visions of the "Act to regulate commerce," as proposed in the Corliss bill, one of the bills now under consideration by your committee. It is also due to the Commission that the implication that it issued an impracticable order in the case should be removed by a correct statement of the facts being incorporated in the record.

Respectfully submitted.

MILWAUKEE, May 7, 1902.

E. P. BACON.

Hon. W. P. HEPBURN,

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 27, 1902.

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. SIR: The following organizations have indorsed House bill 8337, to amend the act to regulate commerce, and have adopted resolutions requesting the Senators and Representatives from their respective States and districts to give the same their active support, in addition to the organizations mentioned in the testimony given by me before your honorable committee on the 8th day of April last, making an aggregate of 94 organizations located in 29 different States.

NATIONAL AND STATE ORGANIZATIONS.

Indiana Grain Dealers' Association; Massachusetts State Board of Trade; National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry; National Association of Railway Commissioners; Southern Hardware Jobbers' Association; Utah Wool Growers' Association; Western South Dakota Stock Growers' Association.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS.

Colorado.-Lincoln County Cattle Growers' Association. Connecticut.-Waterbury Business Men's Association; New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

Georgia.-Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Illinois. Chicago, Merchants' Association of.

Indiana.-Indianapolis Furniture Manufacturers' Association.

Kansas. Kansas City Board of Trade.

Missouri.-St. Louis Millers' Club.

New Jersey.-Jersey City Board of Trade.

Ohio.-Columbus Board of Trade; Cleveland Retail Coal Dealers'

Association.

Pennsylvania.--Philadelphia Commercial Exchange.
Wisconsin. Muscoda Dairy Board.

Very respectfully,

EDWARD P. BACON,

Chairman Executive Committee Interstate Commerce Law Convention.

STATEMENT OF T. W. TOMLINSON.

Hon. WILLIAM P. HEPBURN,

APRIL 26, 1902.

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: At the hearing before your honorable committee on the Corliss bill the statement was made by the president of the New York Cotton Exchange to the effect that it made no real difference to the cotton raisers whether the rate charged by the railroads was high or low. While this statement was doubtless an inadvertence on the part of the gentleman who made it, yet the live-stock industry can not permit it to remain unchallenged. The producers of the country are vitally interested in the rates paid by them or the consumer for the marketing of the products of the producers, and it is our honest belief that the great question of the future as to railroad rates will not be on the subject of discriminating or preferential rates, but will be as to reasonable rates per se.

Will you kindly have this letter appear as a matter of record, and oblige,

Yours, respectfully,

T. W. TOMLINSON, Railroad Representative.

CAMDEN, N. J., March 3, 1902.

Probably there is no other subject that the American people are more interested in than a proper and agreeable solution of the conflicting and unfavorable railroad interests that seem to keep the minds of the American people in an unrestful condition. The basis or cause of most of this trouble is the result of the railroads keeping incompetent men in control of the classification committees. It is this class of men who keeps the minds of the American people in a boiling condition. In case a person is not familiar with the duty of these men, I would state they are appointed by the different railroads. Each road appoints a man to represent its interests. This committee is the controlling power of transportation, and regulates freights and classifies the different merchandise of the country. The powers and workings of this committee seem to have been overlooked both by the Government and the controlling influences of the railroads. The cause of the present remarks on the railroad situation of the country is based on the experience I am having in my business, the results of the operations of the classification committee of the roads east of Chicago, of which G. E. Gill, 143 Liberty street, New York, is chairman.

The goods I manufacture are cone tubes for winding yarn on and paper cop tubes used in spindle upon which the yarn is spun. Cone tubes are packed in dry goods cases, and cop tubes are small and are shipped in bags, the same as wool, yarns, coffee, beans, and similar articles. The railroads have been carrying these goods for at least fifty years in bags, and I do not believe there is a record held by any of the railroads where claims have been made for damages for goods in transit. The history of cop tubes shipments is without a superior record. The committee of which Mr. Gill is chairman decided to make

a new ruling in the case of cop tubes, and decided to change the mode of shipment, and ordered cop tubes to be shipped in cases, adding a cost of at least 2 cents per pound to the goods, which the business can not afford.

