TRANSPORTATION 137 



mission. Such requests are usually considered by the 

 companies and, if they deem them of sufficient impor- 

 tance, are granted, but if not it will be necessary for the 

 state railroad commission to hold a hearing at which 

 the parties wishing the reduction must appear and give 

 testimony in favor of such rates. It is needless to say 

 that individual growers who can do this are very few, 

 and only organizations handling a large amount of fruit 

 can make satisfactory arrangements with the transporta- 

 tion companies. 



Private Car Lines. There. are a number of express 

 companies which handle food and fruit products, usually 

 designated as private car lines. These are independent 

 companies owning refrigerator cars which are hauled 

 by the railroads on the mileage basis. In addition, most 

 of the express companies have refrigerator cars in con- 

 nection with their regular express trade. Some private 

 car lines have from 1,000 to 50,000 refrigerator cars, 

 all in addition to those owned and operated by the reg- 

 ular railroad companies. It has been estimated that 

 100,000 such cars are in constant use in the United 

 States. Shipping fruit in refrigerator cars has devel- 

 oped so greatly during the past 8 or 10 years that they 

 are now considered indispensable to the general public. 



Much criticism has been heaped upon these companies 

 because of rebates accepted and given in connection with 

 the transporting of perishable goods. Time was not 

 long since, when it was almost impossible for an indi- 

 vidual to ship perishable goods without patronizing some 

 of these private car lines but, in later years, the super- 

 visory power of the Interstate Railway Commission has 

 been sufficiently strong to regulate the business. The 



