Show THE OCTOPUS Southern Pacific Playing a Freeze Out Game on Utah Points SAN FRANCISCO Jan HThe Chronicle says The Southern Pacific company is engaged in an L interesting game of zece UUI wnu UIUI Ul n 1 < LI11 connections the bone of contention in which is the freight traffic of Utah I The squabble between the Southern Pacific company on the one side and the transcontinental lines running into Utah from the east on the other has reached such a stage that all the ingenuity in-genuity of the traffic officials of the Southern Pacific company has been exerted in an effort to win the traffic fight Thanks to a strategic move which evolved from the clear understanding under-standing of Vice President J C Stubbs the Southern Pacific company has succeeded in accomplishing its object ob-ject quite successfully but the means employed which have up to the present pres-ent time been kept carefully concealed from the traffic officials on the eastern lines promise to provoke a merry war and all kinds of strife between the contending con-tending lines I The Southern Pacific company and I the other lines doing business in Utah I were brought to loggerheads a few I months ago when the lines heading from the east put into effect a reduced I tariff from eastern points into Utah I The Southern Pacific company wishing wish-ing to see the business come from San I Francisco thereupon took the view that it was entitled to make its rates from San Francisco to Utah proportionately propor-tionately less than the rates from the Missouri river to Utah a is the mileage mile-age from San Francisco less than the mileage from the river A tariff calculated cal-culated on this basis was issued by the Southern Pacific company but the companys connections in Utah refused to join in these rates This compelled the Southern Pacific to withdraw the objectionable tariff and the company put in a tariff to Ogden the terminus of its line in Utah which contained rates sufficiently low to enable San Francisco merchants to pay an additional addi-tional local rate from Oglen to other points in the state and still compete with eastern jobbers This state of things continued until recently when the Southern Pacific issued a notice tariff cancelling its Ogden This however was only a strategic move on the part of the Southern Pacific Pa-cific For weeks past the traffic department de-partment has been engaged in making special rates covering all commodities I since there has been a dispute in rates I is not the custom for railroad companies com-panies to kEep their competitors advised ad-vised as to special rates that may be issued from time to time and the lines doing business in Utah from the east have thus been kept completely in the dark as to the competition they had to meet from the Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific has been slashing slash-ing rates in the most vigorous manner imaginable and the eastern lines have been maintaining their tariff rates under un-der the supposition that the Southern Pacific had resumed the rates contained con-tained in the joint tariff in vogue before be-fore the trouble began last fall This bit of enterprise has enabled the Southern Pacific to increase its business busi-ness into Utah to the disadvantage of the eastern lines and the eastern lines it is said have become suddenly wrathy at the discovery of this fact |