I have taken the position that the different goods shipped in bags were subject to the same conditions, namely, bad sewing, bad burlaps, holes, etc., and that no justifiable reason existed for selecting the tube business and placing an unjust burden on same. The question of shipping goods in bags should be dealt with as a whole, and no discrimination made.

Cone tubes packed in cases would weigh probably 15 per cent more than what cotton yarns would in equal space, and the freight on cone tubes is 100 per cent more than on yarn. In a bag of cop tubes the weight would be about 25 per cent less than in a bag of wool same size, showing unjust discrimination in favor of wool of about 57 per cent, so that the industry is unjustly and heavily taxed. A car full of paper cones nested will hold 35,000 to 40,000 pounds. There is no other article shipped that is so heavily discriminated against and freights so high. The cause probably had its origination in the fact that two roads only enter Camden, N. J.-the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad. I favored the Reading more than the Pennsylvania road. I was informed by a party in New England that the cause of the present trouble originated with the Pennsylvania road in making the ruling complained of. I was called upon by a representative of the Pennsylvania road and requested to ship goods by this road, but have dealt with both roads. The Reading was forced to refuse to accept my goods for shipment. The Pennsylvania road permitted me to ship goods over their road for nearly sixty days after the Reading was forced to refuse my goods.

During this period I shipped more or less goods over the Reading, and I was called upon by one of the agents of the Pennsylvania Railroad in reference to this fact. I had shipping instructions to ship via New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to Utica, and in that section I was given the option by the Pennsylvania Railroad to ship by their road to these points or the goods would not be received. That I did this is a matter of record, as the changed shipments and dates show. The facts can be sworn to. I did not permit myself to be influenced against shipping over the Reading road, and the result was that my goods were finally refused by the Pennsylvania Railroad and all over the roads east of Chicago for shipment.

One of the causes of this trouble is that the roads have men who are capable of exercising superior intelligence over the others. This is a case which shows the necessity of laws being passed controlling the operations of the classification committee or a supervision of these men's acts. There should not be permitted any changes of classification of goods or increased rates unless there be a hearing of both sides. Established rates should not be changed unless sufficient reason is given that will meet the approval of the Interstate Commerce Committee when rates are once fixed.

The country can never look forward to any satisfactory legislation in managing or regulating the shipping interest unless the officials of the Government are placed in a position where the blunders that are produced from the results of the influences of competition can be utilized to the interest of the whole country. If the action of the classi

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fication committee is not submitted to reliable advice from counsel, it is only a question of time when these conditions will be recognized, and any man who is not familiar with the laws of the country will not be permitted to act in a manner that will keep the country in an unsettled condition. The room for reformation in this respect that will command the respect of the whole nation is great. If the pressure against the Government occasioned by the rulings of irresponsible men not properly guided legally is not removed by exercising the strictest intelligence, it will finally end in a general uprising that will place men in control of this Government that will take years to recover from the disastrous effects. The people will never give up or lose sight of an undertaking intended to remove a great wrong. What the interests of this nation demand in adjusting the differences between the railroad interests and the people is laws that can be utilized by the shipping interests of the nation in prosecuting claims and remove the Government from the responsibility of performing this duty.

