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E. H. MASON, CARNFORTH, IOWA,

VS.

Station at crossing.

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY,
CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY
COMPANY.

Filed March 23, 1885.

DECISION OF THE COMMISSIONERS.

On January 7, 1885, the Commissioners visited the crossing of the Chicago & Northwestern and Chicago, Rock Island & l'acific Railways at Carnforth, in company with Messrs. Royce and Burt, superintendents of the railways, and met a delegation of the citizens in the vicinity. From the representations made at the time and from what they could learn of the transfers, they concluded that at the present time there does not seem to be a necessity for such station in view of the expenditure required to establish the same. A careful observation during a period of six months of the transfers from one road to the other at this point has convinced the Commissioners that the time has arrived when some conveniences should be supplied. With this view of the situation, they, in accordance with the provisions of chapter twenty-four, laws of the Twentieth General Assembly, order that platforms suitable for getting on the trains be placed along the tracks of each road, and at the intersection a building be put up containing a waiting room, which shall be kept warmed and lighted during the hours that trains take passengers from this station, and that the building be built and kept in suitable condition at the joint and equal cost to each road, and that this be completed before October 1, 1885.

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On the 23d of March, 1885, the following letter was received from W. W. Ainsworth, Secretary of the Iowa Jobbers' and Manufacturers' Association, with the resolutions of that body:

DES MOINES, IOWA, March 21, 1885.

To the Honorable Board of Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa: GENTLEMEN--I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a resolution adopted at a meeting of the executive committee of the Iowa State Manufacturers' and Jobbers' Assocl

ation, held in this city March 20, 1885. The resolution embodies the unanimous sentiment of the meeting, and we trust it will have that immediate attention and careful consideration the importance of the subject demands.

[Signed]

Respectfully yours,

W. W. AINSWORTH, Secretary.

WHEREAS, The managers of the various 1ailroads doing business in the State have heretofore recognized this universal principle of commerce-less price for larger quantity— thus fostering and encouraging the manufacturing and distributing interests of natural commercial centers; and

WHEREAS, The unreasonable and selfish demand of the special jobbing interests of Chicago-and not a sound, established principle or defensible expediency of trar sportation management--suddenly deprived some of the most important of these distributing towns of the conditions necessary to the full prosperity of the various enterprises in which capital has been induced to engage; therefore,

Resolved, That the Honorable Board of Railroad Commissioners be urgently requested to recommend to the chief managers of the railroads interested, the prompt restoration of just and equitable rates to manufacturers and jobbers that have been deprived of the same, enabling them to prosecute their various business enterprises on a legitimate and fair basis with all competitors."

On March 31st the Commissioners addressed the following letter to managers of the railroads that are operated in Iowa:

' DES MOINES, IOWA, March 31, 1885.

SIR-Your attention is respectfully called to a resolution adopted by the Iowa Manufacturers' and Jobbers' Association and forwarded to this office, copy of which is herewith enclosed. If, as stated in the resolution, rates heretofore granted to Iowa jobbers and manufacturers have been withdrawn at the demand and in the interest of outside jobbers, it must be apparent that great injury will necessarily result therefrom to Iowa interests. Her people are clearly entitled to the same facilities and opportunities that are granted to others, and will be satisfied with nothing less. The Commissioners have at various times, from the first organization of the Board down to the period of their most recent utterances, maintained that the best interests of Iowa railroads were advanced by furnishing to Iowa jobbers and manufacturers such rates as would enable them to remain in the field and successfully compete with jobbers and wholesale dealers located east of and outside the State.

Sound business principles, uniform railway management heretofore, and every legitimate consideration, seem to them to point to the encouragement and protection of home interests in this matter as the only proper course. Iowa, encouraged by the policy heretofore adopted with regard to jobbers and manufacturers, has readily embraced the thought that the agricultural and pastoral is not the only proper direction of her industrial development. To this it seems to us the managers of Iowa railways must render a hearty assent. They must realize that they have with Iowa people a community of interest, and that whatever hurts her industries will in the end injure railway investments in her borders. Millions of capital in such enterprises, flourishing cities and centers, and thousands of employes now

prosperous, and made so by the policy of encouragement, each seem to us a reason for the continuance of such a policy. We therefore heartily second the thought of the resolution, and express a most earnest hope that if any backward step has been taken by your management, it will at once be carefully reconsidered, and that you will see upon such consideration the absolute necessity of the return to a policy sanctioned by sound discretion, by results so favorable in the past, and by the dictates of a common interest. "By order of the Board. E. G. MORGAN, Secretary."

