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Show IMPORTANT DECISION Commission Holds That State Rates Do Not Fix Interstate RatCH. WAHIILXGTON. July 1.1. In an opinion handed down today for the Interstate Commerce commission by Commissioner Harlan, the rule Is laid down that whllo a rate fixed by State statutes or a State 1 commission "is naturally and properly entitled en-titled to respectful consideration, It has no greater sanctity, as applied to Inter-fjtate Inter-fjtate traffic, than a rate established by a railroad company; and this commission would not hesitate upon proper evidence that a rate fo established would be unjust ellher to a carrier or lo a. shipper lo refuse re-fuse it aa a basis for fixing an interstate rate." The opinion In which the foregoing announcement an-nouncement was made in the case of tho Hope Cotton Oil company against the Texas & Pacific Railroad company and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway company. The complaint alleged al-leged that a. Joint through rate of 07 cents per hundred pounds on cotton seed, in carloads, charged by defendants from points north of Shreveport via Texarkana lo Hope. Ark., was unreasonable and discriminatory, dis-criminatory, nnd that seventeen and five-tenths five-tenths cents per hundred poundd would bo a. fair rate. After the complaint was filed Hie defendants put Into effect a joint through rate, of 30 cents per hundred pounds. The commission holds that the 30-eont rate Is unreasonable and that It should not exceed 17 n-10 cents, which ia the sum of the local rates. The carriers are ordered to put the reduced rate In force on or before August Au-gust 1. |