Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 8 | Protest Higher Freight Rates

PROTEST HIGHER FREIGHT RATES ! Farmers Co-operativ3 Association Asso-ciation Files Complaint to I. C. Commission, WASHINGTON. Aug. 17. Increased freight rates on corn, oats, rye and barley, bar-ley, granted by Director General 3Jo-Adoo 3Jo-Adoo in his 25 per cent advance order of June 25 lust, were attacked today by the national council of the Farmers' Co-operative association in a complaint liled today to-day with the interstate commerce commission, com-mission, asking that the old rates be reestablished. re-established. ! Members of the council include owners of grain elevators in Ohio, Indiana. lilt- i nois, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, Minxie- ; sota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Da-kola Da-kola and Oklahoma. Director General McAdoo and all railroads rail-roads under federal control are named defendants de-fendants in the complaint, which asserts that the 25 per cent increase order resulted re-sulted in an advance on coarse grain of 35 to 50 cents. The price of these grains, it is pointed out, unlike wheat, is not fixed, the farmer receiving the price at the primary markets minus the freight charge, which condition, it la alleged, is unfair. The increased rates are declared to be discriminatory, to violate the interstate commerce law and to be unauthorized by l he law creating railroad administration. The complaint urges the interstate commerce com-merce commission to set the case for early investigation at some centrally located lo-cated point in the grain belt. Clifford Torne, counsel for the farmers' council, filed the complaint.