AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS 205 



not likely to impose on such an industry and thus provoke 

 a test of strength. 



But little less tortuous has been the history of the pre- 

 cooling and pre-icing case. In order to escape part of the 

 heavy refrigeration charges ($62.50 a car to Chicago, $75 

 to New York) of the carriers and also to improve the re- 

 frigeration methods the shippers began, about 1908, the 

 practice of pre-cooling. That is, the fruit was thoroughly 

 chilled before it was loaded on the cars. Also the bunkers 

 were filled with ice by the shippers and the carriers were 

 ordered not to re-ice in transit, while formerly the initial 

 icing and the necessary re-icings had been furnished by 

 the car companies.* Hence the railroads performed no 

 service for the shippers except to furnish the cars and haul 

 the freight. These two items, so the shippers contended, 

 were part of the transportation service covered by the reg- 

 ular freight tariffs, and no charge whatever for refrigera- 

 tion services was justifiable, as the shippers had furnished 

 all of the refrigeration themselves. But the railroads in- 

 sisted on charging an arbitrary rate of $30 per car on ship- 

 ments that had been pre-cooled and pre-iced by the shippers. 

 It was from this charge of $30 a car that the shippers 

 sought relief through the courts. 



As soon as the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered 

 the railroads not to charge more than $7.50 a car on pre- 

 cooled and pre-iced shipments, the carriers revoked the 

 right of the shippers to pre-cool and pre-ice. This case 

 also was twice before the commission, twice before the 

 Cortimerce Court, and it was finally decided, in January, 

 1914, by the Supreme Court of the United States both 

 that the shippers had the right to pre-cool and pre-ice and 



*A11 of the refrigeration business of the Southern Pacific and Salt 

 Lake Companies is handled by the California Fruit Express Co.; that 

 of the Santa Fe system, by the Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch Co. 

 Both of these companies are completely controlled by the railroads. 