For a better understanding of the cause of complaint, we here give an extract from a paper sent the office :

"A retail dealer in State Center desires to obtain merchandise which must be originally forwarded from the initial points of commerce at the seaboard. It is intercepted at Chicago, and pays first freight charges to that point of seventy-five cents per hundred pounds, then seventy-five cents more to his place of business, a total of one dollar and a half. The same goods selected at Cedar Rapids must pay the first charge of seventy-five cents per hundred to Chicago, a car-load rate of sixty cents to Cedar Rapids, and a local rate of thirtyeight cents to State Center. or a total of one dollar and seventy-three cents per hundred pounds. The Cedar Rapids jobber competes with the Chicago jobber under the car-load rate, with a discrimination in freight against him of twenty-three cents per hundred pounds."

We publish in full the replies of H. C. Wicker, Freight Traffic Manager C. & N. W. R'y; James Smith, General Traffic Manager, W., St. L. & P. R'y; C. J. Ives, President, B., C. R. & N. R'y Co.; Roswell Miller, General Manager, C., M. & St. P. R'y, and E. T. Jeffery, General Superintendent, Ill. Cen. R. R.:

CHICAGO, APRIL 21, 1885.

E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Secretary Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa:
DEAR SIR-Your communication under date of March 31st, addressed to Marvin Hughitt,
Second Vice President and General Manager, receipt of which is hereby respectfully ac-
knowledged, has been referred to me for reply.

Referring to the resolution adopted by the Iowa Jobbers' and Manufacturers' Association, forwarded to the Board of Commissioners, we would respectfully submit: That the principle of "a less price for a larger quantity" has always been recognized by this company in common with all other Iowa railroads, as just and equitable. We believe, for instance, that a grocer who ships a car load of sugar, soap, coffee, or molasses; or a hardware merchant who receives his purchases of nails, spikes, iron, etc., in full car loads, is entitled on such shipments to a lower rate than a retailer who ships in smaller quantities; and if your honorable Board will refer to the Joint Western Classification, which governs on the local traffic of lowa as well as on that interchanged with other States, you will see that this idea has not been lost sight of, but has on the contrary been a ruling motive in fixing the classification which should apply on the coarser articles of commerce, that are usually shipped in large quantities. By the system of classification adopted by the railroads, rates are provided for articles shipped in quantities aggregating a car load, ranging from ten to twenty-three per cent less than the rates on the same commodities in quantities less than a car load.

The joint action of all the roads interested in the transportasion of freight from Chicago and the east, in withdrawing special rates last summer which had been granted prior to that time on all classes of freight in large or small quantities to the jobbers at several points in Iowa, was taken, not, as is charged in the resolution referred to, on the demand of the spe

cial jobbing interests of Chicago, but because of the unanimous sentiment of the represent-atives of all the roads interested, that the system of giving special rates to individuals was pernicious, and in the interest of the few against the many, and in favor of certain towns and localities to the detriment of others. This opinion, I am free to say, was originally held by a few only of the roads interested in Iowa traffic, when the practice of giving special rates to individual jobbers was inaugurated, but the abuses which had grown up under the system became so gross, that when the matter was taken up and discussed from every point of view in the meetings of last summer, there was not a dissenting voice against the proposition, which emanated from no one road in particular, for the entire withdrawal of all special rates to individuals. It was felt by the roads assembled that any concession of rates to the jobbing trade should be made on commodities and not to individuals; that the roads could not attempt to decide who were jobbers and who were not: that by making concession to one firm who classed themselves as jobbers because they employed one or more traveling salesmen to sell their goods, and refusing them to another firm doing a retail business, and receiving an equal and in many cases a greater quantity of freight of one kind, we would be making an invidious distinction between individual merchants or firms, and lay ourselves. liable to the charge of discrimination in its worst form.

As your Honorable Board is no doubt aware, these concessions to the jobbing intereststhe withdrawal of which is complained of--were not granted to the wholesale trade at Missouri river points, including Council Bluffs, Omaha and Sioux City; no other special distinction being made between jobbers and retailers at these points than was afforded by the classification, which, as stated above, fully recognizes the principle of "a lower rate for a larger quantity." No concession whatever in the way of special rates, apart from the distinction established by the classification, are made to the jobbers of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Dakota, and one of the leading motives on the part of the roads having lines In other States than Iowa for the withdrawal of the special rates from Iowa jobbers, was the conviction that they could not consistently continue them, and refuse to make similar concessions to the jobbing interests of other States.

