“Certainly,” he replied.

“I believe there are some abuses to-day regarding the matter of allowances which ought to be corrected,” said the witness.

“Do you believe double or triple allowances have been made in Kansas City?” asked Mr. Barry.

“I don’t know of my own knowledge,” replied the witness, “but I suspect that they have been.”

CHAPTER XXII.
COMMODITY DISCRIMINATIONS.

Unfair discriminations in respect to special commodities are very common. The New Haven and Hartford charges $80 a car on peaches from New York to Boston, 228 miles, while the same peaches come from Georgia points to New York, 1150 miles, for $162 a car. The Commission says the $80 rate is arbitrary and unjust and that $50 a car would be a reasonable charge.[[217]]

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad made its rate on peaches depend on the valuation put on the fruit, in order that by increase of rate in proportion to valuation, shippers might be led to put low valuation on their shipments and so provide the railways with an argument against paying the real damages in case of accident or loss.[[218]]

From some places shingles are carried at rates as low as those applied to lumber, while shingle shippers at other points pay more than the lumber rates. This is held an unjust discrimination against shingles, and against the places and shippers that pay the high rates.[[219]]

Railroads make high rates on ties, higher than on lumber, in order to prevent their shipment to other parts of the country, and so diminish their value and lower their cost to the discriminating railroad. The president of one railroad stated the policy clearly: “We are simply following what we consider our interest, which is to prevent the shipment of tie lumber.”[[220]]

Early this year, 1905, the South Side Elevated road of Chicago wanted 400 carloads of ties. The blanket rate on ties from the entire yellow pine belt to Chicago is 26 cents per hundred lbs. On shipments originating between Luzon, La., and Pearl, Miss., the Illinois Central made a special tariff (March 22 and April 6, 1905), fixing the rate on ties at 26 cents per tie, each tie to be billed at 130 lbs. This was equivalent to a reduction of the rate to 20 cents per hundred lbs., and no shipper outside of the favored region could compete in the Chicago market. It is suspected that the party who got the Elevated contract knew beforehand that the railroad would issue this special tariff, and was therefore able to underbid competitors in perfect safety.[[221]]