 

 would involve expense. 



E. P. Patterson, assistant general freight agent for the Pere 

 Marquette, told in detail of an arrangement in Michigan some- 

 what similar to the Wisconsin arrangement, whereby that road 

 provides that shipments of the products of logs going out within 

 one year shall be credited with a refund on the log receipts in 

 proportion of four to one. The refund amounts to one cent a 

 hundred on logs. Mr. Patterson said this was merely a transit 

 arrangement, but not based on contemplation of a through rate. 



It was the opinion of W. T. Webster of the New York Central 

 that a special policing of tariff is provided by requiring the 

 shipper to present expense bills showing logging receipts, together 

 with a statement of outbound tonnage of lumber in order to 

 secure refunds. 



