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Show Letters To The Editor Dear Editor: When a person is overtaken by illness, his first thought is God and the Doctor. However, upon quick recovery he forgets them both. I make reference to this because be-cause of conditions that so quickly quick-ly change within our locality. borne year or two ago, the billboards bill-boards and the newspapers were full of heavy print which outlined out-lined these words: "America! The land of Individual Enterprise!" Now, to our sad dismay, and so quickly we have forgotten those who lost their lives to keep this saying alive. Transportation played a big part in preserving the American way of life. Now that we think we are well and healthy, we have forgotten those things and people who played the small part in our daily life, namely, those bringing in the very necessities of life before, be-fore, during the war and after. ' The people of Duchesne and Uintah counties have always paid the highest price for freight transportation, and would have paid more, were it not for contract con-tract haulers of freight. I would like to define the two means of obtaining shipments of merchandise merchan-dise into these counties. First: a common carrier who is issued a right by a three-man commission commis-sion which in our two counties is now an exclusive right, that no one else can obtain. The privilege priv-ilege given permits this company com-pany and this company only to haul any. and all commodities at a fixed rate. A contract carrier is then the other means of transportation hauling for hire. This right also is obtained from a three man commission. They are also im-powered. im-powered. to revoke such rights when and as they see fit. A contract con-tract carrier once enjoyed the" right to engage in the employe of anyone on a contract to do that which the individual might himself do. However, today we are confronted with an order issued is-sued by the Public Service Com-mission Com-mission of Utah to appear in Salt Lake City on February 27, 1947 for the purpose of a rate hearing. It is the intent to set minimum and maximum rates, for example, common carrier rates are from 82c per hundred weight to as high as $3.52 per hundred weight based on the kind of merchandise shipped. Contract carriers have only one rate. In most cases it is 50c per hundred weight on all commodities. com-modities. The individuals in Duchesne and Uintah counties are confronted con-fronted now with a problem of deciding for themselves as to whether they will set back and be compelled to ship merchandise merchan-dise with a company whose sole interest is in gleaning as much money out of the Basin as possible pos-sible and spending as little as possible with the individual merchant. Contract carriers arc, as a 1rule:.PePIe living in your own localities. They pay taxes on nomes and business properties also employ local help. In turn' most of these employees are re turned veterans. We call your attention to this condition and ask you to take time to consider what this means to Duchesne and Uintah counties It is necessary to protest this kind of regulation which means higher rates and less money in our communities. oS2nda Protest to the Utah State Capitol Public Service Commission, 314 Slate Capitol Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. Please state we are in favor of this matter being heard and decide at public hearings to be held m Roosevelt and Vernal, Utah. ' W. H. Linck. |