other according to distance, and the station particularly selected on the New Orleans, Cincinnati & Texas Pacific Railway is Meridian. Another question made in the case of each carrier is of the hauling of uncompressed cotton to New Orleans in box cars instead of hauling it on flat cars. No objection seems to be made by the complainant to the difference allowed by the Illinois Central Railroad Company in the rates between compressed and uncompressed cotton to New Orleans, which is usually 25 cents per bale. But the complainant insists that the difference made by the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Company of 65 cents per bale between compressed and uncompressed cotton carried from Meridian, Mississippi, to New Orleans, is entirely too great. The relative reasonableness and justness of cotton rates from certain points in Mississippi and Tennessee to New Orleans. The Board of Trade of the city of Meridian was allowed to intervene as a party in the case made by the petitioner against the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Company. The main question involved in these cases is one of the most important that has yet been brought before us in its practical bearings upon the movement of agricultural products, and the other and lesser questions are such as are very vital to shippers as well as carriers. To some extent it becomes necessary that the findings of fact made by the Commission in these two cases should be separate, although as to the main question, and the hauling of uncompressed cotton on flat or in box cars to New Orleans, they are in substantial effect much the same. In the case against the Illinois Central Railroad Company, from the evidence adduced, we find the material facts to be as follows: The complainant is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Louisiana, composed of merchants, traders, etc., dealing in cotton. The Illinois Central Railroad Company is a corporation created by the laws of the State of Illinois, and operates under lease the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Railroad between East Cairo and New Orleans through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and also the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad between Parsons, Jackson, and Durant, Mississippi, and the Canton, Aberdeen & Nashville Railroad. All of this portion of its system of roads is known as the Southern Division of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The table below shows the comparative rates per bale on cotton from stations on the Southern Division of the Illinois Central Railroad Company to New Orleans, and the Illinois Central's proportion to Cairo on through shipments to eastern points: Miles. Rate per bale I. C. proportion to Cairo of through rate to Eastern points. The following table shows the distances from the principal stations on the Southern Division of the Illinois Central Railroad to New Orleans and Cairo, respectively: ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD, SOUTHERN DIVISION. Statement showing all Stations on Southern Division, Illinois Central Railroad, with Distances from Cairo, Ill., and New Orleans, La.; also Junction Stations and Names of Connecting Roads. The rates of the defendant, the Illinois Central Railroad Company, from interior points to New Orleans are much about the same as those of other southern roads for similar distances and upon freight transported under substantially similar circumstances and conditions. To a considerable extent they are made to meet the competition of rail and water lines operated east and west crossing this road at junction points and reaching the Mississippi river; the competition of that river itself at several points, as also the Yazoo river; and this is also true of the rates made by it on shipments of cotton over its line via Cairo, east, to northern and eastern mills, markets, and Atlantic ports. The rate on cotton from Cairo to Boston and Lowell, and points taking same rates, is 37 cents per hundred pounds; to New York and New York points, 32 cents per hundred pounds; to Philadelphia and Philadelphia points, 30 cents per hundred pounds. The percentages of this rate are divided between the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the eastern lines, according to whether the freight leaves the Illinois Central at Effingham or at Mattoon, or by the different lines named below, in the proportion stated in this table. Rates on Cotton from Cairo. Where eastern distance is not given the line is operated via two or more railroads. |