Vol. LXVIII No. 4007. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 14, 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE 
COMMISSION. 
ITS POWERS AND JURISDICTION 
How High Rates Are Corrected. 
Very few farmers appear to under¬ 
stand the work done by the Inter- 
State Commerce Commission, or how 
to avail themselves of any help it 
may give them. It is our privilege 
to obtain facts about the Commission 
and many of the cases it has inves¬ 
tigated. We shall put these facts be¬ 
fore our readers in a series of arti¬ 
cles, so as to show some of the rela¬ 
tions between shippers and common 
carriers. Let us first understand just 
what the Commission is supposed to 
do. It lias no jurisdiction in loss or 
damage cases, but simply settles rate 
questions. Under the present law the 
carriers establish for themselves such 
rates as they deem proper. The Com¬ 
mission does not make the rates in 
the first place, but can review them 
on formal complaint of some shipper 
who thinks he has been unjustly 
treated. When such complaint is 
made the Commission investigates 
it. In many cases the railroad or 
other carrier admits that the rate 
was unreasonable, asks the privilege 
of filing a new rate and offers to re¬ 
fund part of the charge. They, no 
doubt, realize in such cases that if 
they were to make a contest the 
Commission might cut the rate 
lower still. Where they refuse to re¬ 
fund or make a lower rate a formal 
complaint is made and a “hearing” is 
ordered, where both shipper and car¬ 
rier submit their arguments. The 
Commission then decides which rate 
is reasonable. 'We have no doubt 
that many of our readers have been 
at times unjustly treated in express 
or freight rates. Our desire is to 
show them how to obtain justice. We 
'shall be glad to give definite informa¬ 
tion about proceeding with complaints 
or anything else about the Commis¬ 
sion work that is available. The fol¬ 
lowing cases actually occurred: 
Excessive Freight Rate on a Car 
of Fertilizer. 
April, 1908, a farmer of Cape May 
County, N. J., purchased a car of fer¬ 
tilizer in Philadelphia. The freight 
charges were billed as follows: One 
car, 30,000 pounds, at $2.40 per ton, 
$36.00. This is the class rate between 
these two points via the P. & R. 
R- R., distance 70 miles. There was 
a class rate of 85 cents per ton in ef¬ 
fect a year previous to this movement, 
which had been cancelled. The 
farmer remembered the freight rate 
° n hi’s previous year’s purchase and 
protested against the larger rate. He 
called the attention of the Commis¬ 
sion to the excessive rate, and as a 
result of the correspondence, the car- 
i ier restored the former rate, and now 
advs authority from the Commission 
to refund down to the new rate as 
follows: One car, 30,000 pounds, 85 
cents per ton, $12.75. Refund, $23.25. 
Plere was a case where the rail¬ 
road had advanced their rates beyond 
what was reasonable If this farmer 
had not remembered the old rate and 
complained to the Commission, there 
would have been no redress for him. 
The old rate was “reasonable,” and 
rather than face a hearing where all 
the facts would be brought out, the 
railroad offered to refund $23.25 of 
the charges on this car. 
California Asparagus by Express. 
In March, 1909, two carloads of as¬ 
paragus were sent from California to 
Xew York by express. Each car con¬ 
tained 640 crates, and the bill was 
rendered as follows: 
640 crates, 18,274 pounds (as 
20,000) at $3.50. $700.00 
640 crates, 18,400 pounds (as 
20,000) at $3.50. 700.00 
Refrigeration, two cars at $00.. 120.00 
$1,520.00 
You will see that they charged for 
full cars or 20,000 pounds, though the 
weight in the two cars fell short over 
3,000 pounds. In this case the ex¬ 
press company could not furnish reg¬ 
ular cars that would hold 20,000 
pounds, but offered compartment cars 
holding only 640 crates. On com¬ 
plaint the company offered a new rate 
for actual weight and corrected the 
bill. 
18,274 pounds at $3.50. $639.50 
18,400 pounds at $3.50. 644.00 
Icing . 120.00 
$1,403.50 
They offered to refund $116.41. 
If the asparagus had been sent by 
freight the cost would be $1.25 per 
per hundred, with icing about the 
same, but of course the time in tran¬ 
sit is longer. The express company 
took $825.16 above the cost of freight 
for delivering the two cars. While the 
•shipper will get his rebate of $116.41, 
the chances are that the express com¬ 
pany will make more than he did out 
of the asparagus. 
“Pulling the Wool.” 
A carload of wool, weighing 20,000 
pounds, was hauled over the A., T. & 
S. R. R. R., from Yesso, New Mex¬ 
ico, to Roswell, New Mexico. This 
case came before the Commission be¬ 
cause the haul was within a Terri¬ 
tory. Had it been inside a State the 
Commission could not have touched 
it. The two points are reached over 
two sides of a triangle of railroad— 
the distance across country between 
them being about 70 miles . There 
was no through rate posted between 
the two points, so mileage rates were 
made, as follows: 
Yesso to Toxico. 64 miles, at 45o. $90.00 
Tcxieo to Roswell, 88 miles, at 62c. 124.00 
Total .$214.00 
Here was a charge of over 10 cents 
a pound for hauling the wool 152 