So long as the responsibility of the prosecution of interstate-commerce laws rest upon the Government the railroads realize that the undertaking is too great to be carried out, and will keep up continuous discussions of these matters in order to divert the attention from the fundamental principles that will successfully control these matters. Where a railroad is caught in discriminating in freight charges there should be laws passed permitting the recovery of freights paid in excess of the lower rates paid by persons shipping the same class of goods on the railroads cutting rates secretly, instead of suing for damages and criminal prosecution. It is not necessary to remove these criminal laws. A successful law of this nature will soon weigh down most all the railroads with lawsuits. There is only one way that will successfully reveal the secret cutting of rates, and that will be through competing interest of the country, and laws must be enacted that can be utilized successfully by the great shipping interests of the nation. It will require this great power to counteract the power of the railroads. These two forces must be arraigned to meet each other in a contest and relieve the minds of the American people of the annoyances brought about by men connected with railroads and who ought to be removed.

There ought to be no trouble in harmonizing the greatest interests of the nation. What the railroads require at the present time is the class of men who can accomplish this. The men who are at the heads of the railroads ought to realize the facts that their present position is one of open defiance, and it is only a question of time when the present state of affairs will not be tolerated. This snapping of the fingers at the laws has no solid foundation, and the day will come when men's minds will not be continually diverted from the vital laws that are not very distant from their intelligence. Men who hold responsible positions in railroads ought to be men who are not continually arousing the shipping interests against the railroads. There will be no trouble in making laws that will revolutionize the present conditions that ought to be advantageous to both interests. Yours, truly,

WM. J. MCCAUSLAND.

CAMDEN, N. J., March 31, 1902.

There is nothing more sacred to all American citizens than the liberties that their forefathers shed their blood for. One of the greatest obligations that every American owes to his country is, when these rights are threatened, to strive and protect these liberties with the same spirit and determination as was instrumental in laying a foundation for this great Government. If it is essential to appeal to every member of Congress in order to reach a responsive patriotism in case laws prove unavailable, it should be resorted to. This is a duty. It has been my custom to ship a great many goods from Philadelphia via boat to different parts of the country and ignore the railroads of this city. Whether this has attracted the attention of the agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad or not I do not know. He called at my place of business during my absence for an explanation for not shipping over his line, and it was fully explained. One of the main reasons was that I could save from 10 to 12 cents per 100 pounds.

The subject of paper tubes had been taken up by the classification committee of the trunk lines, and it was decided that such goods should be shipped in crates or boxes. As the custom was to ship in bundles, with only a couple of strings to hold them together, this of course has undoubtedly caused the railroads annoyances. Paper tubes are used for mailing purposes, and making round boxes, and various other purposes, and are extremely bulky and light. Cop tubes are an entirely different branch, and are small, used on spinning spindles, and are shipped in sacks, like wool. The railroads have carried these goods for probably fifty years. I have shipped these goods over the Pennsylvania railroad constantly for over twenty-five years without ever having had to make a complaint of any kind for damage to goods in transit. Of course cop tubes are subject to the same conditions as coffee, peas, corn, and various other articles of this nature in case there are any holes, bad sewing, or bad burlaps.

I claim the railroads had no right to select my business alone and place heavy burdens on same. After stating these facts to one of the Pennsylvania Railroad officials who was responsible for the whole matter, he requested me to file application and he would forward same to G. H. Gill, chairman of the trunk lines freight agents, which I did. My goods were refused by the Pennsylvania Railroad in sacks the same as wool is shipped. I then shipped what goods I had to ship into interior points through New York State via the Reading Railroad.

The agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad called again at my place during my absence to find out how I was shipping my goods, and he was informed the Reading Railroad was receiving my goods. The next move was made against the Reading Railroad, which is not a member of the trunk lines classification committee. Complaint had been made that the Reading Railroad was receiving my goods in bags. The Reading Railroad informed me that they would have to refuse taking any more. The Reading Railroad sent a man over to my place and made inquiries, and stated that the goods I shipped were for New York State principally, and that the Pennsylvania Railroad had got the New York Central to refuse to accept my goods at Newberry, where the goods were turned over to the New York Central Railroad, and that they were shut off and could not forward any more.

The next move made was to interfere with my shipments east. I had been doing a heavy business with the Boston and Providence Steamship Company shipping goods east. The New Haven road