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Show CENTRAL PACIFIC. DECISI - COMPETITION RESTRAINED BY SOUTHERN PACIFIC OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL ITS denial of the Southern Pacifics petition to reopen the Central Pacific case the Supreme Court of the United BYStates is eliminated as a possible source 'of relief from the decision separating the Central Pacific from the Southern Pacific. Efforts which. have been centered on the Supreme Court to grant a rehearing are now being directed into other channels in the hope that the effect of the decision will be nullified and that the Southern Pacific may yet be permitted to do what the Court has forbidden. It is not our purpose to prejudice the result. So many requests have been received, however, for a statement of our posi- tion that we are attempting to clarify the situation by a series of public statements. There is abundant evidence that the best interests of Utah and the intermountain region will be served if the separation decreed by the Supreme Court be made permanent. It is admitted by both sides that active competition is desirable, but it is claimed that a competitive condition now exists which would be destroyed if the Central Pacific were freed. Exactly the opposite is true. Competition is now restrained' and on that ground the . . . Such combinations Supreme Court based its decision. says the court, constitute ' a menace and a restraint upon that freedom of commerce which Congress intended to recognize and protect and which the public is entitled to have protected. More specifically the decision recites that: The proof is ample that the policy of the Southern Pacific System has been to favor transportation on its line by securing for itself, whenever practicable, the carriage of freight which would normally move eastward or westward over the shorter line of the Central Pacific Railroad and its connections, for its own much longer and wholly owned southern route. . . . The compelling motive of this course of conduct is obvious. The Southern Pacific owns and controls the southerly route, and receives 100 per cent of the com A circular of the Southern Pacific. Freight by G. W. Luce, Freight Manager, says: pensation for freight transported by its road and water lines. Over the Central Pacific route it receives but a fraction of the freight because the Union Pacific with its eastern connections takes up the dictates the solicitacarrying from Ogden to the east. tion and procurement of freight for the longer haul by the Southern Pacific lines. Self-intere- st Frank admission that this situation exists is found in all testimony of Mr. L. J. Spence, Director of Traffic of all the Southern Pacific lines, before the Interstate Commerce Commission, as recently as April, 1922. In connection with the movement of traffic in either direction, between the Atlantic seaboard states on the one hand and the Gulf or Pacific Coast States and intermediate territory on the other hand, where does the interest of the Southern Pacific lie In or in the movement of it by mixed rail the movement of that and water route through Gulf ports? Question. all-ra- il Answer. The Interest lies naturally in the movement via the Gulf Route in order to secure the entire revenue for the haul of the traffic. Traffic Department, issued September 29, 1921, addressed to agents and signed The term Sunset Gulf Route, heretofore applying to eastbound routing via Galveston, has been discarded and in the future our 100 PER CENT route will be known as Sunset Route. This route includes the Southern Pacific rail lines to Galveston and Atlantic Steamship Lines (Commonly called Morgan Line) to New York. The circular closes with the direction: SOLICIT ACTIVELY FOR OUR 100 PER CENT ROUTE. We shall furnish additional information from time to time SALT LAKE CITY |