Another point to which we would call your attention is that the rates heretofore granted to the manufacturers of Iowa have not been withdrawn, and if you will cause an inquiry to be made of manufacturers, we are confident you will find that as a class they do not join in the action of the jobbers as indicated in the resolution referred to. We have always recognized the fact that in order to compete with eastern factories, the manufacturers of Iowa must have low rates on their raw material, and reasonable rates on their manufactured goods, and no action has been taken by this company looking toward the withdrawal of special rates made them on such freight, except that it has been thought best, wherever possible, to make the special on the commodity itself instead of to individual manufacturers, and this we understand is substantially the position taken by all lines from Chicago to Iowa points. We cannot but think that the association of manufacturers with jobbers in the resolution referred to was made either under a misapprehension of the actual facts, or in order to strengthen the jobbers in their struggle for a continuation of the extraordinary privileges. which had heretofore been granted them. We are fully cognizant of the fact that the best Interests of Iowa railroads are subserved by fostering the manufacturing and other industries of the State, and our efforts in the future, as they have been in the past, will be directed toward that end. Very truly,

[Signed]

H. C. WICKER, Traffic Manager.

WABASH, ST. LOUIS & PACIFIC RAILWAY,
Office of GENERAL TRAFFIC MANAGER,
ST. LOUIS, Mo., April 10, 1885.

E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Scc'y Board Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa:

DEAR SIR-The communication of your honorable Board under date of the 31st ult. to Mr. Jas. F. How, general agent for the receivers, has been referred to this office. Absence from the city is my apology for delay in making answer thereto.

You invite our attention to a resolution adopted by the Iowa Manufacturers' and Jobbers'

Association, and further recite that "if as stated in the resolution herewith enclosed, rates heretofore granted to Iowa jobbers and manufacturers have been withdrawn at the demand and in the interest of outside jobbers, it must be apparent that great injury will necessarily result therefrom to Iowa interests. Her people are clearly entitled to the same facilities and opportunities that are granted to others, and will be satisfied with nothing less."

We heartily endorse and reciprocate the sentiment expressed by you, that if rates heretofore granted to Iowa jobbers and manufacturers have been withdrawn at the demand and in the interest of outside jobbers, then Iowa merchants and manufacturers certainly have good ground for complaint. Such discrimination on the part of railway managers would not admit of defense, nor would any defense be offered. The people of Iowa are as you say "clearly entitled to the same facilities and opportunities that are granted to others "—uo more; no less. It is a sound principle of common law, and one by which we are governed in all our dealings with merchants and manufacturers on all parts of our extended system, not to discriminate in favor of or against any locality or individual, but giving to all like rates and facilities under like circumstances. If the merchants and manufacturers at other towns or cities with which Des Moines competes have more favorable rates, then the rates at Des Moines should be so modified as to meet such competition. But I do not think that it will be found that such is the case-it certainly is not so far as this company is concerned. The same rule that governs in making rates at Des Moines applies at Council Bluffs, Omaha, St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth, Kansas City and other points. We will be glad to do anything we can consistently to remove all cause for friction, harmonize any existing differences and advance our mutual interests.

[Signed]

Yours truly,

JAMES SMITH, Gen'l Traffic Manager.

BURLINGTON, CEDAR RAPIDS & NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY.
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT,
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA, April 4, 1885. §

E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Secretary Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa:

DEAR SIR-In reply to yours of March 31st regarding rates for manufacturers and jobbers in Iowa, I would say that in my opinion the manufacturers of Iowa are well taken care of. As low rates are made to them on the material used by them as can be made, and leave any margin for profit, and so far as the manufacturers on our line are concerned, very low rates are made on their goods to local points. I do not hear of any complaints from them in regard to their rates of freight, either in or out. As the manufacturers are the parties named in the petition who give employment to labor, it would seem that these interests are fully protected. As to the jobbers, the present rates give the legitimate jobbers the advantages which they claim they should have, in the fact that the rates on car loads, as on iron, nails, sugar, coffee, canned goods, soap, woodenware, etc., etc., are lower than on the same articles In less than car loads, which would seem to be the legitimate advantage to which the jobber is entitled. Trusting the above explanation is satisfactory, I am,

Very truly yours,

C. J. IVES, President and General Superintendent.

CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY.
GENERAL MANAGER'S OFFICE,
MILWAUKEE, April 7, 1885.

E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Secretary Board of Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa;

DEAR SIR-I am in receipt of your favor of the 31st ult, embodying resolution of the Towa Jobbers' & Manufacturers' Association, and the views of the Commissioners thereupon. In reply I beg to say that I am not aware that there have ever been any efforts, either direct or Indirect, on the part of the Chicago jobbers, to secure the withdrawal of special rates mado to the Iowa jobbers. The action was taken in consequence of the numerous complications growing out of the number of special rates to jobbers. It seemed impossible to limit the points at which such rates should be given, or to define the conditions as between individuals

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