The Railroad Question: A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and remedies for their abusesLarrabee, William
History
The Railroad Question: A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and remedies for their abuses
Larrabee, William
Railroads; Railroads -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
"3. Carriers are not at liberty to classify property as a
basis of transportation rates and impose charges for its
carriage with exclusive regard to their own interests, but
they must respect the interests of those who may have
occasion to employ their services, and conform their charges
to the rules of relative equality and justice which the act
prescribes.
"4. Cost of service is an important element in fixing
transportation charges and entitled to fair consideration,
but is not alone controlling nor so applied in practice by
carriers, and the value of the service to the property
carried is an essential factor to be recognized in
connection with other considerations. The public interests
are not to be subordinated to those of carriers, and require
proper regard for the value of the service in the
apportionment of all charges upon traffic.
"5. A difference in rates upon car-loads and less than
car-loads of the same merchandise, between the same points
of carriage, so wide as to be destructive to competition
between large and small dealers, especially upon articles of
general and necessary use, and which, under existing
conditions of trade furnish a large volume of business to
carriers, is unjust and violates the provisions and
principles of the act.
"6. A difference in rate for a solid car-load of one kind of
freight from one consignor to one consignee, and a carload
quantity from the same point of shipment to the same
destination, consisting of like freight or freight of like
character, from more than one consignor to one consignee or
from one consignor to more than one consignee, is not
justified by the difference in cost of handling.
"7. Under the official classification the articles known in
trade as grocery articles are so classified as to
discriminate unjustly in rates between car-loads and less
than car-loads upon many articles, and a revision of the
classification and rates to correct unjust differences and
give these respective modes of shipment more relatively
reasonable rates is necessary and is so ordered."
The efforts which the commission has made to bring about a uniform
classification throughout the country are in the right direction, while
the results of its labor are not yet satisfactory.
In their fifth annual report, the Commissioners, after giving an account
of their efforts and the shuffling and double-dealing of the railroad
companies with them upon this matter of uniform classification, said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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