NEED OF A EAILWAY COMMISSION 



IT was a strong delegation that waited 

 on the Dominion Government on 

 Wednesday, the nth of February, to 

 ask for a railway commission, which should 

 have power to regulate and control railway 

 rates. The case of the fruit growers was 

 ably presented by Mr. W. H. Bunting, the 

 President of our Association, who pointed 

 out that the railway companies had looked 

 upon fruit as a luxury and not one of the 

 necessities, and had put up the rates upon 

 this class of goods to the very highest notch. 

 For example, said Mr. Bunting : " On 

 2,500 baskets of Niagara-grown peaches, 

 shipped to points east of Toronto, mainly 

 Montreal, the carrying charges by express 

 were over 50 per cent, of the price received 

 by the grower. The transportation com- 

 panies received 133^ cents per basket for car- 

 rying, while the growers netted 8j4 cents 

 per basket. When you reflect that the 

 growers have all the risk of seasons, all the 

 expenditure for help, and all the waiting for 

 the crop to grow, I think you will agree with 

 me that the proportion received by the car- 

 rier, as compared with that received by he 

 producer, is altogether unfair." 



FRUIT DISCRIMINATED ACIAINST. 



Mr. H. W. Dawson, of Toronto, speaking 

 of the unfair rates on fruit compared with 

 other products, said : 



" Fruit is discriminated against to the ex- 

 tent of 200 to 500 per cent., as compared 

 with other commodities. Why is this? 

 The railways say it is because the fruit re- 

 ceives better care in the carrying ; but I have 

 followed shipment after shipment and have 

 never yet found apples receive more care or 

 attention than other classes of, fruit. As an 

 illustration, I might mention one case. There 

 was shipped from Grimsby on the 30th No- 

 vember three carloads of apples. At the 



time of the shipment the shipper asked that 

 cars be provided for shipping to Boston. 

 The railway refused cars to Boston, but ten- 

 dered cars to St. John. The understanding 

 was that the fruit was to be put on board a 

 steamer announced to sail from St. John on 

 the 14th of December. The ship did not 

 sail on the 14th of December; she did not 

 sail until the 14th of January, and all that 

 time the apples lay at point of trans-ship- 

 ment exposed to the severe weather. The 

 shipper was not notified of the delay, and 

 had no opportunity of protecting his fruit ; 

 in fact, the first intimation he had of the de- 

 lay was when a cable was received from 

 England on the 6th of January asking what 

 had become of the apples. On that one ship- 

 ment over $1,000 was lost. The fruit was 

 frozen and did not even realize the amount 

 of the freight." 



In illustration of the discrimination be- 

 tween fruit and other products, Mr. Dawson 

 compared the case of flour and apples. "You 

 can," said he, " get a rate of 13^ cents per 

 cwt. on flour to the seaboard, while the rates 

 on apples is 23^ cents. These are the rates 

 for export in both cases." 



Mr. D. J. McKinnon emphasized Mr. 

 Dawson's statements and called attention to 

 the fact that the freight rate on flour to the 

 seaboard represents six per cent, of the value 

 of the goods, the rate on apples 23J/2 per 

 cent., the rate on mixed fruit 44 per cent., 

 and the rate on grapes from Ontario to th;^ 

 seaboard was 55 per cent, of the value of the 

 product carried. " We are," continued Mr. 

 McKinnon, "under a great handicap in send- 

 ing fruit to the far east and the far west. 

 The rates on such shipments are really more 

 than the traffic will bear. Were these rates 

 reasonable, we could produce fruit enough 

 to supply every consumer in our own coun- 

 try at a reasonable price. We should be 



