tions to all points named in current Southeastern and Southwestern Tariffs, and Supplements thereto, (except to Nashville, Tenn., and Clarksville, Tenn.), are as follows:" Below appear the names of a large number of points from which agents are directed to make through rates by adding to rates from Louisville, or from Evansville, a certain number of cents per hundred pounds, or per barrel of flour, as the case may be; for example, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, 114 miles south of Louisville, the directions are to add to the Louisville rate six cents per hundred on flour in sacks, and sixteen cents per barrel on flour in barrels; from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, 84 miles south of Evansville, add to the Evansville rate four cents per hundred, or twelve cents per barrel. Over thirty milling points are thus treated. These rates are somewhat more favorable than they have been at times; nevertheless their present adjustment affords a vivid illustration of the tendencies of the system in the repression of local industries. The same state of things exists in reference to other commodities, and probably with greater force; or example, the charge on any article of manufacture at points like Trenton, a hundred miles south of Evansville, to points in the more southern States, would be considerably greater than the charge from Evansville or Henderson; and so in respect to all points in Kentucky and Tennessee south of the terminals or basing points, respectively. And so again the charge on flour from Bagdad, Kentucky, 52 miles east of Louisville, to Newport News, is 27 cents per 100 lbs. while the rate from Louisville to Newport News is only 18 cents per 100 lbs. In this case the rate from Louisville and from Lexington to Newport News is the same, while the Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. charges 9 cents per hundred pounds additional for the haul of 42 miles from Bagdad to Lexington. So in respect to rates combined in the other direction. From Louisville to Birmingham the rate on flour is 40 cents per barrel; to Warrior, 24 miles north of Birmingham, the rate is made by the addition of 22 cents local from Birmingham to Warrior to the Birmingham rate in car-loads, and 24 cents if less than car-loads, thus making the rate to Warrior more than 50 per cent. higher than the rate to Birmingham. The rate on oil to Cullman's, 54 miles north of Birmingham, is made by the addition of 18 cents to the Decatur and the Birmingham rate, the latter being 37 cents from Cincinnati, while the rate to Cullman's is 55 cents. The rate on oil from Cincinnati to Montgomery is 37 cents, and to Mobile 24, while the rate to Greenville, 44 miles south of Montgomery, is 58. These figures are taken from the oil tariff of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company taking effect January 1, 1889. Illustrations of this character might be extended without limit. They are of the precise nature of the cases which the Commission had in mind when it said, in disposing of the original Louisville and Nashville petition, that "exceptions can be and ought to be made less numerous than they have been hitherto, and when exceptions are admitted the charges should be less disproportionate." In advising the reduction of the number of exceptions to the statutory rule, the Commission does not mean that particular articles should be excepted from the customary rates at particular points or upon special considerations, but that the general system of making the rates at points like those which have been referred to, and which are actual cases of complaint received by the Commission, should be re-constructed. The principal traffic at the intermediate points will be carried on at local rates from the accustomed points of supply in the immediate vicinity, and while some slight detriment may occur to the business of distribution from interior points, nevertheless the intention of the law can clearly be seen to be to give the citizens at local points the option of dealing with far-distant markets upon even terms with citizens situated at points that have been heretofore accustomed to control the trade of large surrounding districts, instead of upon terms which operate to prevent them from doing so. This being the purpose and policy of the law, it is not proper for the Commission, or for the carriers, to stand in its way. In the opinion of the Commission, rates like those mentioned above, to Cullman's and to Warrior, or like the rates there is considerable difficulty in assuming such to be the fact; if so it arises from custom and oral instruction, rather than from any explicit orders shown to have been issued. The tariffs themselves contain no intimation whatever thatany reductions from the tariff rates are obtainable through combination or otherwise; such tariff's posted in the stations and placed in the hands of station agents would apparently authorize the collection of the charges published. Upon the attention of the officials of the Company being called to this. point a circular was produced, dated October 2, 1885, instructing agents at Cincinnati, Louisville, Evansville, Owensboro, Henderson and East St. Louis, to make rates to all local stations south of Nashville by taking the rates to Nashville, Decatur, Birmingham, Calera, Montgomery, Mobile or Pensacola, and adding the rates from Nashville, Birmingham, etc., to