Railroads: Rates and RegulationsRipley, William Zebina
History
Railroads: Rates and Regulations
Ripley, William Zebina
Railroads -- Freight -- Rates -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
"For example, mirrors over five feet in length are classified
double first class in the official classification, while show
cases, set up, take three times first. The natural result
of this difference in classification has been to shut out
competition of eastern dealers in these articles entirely in
Western Classification territory."
Only in a customs tariff of the United States would one expect to find
any such complexity as is discoverable in railway documents of this
sort.
The mere interpretation of such classification rules is often
difficult; especially with reference to the mode of packing. Suppose a
tariff provides a certain rate on stamped metal ware in boxes, barrels
or crates and, furthermore, fixes the charge fifty per cent, higher for
shipment in bales, bags or bundles. If the consignment is encased in
corrugated straw-board, which of the two rates applies? The difference
in rates being so great, it becomes quite an item on a shipment of
fifteen carloads from Buffalo to the Pacific coast.[332] Or it may be
a question as to whether a crate for Colorado cantaloupes is actually
of such dimensions as to come in under a specially favorable commodity
rate.[333]
The growing diversification of manufactures and trade is, of course,
responsible for all three of the developments above indicated. Not only
the increasing refinement of commerce, but the technical nomenclature
or trade jargon, necessary for the specific and accurate description
of so many thousands of articles, have conspired to render these
documents extremely cumbersome in the absence of a general revision and
simplification. It is but natural that one item after another should
be added, each bearing a particular name or being classified upon
some new basis. A striking example of this increase of complexity was
afforded by the cotton goods schedule in the Southern Classification.
By 1900 there were upwards of thirty different names under which cotton
cloth might be shipped. Great complaint was occasioned, as well as
the possibility of fraud, by underclassification, etc. Most of these
thirty names did not represent different values of goods, but in
many instances were merely trade-marks of particular manufacturers.
At the urgent request of the shippers this complicated schedule was
superseded in 1900 by one comprehensive title of "cotton goods in the
piece" irrespective of color, particular method of weaving or other
subordinate details.
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