FREIGHT RATES AND MANUFACTURES IN COLORADO 



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the manufacture of iron in Pueblo as is shown by the following table. 

 They were lowered, however, in April, 1896. ' 



This reduction in rates was the result of a decision and order of the 

 United States Inter-State Commerce Commission made in November, 

 1895, and providing that the rates from Pueblo to California should not 

 exceed 75 per cent, of the rates from Chicago to California. This order 

 the railroads refused to obey. Court proceedings were begun by the 

 commission to enforce the order. Then the railroads obeyed and the 

 rates were lowered as shown above. But this situation was not to last. 

 They kept the rates down about two years, till October 17, 1898. Then 

 the Southern Pacific increased the rates. The Colorado Fuel and Iron 

 Company, on whose complaint the investigation and order was made, 

 sued for damages and an injunction, October, 1898. The Circuit Court 

 enjoined the railroads from charging more than the rates fixed by the 

 commission. But April 16, 1900, the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed 

 the decision on the ground that the United States Supreme Court had 

 ruled that the commission cannot fix rates. 2 



Notwithstanding a vigorous campaign by Denver shippers and manu- 

 facturers to secure Missouri River commodity rates for Denver, they were 

 denied and the following excuse was given by Mr. W. A. Poteet, secretary 

 of the Southern Pacific Company, in a letter dated July 21, 1896. The 

 statement is as follows : 



That it was not considered that the circumstances would justify the application 

 of the transcontinental basis of rates to Denver and common points without making 



1 Ibid., p. 12. 



'Inter-State Commerce Commission Reports, pp. 41-43, 189s; pp. 55-61, 1900; 101 Fed. 779. 

 The appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed by stipulation, November 1901 (46 L. Ed. 1264); Parsons, 

 Heart 0} the Railroad Problem, p. 92. 



