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Show ROAD REVENUES I RAISED BILLION I ID jE HALF I Freight Levy to Equal Tax of j $12 on Each Person n ' i I PASSENGER AMD PULLMAN SCHEDULES INCREASED Action Held Justified to Meet Wage Scale and to Provide Equipment WASHINGTON, July 31. (By The H Associated Press.) Authority for the railroads to Increase revenues by ap-proximately ap-proximately one billion and a ha'f dollars was granted today by the In-terstate In-terstate commerce commission Freight rates will be advanced about one-third, one-third, passenger fares one-fifth and Pullman charges one-half. Coastwise and Inland steamship j lino and electric railway companion j olso were granted an increase In freight rates in proportion to the increases granted railroads serving the same 1 territory. The new rates, to continue until Mnr.-h 1 19t2, will become effective " on five days' notice by the carriers j to the commission and the public and they must hp in operation before Janu- j ary 1. since the government guarantee expires September 1, the carriers are expected to put the advances into effect hy then. OPFSITT WAGE ADVANCE, The increases are designed to off- I set the $600,000,000 wage advance awarded by the railroad labor boar. I jl and to provide the six per cent net In- j come on the aggregate value of tho j railroad proport'c undor the trans- i! portAtion act The .-iggregato value j of all. railroads was estimated by the B BOmtnlSSion ;-t J18,900,000.00O. as jl against a bonk value of $20,0.00, Oy." SlVett bv the carriers. jl The 20 per cent" Increase In pas-senger pas-senger f.ires. excess baggage charge and milk transportation rales and the fifty per cent surcharge on pullmnn fares will be general. Freight rate In-cr In-cr ises will t iry ncordlng to terri- ,U lory with forty per cent In the easl ! M twenty-five per cent In the south. thirty-five per cent In the west from the Mississippi river to tho Rocky H mountains and twenty-five per cent in mountain-Pacific territory flrgn east f the Rockies to the Pac' coast, not Including Alaska INCREASE .TESTIFIED-The .TESTIFIED-The commission said that the In-creases In-creases were Justified in view of thi rapidly changing price condition and the necessity for providing adeoin-i J transportation facilities during and af tor readjustment. From figures submitted by the car tiers that the apportionment of tho advance would be about $1,JS5,000 on freight. 113,800,000 on passenger: $42,600,000 on Pullman; $1,500,000 on milk and $1,400,000 SXCeSS baggage charges. On the same calculations, eastern roads will get the most, receiving ap-proximately ap-proximately $873,93n.0OO. as compaied with $.r.f.9,4S3,00n for all the western ! nos. and $1 35. 29$, 000 for the southern ! carriers, x COST SB2 EACH Increased (barges on freight, alone were estimated as equalling a levy B of $12 per capita per annum for every woman, man and child, basing the na-tion's na-tion's population at 105,000.000 for Increases In passenger, pullman and H excess bagK i rates were those asked by the roads. Freight Increases re-quested re-quested were 39.75 for the eastern roads. 32.03 for western roads and 38 -91 for southern roads, the total esti-mated esti-mated to yield $ 1 356,000,000- The eastern roads were granted .25 of one H per cent more than they sought; the western roads approximately what H they sought but the southern roads H received approximate! 14 per cent. H less than they had requested. The commission said that, the finan- j cial condition of the southern roads was more favorable than any of the B other lines. In view of this condition, BVJ tiic commission held that they were BBVJ hetier able to meet the demands on BVBs ! them than some of the other compan- HBn ( i il TRY'S NEEDS. ' "The increases authorised," said HBVJ the commlsla "Arc intended to yield HBVJ thi additional one-half of one per Bn cent of the aggregate value of the BVJ ake p visions for improve- i bettt ments and equipment, chargeable to capital account. The re-cord re-cord leaves no doubt as to the needs of the country for additional trans-portation trans-portation facilities. Carriers will be ex- BVJ peeled to make appropriations for ad- HBVJ ditional improvements, betterments of equipment of a character chargeable to HBVJ capital account and to make report to j LU semi-annually showing what portion por-tion of the increased revenues has j Keen devoted to that purpose." As This m( -half of one per cent will j approximate $94,000,000. The commission com-mission said that the carriers had I Stated that they needed Immedlatelj al least 100,000 freight cars, 2,000 loc- j ..motives and 8,00 passenger coaches. These aro to bo paid for out of this fund and out of money advanced by the commission and