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 
ear 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 
