pounds, which, upon the quantity of sugar so bought and shipped, amounted to $500.

The prayer in this case is also, in substance, that the respondents be required to accept and transport freight to Humboldt from San Francisco at the same rate for which it is transported to Kansas City and other Missouri river points, and also to refund the overcharge.

In the third case the complaint is that the respondents, the Central Pacific Railroad Company, the Southern Pacific. Company, lessee of the Central Pacific Railroad, the Union Pacific Railway Company, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, and the Receivers of the latter company, operate a through line between San Francisco, Cal., and Humboldt, Kans.; that Junction City is a point on the Union Pacific Railway 150 miles west of Kansas City, and is also the terminal point of the Junction City branch of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, and 125 miles northwest of Humboldt, Kans.; that in the year 1889 the complainants bought one car-load of sugar in San Francisco, and the same was shipped over the lines of the respondent railways, and came, or should have come, over the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway from Junction City; that the respondent railway companies refused to receive and transport such freight to Humboldt for less than 85 cents per hundred pounds, arrived at by charging the rate to Kansas City of 65 cents per hundred pounds, and the local rate from Kansas City to Humboldt of 20 cents per hundred pounds; that the distance from Junction City to Humboldt is less than the distance from Junction City to Kansas City.

The complainants also charge the same discrimination in this case as in the others, and also ask that the respondents may be required to accept and transport freight directly to Humboldt at the same rate that is charged to Kansas City and other Missouri river points, and to refund to the petitioners an overcharge of $50.

The several respondent railway companies answered the complaints separately, but it is not material to set forth their answers in detail. The facts of the several shipments of

sugar set forth in the complaints, and the rates charged for their transportation, are not denied.

The Southern Pacific Company the initial carrier from San Francisco, answers that it billed the sugar through from San Francisco to Kansas City in order to give the consignee the low rate of 65 cents per hundred pounds, being the rate in effect at the time, and that it received as its proportion of the through rate in each case as follows: In the first case, a rate of 36 cents per hundred pounds, San Francisco to El Paso, Texas; in the second case, a rate of 15.83 cents per hundred pounds, San Francisco to Mojave; in the third case, a rate of 32.6 per hundred pounds, San Francisco to Ogden, and collected such charges from the receiving road in each case; and that it did not charge or collect more than its proportion of the Kansas City rates.

The answers of the other respondents generally set forth that Humboldt, Kansas, is not an intermediate point on their respective lines, consequently is not entitled to lower rates than those which have been applied; that it is reached only. by the use of separate lines from a junction or terminal station on the lines of the respective respondents, and that such separate lines are justly entitled to their local charge from such junction or terminal stations, and that the respondents have no interest in and receive no benefit from the local charge of such separate lines.

The answers also set forth that the low rates between San Francisco and Kansas City and other Missouri river points are forced upon them by the competition of sailing vessels between San Francisco and New York; that if the railway companies did not make the low rates between San Francisco and the Missouri river the sugar would be shipped in sailing vessels via Cape Horn to New York, and distributed in the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys, instead of being refined at San Francisco and distributed thence by or eia lines operated by the respondents to the same points; that the circumstances and conditions covering the shipment of sugar to Humboldt, Kan., are substantially dissimilar to the circumstances and conditions covering the shipment of sugar from San Francisco to Kansas City, in that the aforesaid

competition is greater and more serious at Kansas City than at Humboldt; that the respondents receive the full benefit of lower rates to Kansas City, and that the additional charge to Humboldt above the charge to Kansas City is justified by the difference in circumstances and conditions affecting Kansas City and Humboldt respectively.

The material facts found in this case are as follows:

The shipments of the car-loads of sugar in the first case were over the following lines and for the following distances: The Southern Pacific Company, San Francisco to El Paso, Tex., 1,286 miles; the Texas & Pacific Railway to Fort Worth, Tex., 616 miles; the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway to Nevada, Mo., 439 miles; the Missouri Pacific Railway to Kansas City, Mo., 93 miles; the Missouri Pacific Railway to Moody, Kan., about 110 miles; the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway to Humboldt, Kansas, about 24 miles; total distance, 2,568 miles.

The shipment over this route from the nearest junction point to Humboldt would make a total distance of 2,307 miles.