borrowed by the The commission went at some length into ihe question of aggregate values of tho roads as well as their financial finan-cial condition. "We conclude that increases as In- I dicated may be made hy all steam I roads subject to our jurisdiction. I INCREASE EXPLAINED. , I. All passenger fares and charge. I may be Increased 20 per cent. The I term 'passenger fares' may b con- I ldered to include standard, local and interline fares; excursion, convention and othei fares for special occasions . ommul iBon and other multiple forma f (Continued on Page Eighty Road Revenues Raised Billion and One-half (Continued from luge One) of tickets; extra furc-s on limited trains; club car charges. "2. Excess baggage rates may be Increased 20 per cent, provided that where stated as a percentage of or dependent de-pendent upon passenger fares the Increase In-crease In the latter Will automatically I effect tile Increase In the excess baggage bag-gage c harges. 3. A surcharge upon passengers s'o.eplng and puilor cais mu be made I amounting to Iij per cent of tne uiarge for space in such cars, such charge to be collected in connection with the charge for space. 4. Milk und cream rates may be Incrcused 20 pci cent." Bt ' UtD'H i on H Sit v Conclusions as to general Height In-ci In-ci .isea wei e. "We find that the following percentage per-centage Increases in the charges for I freight service. Including switching and special services, togetner with the other Increases approved would re-Isult re-Isult In rates not unreasonable in the Rggregatt) under Section l of tne transportation trans-portation net. and would enible the I carriers under honest, efficient and i.Knnimili-iil no , 1 1 : i in-1 i n t und reason able expenditures for maintenance of vvu. structures and equipments to earn an aggregate annum railway op-jerattng op-jerattng Income eoual, as nearly as i n'.i be. to a i ciuoi of &Vs per cent I upon the aggregate v.. I no 'or the pur-I pur-I poses ot this proceeding, of the rall-1 rall-1 way propertj of such carrion held for laud used In the service of transportation transpor-tation and one-half of one per cent in addition, eastern group. 10 per cent. I southern group. 2& per cent, western group, 35 per cent, and mountain l"a-clflc l"a-clflc group, 2'j per cent in ( i-n . SUMMED UP. The decision summed up as follows. "Most of the factors wuh which we are dealing are constantly changing. It Is impossible to forecast with any degree of certainty what the volume of traffic will be. The general price level Is changing. It Is Impracticable to adjust all tales on individual commodities. com-modities. The rutes to be established on the basis approved must be subject sub-ject to such readjustments as the facts maj warrant. It is expected thnt shippers ship-pers Will take these mutters up with the carriers and the latter will be expected ex-pected to deal promptly and effec-tlVOljr effec-tlVOljr therewith, that necesaarj readjustments re-adjustments may be made In as many laatanoee us practicable without ap-; ap-; peal to us. ' Pi riON CrUTIt I ZED Government rallroud operation was I brought lnlo the case by Commissioner Commission-er Kastman, who. In an opinion In ; which Commissioner Woollry concurred, con-curred, disapproved the method used by the commission in reaching Its conclusion. con-clusion. Commissioner McCbord criticized crit-icized Commissioner Eastman's position, posi-tion, declaring he ' Injects Into this cuss large political questions of gov-rnmealel gov-rnmealel polio nowhere in issue beam Commissioner Eastman expressed regret that federal control waa not permitted to continue at least until after af-ter readjustment Commissioner Mc-Chord Mc-Chord In his reply said: "The congress has. for the time being, be-ing, settled the question of government operation of the railroads by restoring restor-ing them to private operation, hedged I a round by comprehensive laws, vesting vest-ing broad powers In this commission t) regulut them. It Is the duty of this commission to enforce the law as congress has written." Olscuaalng provisions for rstes be-Iliteen be-Iliteen the various groups of roads, the I commission said that Joint or single line through rates between points in one group and points In others should I be Increased SI l-J per cent. It also I aald that the Increases should apply ,to Individual commodity rates now in 1 effect. The commission said it found grain j rates Into and out of important grain I markets In the middle west might be Increased by the general percentages wtth the understanding that the car -Irtera would. Within thirty da after I the service of the report, file tartffa 'restoring an equalisation of the rates from Important producing states to important consuming regions. |
