RAILROAD COMMISSION OF OHIO. Office Address, Capitol Trust Building, Columbus, Ohio. J. C. MORRIS, Commissioner (Chairman). O. H. HUGHES, Commissioner.. O. P. GOTHLIN, Commissioner. H. D. MANINGTON, Secretary, E. H. HANNA, Statistician.... D. S. ARCHER, Stenographer W. O. JACKSON, Chief Inspector.. O. F. McJUNKIN, Inspector.... J. B. DUGAN, Inspector..... D. F. JOHNSON, Inspector of Couplers and Brakes. LENORA STUBBS, Clerk...... LOUIE E. CARLISLE, Clerk. Youngstown, Ohio .Hillsboro, Ohio ...Urbana, Ohio .Nelsonville, Ohio ..Columbus, Ohio Springfield, Ohio .Dayton, Ohio ..Kenton, Ohio Columbus, Ohio .West Elkton, Ohio .Hillsboro, Ohio COMMISSIONERS OF RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS. Department Created April 5, 1867-Term of Office, Two Years. CONTENTS PART I. INTRODUCTION. PART II. DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS. PART III. OPERATING OFFICERS. PART IV. STATISTICAL TABLES. PART V. OPINIONS AND DECISIONS OF THE COMMISSION. PART VI. Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of Ohio COLUMBUS, OHIO, December 31, 1906. HON. ANDREW L. HARRIS, Governor of Ohio: SIR: In accordance with the statutory requirement the Railroad Commission of Ohio herewith submits its first report. The same is necessarily only for a fraction of the year 1906, as the Commission has been organized but five months. The statistical part of the report is mainly that of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, whose office was abolished and the duties thereof devolved upon this Commission by the new act. These statistics are for the year ending June 30, 1906, and therefore more properly belong to the office of the late commissioner, since this commission was organized after that date, but are herewith. included that there may be no interruption in the continuity of the statistics which have been published for some years in the annual reports of the former department. This Commission was appointed by you under and by virtue of an act of the General Assembly of Ohio, passed April 2, 1906 (98 O. L., p. 342), entitled "An act to regulate railroads and other common carriers in this state, create a board of railroad commissioners, prevent the imposition of unreasonable rates, prevent unjust discrimination and insure an adequate railway service." The members of the Commission met on August 1st for organization, which was effected by the selection of James C. Morris, as chairman; Oliver H. Hughes, as vice-chairman, and the appointment of Howard D. Manington as secretary. Other clerks and employees were later appointed by the Commission. A serious embarrassment that confronted the Commission at the outset was the lack of sufficient office room to accommodate the work which the new act entailed. The adjutant general was directed by the statute to furnish the Commission with suitable rooms and furniture. Since there were no rooms available, and no appropriation was made for the purpose of making purchases of furniture, it became necessary for the Commission to make its own arrangements. The Commission appealed to the emergency board for authority to contract a debt to meet this extraordinary expense imposed upon it, but the attorney general, to whom the application was referred, held that the emergency was not one that the board could properly recognize, and the board declined to authorize the creation of a debt by the Commission. Desiring to put into execution the law of its creation, notwithstanding the oversight of the General Assembly, the Commission, after obtaining the opinion of the attorney general and the auditor of state as to its power to do so, leased space outside the state house where it has conducted the clerical work of the Commission, retaining one of its former rooms in the capitol as its hearing room. While the work of organizing the Commission and placing it on a systematic basis has been of much concern, the practical work has not been retarded, but has gone forward from the very organization, as the number of complaints filed, heard and determined will sustain. CONFERENCES. Recognizing that the work of this body, to be successfully conducted, must be in many respects in the nature of arbitration the Commission has pursued, wherever practicable, this plan. To this end conferences with railroad representatives have been held as follows: (1) with officials of the traffic departments; (2) with traffic officials of coal originating roads; (3) with officials of operating departments; (4) with officials of passenger departments; (5) with operating and executive officials of interurban electric roads. These conferences, which were participated in very cordially by all invited, were productive of much good by way of mutual understanding of the laws and the practices thereunder. One result of these conferences, which we desire to particularly remark, is that the coal originating roads have arranged to change their system of making coal rates within the state of Ohio. The former practice of many coal roads was to make coal rates to non-competitive points from their own coal shipping points only, while at the same time. they made rates to competitive points from all coal shipping points in the state. At the instance of the Commission they agreed to give to non-competitive points within the state of Ohio the same advantages in the matter of coal rates that were enjoyed by competitive points and to publish tariffs accordingly. TWO-CENT FARE. The General Assembly by an amendment to section 3374 of the Revised Statutes changed the legal rate of fare for passengers within the state of Ohio from three to two cents per mile. When the Commission came into office it found the two-cent law was being observed on intra-state business only. Conferences were held with the passenger officials at which was considered the application of the two-cent law upon inter-state traffic, with the result that on November 1st the carriers put in new rates on through, or interstate travel, based on the Ohio two-cent law, except inbound rates from New York and intermediate points, which we are assured will be put into effect January 1st, 1907. The passage of this law changing the passenger fare has been followed by a voluntary reduction of the passenger rates in other neighboring states by practically every steam road traversing Ohio. Because of the fact that the new passenger rate did not become effective but a trifle more than three months* before the annual reports *The new passenger rate became effective March 10, 1906, and the annual reports |