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Show INTERMOUNTAIN FREIGHT RATES. Coast papers arp greatly disturbed over the intermountain freight rate case, and the Chroniclo takes a slap at Henry Thurtell, one of the examiners exam-iners for the Interstate Commerce commission. The Chronicle has discovered dis-covered a "leak" and says: It seems to be true that Henry Thurtell, has given out advance information in-formation in respect to a decision which the commission is to make. No examiner has power to decide any case, but an examiner, familiar with the evidence, is quite likely to be employed em-ployed to prepare a decision according accord-ing to the instructions of the commission. commis-sion. It would be a physical impossibility impossi-bility for the Interstato Commerce commissioners to write all the opinions opin-ions of the commission, but it has been assumed that in the most Important Im-portant cases that is the custom. That such public announcement in advance of the commission's action should be made by a subordinate is astounding. And it will be still more astonishing if it passes without notice by the commission. If it be true, as Examiner Exam-iner Thurtell states, that the commission commis-sion is to prohibit transcontinental railroads from competing with sea carriers at terminals, there is another reason made of record why the public refuses to put any more money into railroads. The Interstate Commerce commission commis-sion continually declares that It is not its function to equalize differences growing out of location. To prohibit carriers from competing with ships which will be the result, although not the form, of the decision as outlined, Is nothing less than an attempt to destroy the natural advantages which seaports have always possessed. Suppose Sup-pose the commission says that It takes this action merely because at Ihe present time there is no sea service ser-vice between Atlantic and Pacific ports. And then assume that our own merchants in self defense put on a line of ships through the Panama ca-, ca-, nal. Then competition would exist land the commission might restore terminal rates. In other words, it would order the railroads to put up their rates while they had a monopoly but to at once put them down when competition should arise. And that was a practice more furiously denounced de-nounced than any other sin of the railroads when they were still In the gall of bitterness and the bond of Iniquity. In-iquity. The decision can be discussed when it is announced. Pending that, the important thing is the leak, which was a big thing for one who might desire to sell transcontinental railroad rail-road stock short. It is evident the California papers are seeking to discredit those responsible respon-sible for requiring a readjustment of transcontinental freight rates and lacking real grounds on which to make objection are creating a false issue. There was no leak. What was given out should have been made public. As to the fiction of ocean competition, competi-tion, California has long enjoyed an advantage in freight rates based on a false assumption. There never has been sufficient ocean traffic between the east and west coasts of the United States to justify the preference given to California water points by the railroads rail-roads in the making of their freight schedules. |