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Show Your Congressman,! ! by Henry Aldous Dixon CHANGES IN FREIGHT RATE LAWS? Congressional hearings on a proposal to allow common carriers car-riers to charge more for a short haul than a long haul are arousing arous-ing keen interest among Utahns. The Intermountain West fought nearly 40 years ago for the protection pro-tection in Section 4 of the Interstate In-terstate Commerce Act which prevents a higher charge for transporting people or property "a shorter than lor a longer distance dis-tance over the same line Or route." As an example of the discrimination discrim-ination existing prior to 1918, it was cheaper to ship a carload of canned goods from Boston to Seattle and back to Boston again thanto ship the same car of canned goods from Boston to Granger, Wyo. To cite another illustration, the carload rate on structural steel from Chicago to San Francisco in 1907 was 75c per 100 pounds, whereas from Chicago to Reno only, it was $1.34 per 100 pounds. Not all examples of discrimination discrimi-nation were so pronounced. , However, growth of the Intermountain Inter-mountain economy was inhibited inhibit-ed by such discrimination. The Interstate arid Foreign Commerce Committees of the House and Senate are considering consider-ing changes jn the long-short haul feature and other aspects of our national transportation policy, with the idea of increasing in-creasing competition in the transportation industries. However, How-ever, both committees are proceeding pro-ceeding cautiously before they recommend radical changes in existing laws. UTAH LEAD AND ZINC PRODUCTION DOWN Even with the Federal government gov-ernment purchases of lead and zinc for defense stockpiling, Utah production is now very low. In 1949, custom mills and smelters in the Utah area produced pro-duced 39,378 tons of lead. In 1952, the amount was 24,640 tons, and In 1955, it was only 3890 tons, according to figures gathered by Miles P. Romney, manager of the Utah Mining Association. As-sociation. Zinc production has dropped from 17,853 tons in 1952 to 3,078 tons in 1955. Heavy imports of these metals are an important factor in these production drops. Two years ago the Tariff Commission unanimously recommended increased in-creased duties for lead and zinc, following exhaustive investigation. investiga-tion. President Eisenhower announced an-nounced the stockpiling program pro-gram to try to meet the problem. prob-lem. However, the Administration Administra-tion and Congress now are both concerned about establishing a long-run program which will maintain a healthy domestic industry. |