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Show WOULD HIT com D. & R. G. Traffic Manager Testifies Before Utilities Commission, UTAH IS GOOD FIELD Hearing Shows State Contributes Con-tributes 43 Per Cent of j System's Revenue. j n j Perhaps the most significant question j that ha.i ben put to a witness In the state public utilities commission's hearing on the petition of Utah railroads for an increase of fifteen per cent in freight rates was asked yesterday afternoon. Fred "Wild, Jr., freight traffic manager of thg Denver & Rio Grande railway, was testifying, when Commissioner Henry H. Blood asked: "If tiie fifteen per cent increase in freight charges asked for is granted, would it be applied to coal?" "Yes, It would," was the answer. It was subsequently shown by the pro-testants pro-testants that the D. & R. G., by reason of the proposed fifteen per cent raise, would profit to the extent of 52S6.O00 annually an-nually in increased revenue on coal original orig-inal ing In Utah. H. Y. Prickett, traffic manager for the Traffic Service bureau of Utah, asked Mr. Wolf: "Would you be surprised to know that the freight traffic of the D. & R. G. system in Utah is forty-three per cent of the total revenue received on freight moved on the entire system of the company?" com-pany?" "Nothing would surprise me," was Mr. Wolfs reply. Rate Discrimination Shown. W. S. McCarty, vice president of the Traffic Service bureau of Utah, submitted submit-ted figures showing that the freight cost on certain commodities from Chicago to Pacific coast points was forty-one cents per hundred weight, while a rate of eighty-two cents per hundred weight on the same commodities applied from Chicago Chi-cago to Utah points. Mr. Wild said that he believed that the rates from Chicago to Pacific coast-points were too low, and that If he had anything to do with them we would -raise them. 5 le thought, however, that the rate to Utah points from Chicago was reasonable. reason-able. "Then why not." asked Mr. McCarthy, McCar-thy, "go to the coast, where the rates are too low, yon think, for the Increase you seek, instead of coming to Utah, where the rates are reasonable, in your opinion, and where freight charges would still be higher than coast rates, if no increase were allowed here and a fifteen per cen t increase were allowed to coast points?" Mr. Wild said be helleved aji agreement had been made some time ago by the "Big Seven" at Chicago to await the findings find-ings of the interstate commerce commission commis-sion with respect to a universal raise before be-fore making separate applications in the several states. He said that the "Big Seven" consists of representatives of railroad traffic operation on many railroads, rail-roads, and that these had subsequently changed their decision to await a national ruling, and ordered that separate appli-" appli-" cations be made in the states. He added that his line would not have askod for the fifteen per cent Increase if othef railways had. not done so. The revenue of the D. & R. G., Mr. Wild said, for the four months ended April 30, 1917, showed an Increase over the corresponding four months in 1916 of $1,309,000, which amounted to eighteen per cent, but that the cost of operation during the same period showed an increase in-crease of si, 361, 000, or thirty-one per cent. H. C. Nutt, general manager of the Salt Lake Route, was recalled and stated that the net operating revenue of his line for the first four months of this year showed an increase of $21,683 over that of last year during the corresponding period. The company last year, he said, had made SI, 300, 000 above interest, and believed it should bo so situated as to make it every year. For this reason he believed that the company was entitled to the fifteen per cent increase asked for. Frank De Wees, auditor of freight receipts re-ceipts for the D. & R. G., submitted a written report which was entered as an exhibit in the case. At the morning session of the hearing the examination of G. U. Hickey, assistant assis-tant to the vice president and general manager of the Oregon Short Line, was resumed from Monday afternoon. The burden of Mr. Hickey's testimony was that the railroads needed the increase in freight rates In order to enable them to meet the higher cost of materials and operation. Stephen H. Love, president of the Traffic Traf-fic Service bureau of Utah, and H. XV. Prickett, traffic manager, took most part in questioning Mr. Hickey, who said that he had made no computation of the aggregate ag-gregate additional amount the people of Utah would have to pay annually if the increase were allowed. He was informed by Mr. Prickett that it would mean that the people of the state would pay $2,000.-000 $2,000.-000 more a year to railroads shown to be already making millions. |