In the second case the route and distances are as follows: The Southern Pacific Company, San Francisco to Mojave, Cal., 382 miles; the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad to Albuquerque, N. M., 815 miles; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to Kansas City, or Argentine Transfer Station, near Kansas City, 919 miles; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Southern Kansas division, from Kansas City, via Ottawa, to Humboldt, 118 miles; total distance, 2,234 miles. The shipment direct to Humboldt from nearest junction point on this route would be 2,118 miles.

In the third case the route and distances are as follows: The Southern Pacific Company, San Francisco to Ogden, 895 miles; the Union Pacific Railway to Kansas City, 1,261 miles; the Missouri Pacific Railway to Moody, Kan., 110 miles; the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway to Humboldt, about 24 miles; total distance, 2,290 miles.

The direct shipment to Humboldt from nearest junction point on this route would be 2,137 miles.

The rate by all these routes from San Francisco to Kansas

City is the same, being 65 cents per hundred pounds, and is also the same from San Francisco to Humboldt, being 85 cents per hundred pounds, made by a combination of the through rate from San Francisco to Kansas City and the local of 20 cents per hundred pounds to Humboldt. The rates by the direct routes from San Francisco to Humboldt, consisting of the through rate to the junction point nearest to Humboldt on the through line, added to the local rate in force from the junction point to Humboldt, would be higher than the combination of the through rate to Kansas City with the local added from that point.

In some instances the local rate on shipments from Humboldt to another place, added to the rate to Humboldt is shown to be five cents per hundred pounds in excess of the direct local rate from the Missouri river to the same place, added to the through Missouri river rate, giving in such cases apparently an advantage to dealers at Kansas City. This is claimed to be, and to some extent is, counterbalanced by quicker delivery to customers from Humboldt, and lower expenses for carrying on business at Humboldt than at Kansas City.

Complainants sell sugar within a radius of fifty miles of Humboldt. The limits of the trading territory of the complainants are 100 miles north of Humboldt, 50 miles south, 25 miles east and 80 to 90 miles west. Complainants have competitors at Emporia, Topeka, Wichita and Fort Scott, but their principal competitors are at Missouri river points, St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth and Kansas City.

The quantity of sugar consumed annually in the United States is nearly 1,200,000 tons. The sugar carried eastward from San Francisco by the respondents is produced in the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, and a small proportion, about 2,000 tons, in Central America. It is imported in a raw state to San Francisco, and there refined. The importation at San Francisco amounts to about 140,000 tons annually; about 65,000 tons find market on the Pacific slope. A small part of the remaining 75,000 tons is exported, but the bulk goes to the Missouri river and that territory.

There are two refineries in San Francisco in active opera

tion, the California and the American; they each refine about 5,000 barrels per day. The refining of sugar on the Pacific coast began about seven years ago, and about six million dollars are invested in plants for that purpose. The importation and the amount refined have constantly increased during that time, but no corresponding reduction in price has followed.

Under treaty stipulations there is no duty on raw sugar brought to San Francisco from the Sandwich Islands; refined sugar does not come in free of duty. The period of sugar harvest in the Islands is from January to July.

The sugar taken east from San Francisco is mostly granulated. The price of granulated sugar at San Francisco is usually lower than the same grade of sugar at the Atlantic seaboard. Sugar from New Orleans costs at times 13 cents less per hundred pounds on the Missouri river than sugar from San Francisco.

The quantity of sugar that goes from San Francisco to Missouri river points is estimated to be as follows: About fifteen to sixteen thousand barrels per month to Kansas City, thirteen to fourteen thousand barrels per month to St. Joseph, and the remainder to the other points, such as Omaha, Leavenworth and Atchison. The Missouri river valley, or the territory that is regarded as tributary to the Missouri river points, is the region west of the Missouri river to the Nebraska and Kansas State lines, and in Dakota and Wyoming east of the Rocky mountains where the water flows east, and east of the Missouri river to a distance of eighty to one hundred miles. Sioux City is regarded as a Missouri river point.

The Missouri river common points draw their sugar supply from Louisiana, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco since shipments began from that point. The competition from the different points from which the supply is received has reduced the price on the Missouri river. Competition exists among all the wholesale dealers at the various distributing points in the Missouri river territory. Atchison, Leavenworth and St. Joseph are competitive for the Kansas trade with Kansas City; in southern Nebraska the