Show VICTORY FOR THE HE PEO P LE upsetting LIP setting of western classification 51 means much RAILROADS LOSE BIG CASE Gh chairman aIrman thorne of iowa commie commis slon ion tell tells how the Ship shipper pars and consumers of the wet west dene dens fit by the decision Dc llon dea des bolves ja in march 13 11 the poo peo plo of the united states havo have bad jowa iowa to thank for a number of ex Ocal ol lont lout things and to tho the list must ibe obe now added a an achievement that means a great deal to tho the shippers ot 01 the entire west from the io tho the pacific especially aro are those under obligation obligations to tho the iowa tato state board of railroad rall roud commissi commissioners our irs and ad ite its ch chairman nirman clifford thorne this achievement id ill tho the sua vension and revision by tho the interstate coni com nerce commission of an entire freight classification known as western clas ideation no 51 and on march 31 tho the everol several hundred bundred changes mode made to con form to ibo the commissions order will 8 aso so into effect Shipp bra pad colsum ere alike will by tho the revision iowa lead leads th fight commission was by no means alono alone in tho the good work but it took the initiative in the case and assumed arthe ahlet part of the burden of pre pro and trying it sixteen western tato state railroad ad comm commissions ilal one united in tho the flet and bf thorne was tho the s chairman of the committee representing them lie ile gives much credit to benjamin 4 jacobean jacobson who had gen eral charge of gathering the evidence and preparing the specific cases for trial and to A D deals beals rate expert mr thorne boduy had say ot of the big case and its outcome one day during the summer of 1911 was seated la in a hotel parlor in milwaukee in ono one end of the room there were sixteen men in their shirtsleeve shirt sleeve talking and listening occasionally to person standing in the center of the 1 bom 9 OM two or three minutes were allowed to the gentle gentlemen gent lemin tann talking he took his seat and another person told 06 short story and so on un during the course of the whole day powerful group of men mon this small group of men exercised more power than any other similar group perhaps in the united states bome nine hundred railroads large and small interested in traffic traffie be tween the Alissi sippi river and the pa coast have organized what they call a western estern classification committee of about eighty avo members these eighty five men havo have selected a aub committee subcommittee of sixteen men this subcommittee sub committee which Is dominated by one or two tuo individuals determines the freight ratings on over articles article 3 on which people have to pay traffic between about towns located between the jl pi riner and the pacific coast this ils Is one of tho the three important chassin cation committees in america the mother two tuo being the official covering the ahe northeastern portion of the united states and the southern 0 tor the first time in the history of american railroads an entire cl assin cution cuton of one clie of these three great freight classification committees committe ep has ien I en suspended by the federal goham benl a and ad the committee I 1 hava described has been making a revision of its fonner work in accordance with the decision which was rendered by the ithe interstate commerce com merco commission recently known knon as the decision in the wase of western no 51 tho the railroads have just submitted to tho a list of several bin arod changes in this to 0 o con conform forin to the commission commissions these will go into effeil effa march 3 ai the opinion in case next to the one rendered in the express case la perhaps the longest over ever wr written ten by the interstate commeria com merca commission commiss loi the caso case la Is of national importance nany of its fea features turen are unique and dot of profound concern to the consumer consumers of the country sixteen states united unite i shippers and shippers or part parum tat to this case but perhaps the cost most interesting feature was the fact that on behalf of ho the consumers the railroad eions of sixteen great states appear u ad d these states were illinois Ws icon sin minnesota iowa missouri arkansas louisiana texas oklahoma homa nebraska south dakota north dakota coi colado Co do nevada nerada to tori tAnd rilAnd oregon on tho theone one brad and we had bad tho the representatives of some nine hundred railroads and opposed 40 to representatives of 0 aix sixteen teen governments tato with the interstate cOV aa the deciding deciding tribunal tribu nalo the in the cee ce e lusted lasted about a year western no bl 51 in buee U es alore changes than any tariff publication ever issued by amer lean railroads rall roade tho the work done in III preparation for thia this issue 1 to 1 eald said tc havo have coat cost the railroads approximately most important phases of tho the many phases of the eton n the first in importance are lh rulee rules and regulations lations the carrion carriers proposed many changes these art nr applicable to every city town and hamlet went of the river tho the state commissions made object flon to fourteen of these rules and changes wore were made or ordered in twelve of them A concrete illustration of thee theof concerns the dunnage allowance prior to the issuance of no 61 th carriera carriers permitted the shippers to lumber and boards to prop up machinery in a car the railroads hauling pounds of such lumber free of charge no bl 51 abolished the dunnage priva loera 1093 and the commission ordered it 11 reinstated when one considers cons ldora the thol thousands sands of shipments that are made annually the importance of such a rulla ruling can bo be appreciated another change of importance tc the th western half of the united state states concerns green hides the carrier carr iori put pirt in a rule permitting them to re auvo to take green hides for thip shipment ment wo we pointed out that they could bt b stored or handled in live stock cars and not contaminate other commode tica ties and claimed that the cai carrr mars should bo be compelled to accept t th ht same for transportation our position was wa 8 sustained by the commission minimum rate ruling several hundred advances wert proposed b by r the railroads railroad a in weights they announced their pol icy to be the establishment of mini mume mums upon the physical capacity ol 01 the cars refusing to take into consid the commercial conditions surrounding the transportation carload mixture mixtures one of the most important parts ol 01 thie thin case conc concerns Ferns carload mixtures the carriers proposed the elimination of carload mixtures on arti article cIrA and proposed changes restricting cur cu load mixtures on corp morp than three hun dred other artl ar Ucles clee one of the most important changes affecting carload mixtures which serves as an ll Il lustra tion of the effect of such changes concerns con cerne binding twine prior to th issuance of no 51 the carriers pep per witted binding twine to be shipped mixed with agricultural implements all 0 of which took carload rates in no 61 51 they proposed to apply lose less than carload rates on all shipments ol 01 binding twine made in this manner this would have caused an advance of about one L La indred dred per ver cent in the freight rates 0 on binding blading t twine lne and more than tham ninety per cent of all bind ing twine shipments tre ae were told by tho the largest shippers in the coun try would be affected by this hundred per cent advance As indicating the policy of the carriers thirty two tuo articles had carload mixtures granted to them while alle over five hundred articles were totally eliminated from carload mixtures or the mixtures were changed or restricted strict ed the interstate commerce commission has ordered the carrier caie rs to purnie diametrically the opposite course instead of restricting mix tures they are ted to make them mo liberal in addition to these changes in rules the commission made specific ordera ordem disapproving advances on a long list of articles the do t iston in this case Is to the most epoch on classification alasin cation matters ever rendered by the interstate commerce commission |