local stations whenever the total rate so arrived at is less than the tariff rate from inițial point to said local station. No circular is produced authorizing agents at any other points to make rates in this manner and although it is not believed that such rates are customarily made otherwise than in conformity with the method testified to by the Company's officials, nevertheless, in the absence of explicit instructions there is obviously a door open for a great amount. of imposition upon the public. This Company has been at considerable pains to obtain information from its station agents respecting the extent to which its published tariffs are consulted by their patrons. With very few exceptions the agents unite in saying that the posting of the rates is useless, that their patrons are accustomed to call upon them for information respecting each shipment and to accept the figures furnished without question, and that they never observe them examining the posted schedules. The collection of this evidence was entirely unnecessary. In view of the fact that the schedules published for posting confessedly do not give the rates which would actually be charged in a very great number of instances, and in view of the double classification universally employed in shipments to basing points and thence to local points, in both directions, it is not at all surprising that the public fail. to consult the tariffs; there would apparently be no use in. their doing so, as any information which they might gather from schedules so prepared would be of no practical value. What the custom of the public might be in case the published schedules conformed to the requirements of the law is not shown by any experience at the stations of this road. It is proper to add, however, that the requirement for publication found in the law is based upon many other considerations besides that of affording information to local shippers. The necessity of establishing and maintaining a steady, uniform, open tariff rate is of paramount importance, in view of the evils which the Act to regulate commerce attempts to correct; and obviously the first and most efficient method of regulation is the requirement of constant publicity. That this requirement has proved of no practical value upon the line of the carrier now in question does not arise from the fault of the law, but from the fact that the law has been persistently disobeyed; whether the requirement is, or is not, a proper one, is a subject upon which it would be improper for the Commission to enter; arguments excusing violation of the law upon the theory that its provisions are useless, can not be entertained. That question is not submitted to the discretion of the Commission, or of carriers. The requirement of the law is obvious and plain; there is no physical impossibility in constructing classifications and rates which shall conform thereto; the duty of the Commission is clear, and requires it to insist upon such classifications and schedules being put in operation by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company.* Coming, in the second place, to the question of whether the tariffs of the Louisville & Nashville are in conformity *Since the above opinion was prepared the following letter has been received from the Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co., the new tariffs referred to were received by the Commission on March 28; so far as there has been opportunity for their examination they appear to substantially meet the criticisms above made, and to conform to the requirements of Section 6 of the Statute: with the requirements of section four of the Act to regulate commerce, there is no present occasion for a general discussion of the meaning of this section; the views of the ComLOUISVILLE, KY., March 25, 1889. C. C. MCCAIN, Esq.. DEAR SIR: Auditor Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C. I send you by express to-day a copy of this company's new local freight tariff fixing the rate for transportation of freight between all stations on the lines of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (owned, leased and operated lines), South & North Alabama Railroad, Birmingham Mineral Railroad, Owensboro & Nashville Railway, Nashville, Florence & Sheffield Railway, and Pensacola & Atlantic Railroad. Several months were spent in the preparation of this new tariff for the purpose of properly adjusting the company's local rates to the classification of the Southern Railway & Steamship Association. It was desired to have the tariff effective on January 1, 1889, and blank forms were printed accordingly with that date. It was found impossible, however, to have the tariffs properly prepared and in the hands of agents and the public so as to be effective on January 1, and it was therefore made effective between all stations on January 15, 1889 Since that date, therefore, the local classification of the L. & N. R. R. Company has been the Southern Railway & Steamship Association classification, with exceptions as noted. Special efforts were made to adopt the S. R. & S. S. A. classification entire and the exceptions that have been made, few in number, are of two kinds : 1st. Articles for which the S. R. & S. S. A. classification provides one class while the local classification provides another, as follows: Articles. Class. S. R. & S. S. L. & N. Agricultural implements, C. L..... |