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Show RATES DISCUSSED I BYHAir I He Fires Some Hot Truths Into H the Camps of the Rail-roads. Rail-roads. SHOWS HOW SHIPPERS H ARE BEING HELD UP Letter Printed in Carson City News Is Commented Upon Here. ymM Attention has been called recently ' to the letter written to the Carson City News, under date of November 22, by Frank H. McCune.-of Spokane, Wash., in which tho freight rates' situation is handled without gloves, and officers of tho Commercial Club Traffic Bureau M comment especially upon the statements made in this letter of the manner in which the railroads of the country have woven a net about tho shippers and so surrounded themselves with a system of differentials, terminal rates, classifies- mmm tions, and other matters calculated to mmm entangle the unwary shipper who knows mmm nothing of tho ways that are dark and wWM tricks that vain of the railroad mag- mmm nates and keeps him in a sea of hot jH water whenever he attempts to obtain IH redress from the ills of high and. dis- jl criminative freight rates with which h MMm is surrounded. Although the letter applies especially WU to the freight rates situation in Ne- mm vada, it shows that the situation in the mmm sister state is not an exception to that in the country at large, and some par- mmm agraphs are worthy of quotation as mmm showing the situation with which tho mmm shippers are confronted. Ml Speaking of- the manner in which the railroads are organized, Mr. McCnno mmm calls attention to that known as tho mmm Continental Freight Bureau as follows: Mmm lower of Bureau. mmm It Is vested with power to Issue trar.s- IH continental freight schedules In the name mmm of Its agent, the Individual lines, mora- nmWM bers of the bureau concurring therein, and ruled and governed thereby. Hence mmm It Is clear that when an attack Is ai- rected against any of the Issues of this mmm bureau It does not mean a contest slm- IB ply against the line cited In the petition, HH but a battle against the entire member- HI ship as a unit. This transcontinental bureau issues Wmmm two kinds of tariffs. One set is a sched- ffH ule of class rates governed by a classln- IH cation; the other Is a special commodity IH tariff or a preferential tariff that dis- M criminates between articles, Industries, IflH mercantile establishments and localities. UH The former provides a uniform rate to 111 all on every article known to commerce. the latter forms commercial districts. 'ImmM carves out Jobbing zones, and creates or ! destroys cities according to the will of Its master. mmt For years, through this medium, tna mmm transcontinental lines have maintained mmm this system of preferential rates from a mmm vast region, extending eastward from the flH Missouri river to the Atlantic coast and Jmm to a fow cities and towns ln California mmm some forty or fifty In number, which are 9H called "California terminals." and tho M rates applying thereto "terminal rates. mM By design the Intermediate territory ilH through which tho traffic must pass to Wmt reach these terminal points was denied lHH tho benefit of such schedules. f!H Slightly Foxy. HM Another method of computing rates to Mil tho favored region was originated. Two KlU bases were used. One consisted of direct Irffl class rates from the middle west, to ba SlM used in connection with class rates oast Dill of Chicago, and the other was by the ad- Htil dltion of a local rate to the terminal unl rate, which has long been known aa the KmI "back haul charge." although no service Kill Is rendered. Both bases are arbitrary Kll 1 assessments of a higher intermediate lfSlH I rate than for tho longer haul to the ter- loi i m'lnathe first issues of the bureau tariffs Wffl the eastern territory from which rates will were named was subdivided into rata IGll districts, progressing upon distance, tna tfl.ll rate decreasing westward as far as Colo- rado. However, these differentials wero SKI graduallv reduced from tlmo to time un- 391 til tho geographical distances will hay? KSI been effaced by the publication of a tarlfl H to become effective January 1. 1900, when mm the cntlro region from the Canadian lino jm to the Gulf of Mexico and rrom Colorado mm to the Atlantic ccean. embracing an are?. (Wl of nearly two thousand miles north and mm south and over two thousand miles east KW and west, will be merged Into a vast pool ffitj; of rates, called tho postago stamp sys- MP tern. The samo rate will applv from Bos- MAfi! ton. New Orleans. Winnipeg. Canada and EH. Denver to the western terminal, although nf thousands of miles Intervene between tho f? eastern and western boundary for which lift no charge Is apparently mado for scrv- HI Ices, compared with tho chargo from Hf Colorado points. jrw "This means," said a prominent busi- Wm ncss man,' Saturday, "that a. blanket WM rato will hold from Atlantic coast Iffll poiuts and gulf points to all tho tern- gn tory ns far west as Colorado, and niter IW, that there will be a, holdup. It is an IJft interesting affair, this schedule, but it menns that wo shippers 01 .Utah, as MM well as thoso of Nevada, will bo up j against it as soon as the rates are put li into operation. |