position gave it sufficient advantage as a distributing point to overcome this difference in the through rate, but the present difference is such as to force an important industry away from us.

Thus Atlanta keeps the rails hot for hundreds of miles around here with business which the railroads do not allow to come through this city.

Atlanta's progress continues in spite of this heavy handicap. This is the natural distributing point of the Southeast.

I have compiled a table of all the towns in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi with 4,000 population, and have put the distance of each from the four markets, Atlanta, Savannah, Nashville, and Birmingham. The average distances of these 78 towns from the four cities are as follows:

The importance of Atlanta as a distributing point is indicated by the postal receipts of Southern cities, namely:

Inclosed I hand you a table showing the rate per 100 pounds on boots and shoes from Boston to Atlanta and other Southern points, and in comparison therewith the number of cases of boots and shoes shipped from Boston to each of these cities during the five weeks ending February 1, 1902.

You will see that Atlanta is far in the lead of Southern cities during that period in the shoe business, and yet you will notice several of the markets, more remote than Atlanta, which enjoy as low, or a lower rate than this city, while a place like Nashville, which is farther inland, has an advantage over Atlanta to the extent of 23 cents per 100 pounds. In this connection I call your attention to the fact that while Savannah, by a combination of water and rail rates from Pittsburg, enjoys a rate of 31 cents per 100 pounds on window glass against 57 from here, Atlanta, on shoes from Boston coming through Savannah, and only 294 miles by rail, has to pay 23 cents per 100 pounds more than Nashville, which is 289 miles farther from the sea than Atlanta. It is admittedly cheaper to haul 300 miles by rail and 700 miles by water from Pittsburg to Savannah than it is to haul 800 miles by rail from Pittsburg to Atlanta, but the same rule is not applied in the case of Nashville on goods coming from Boston. In that case Atlanta should have a lower rate than Nashville, because Nashville is about twice as far from the sea, and it costs more to haul goods 300 miles by rail than it does to haul them 1,000 miles by water.

I could worry you with numberless cases showing gross discrimi

nation against Atlanta, but it is only necessary to refer to the freight tariffs, which are full of them.

I only go into this just enough to suggest the serious nature of the difficulties under which we labor and the urgent necessity for some power in the Interstate Commerce Commission to correct inequalities in freight rates. The people of Atlanta seek no advantage over other markets. By their indomitable energy and superior ability they have been able to forge ahead in spite of this heavy handicap. But I have given you instances showing that it is a handicap, and that a considerable amount of business has been forcibly taken from us by freight discrimination. The Interstate Commerce Commission has frequently found such discriminations against other towns and cities in this section, notably in the Social Circle case, which was fought all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States by the late N. J. Hammond, on the side of the people, and Mr. Baxter for the railroads, but, as the Commission itself states, its labors are in vain without the power to specify what correction should be made in cases of discrimination and the power to enforce its rulings when made.

I have written almost entirely about Atlanta, but I am satisfied that almost every town and city of Georgia would have cause for complaint in some particular, and it would not be a movement by any means in the interest of Atlanta, as against other cities, to lodge in the Commission the power it asks.

I had hoped that our chamber of commerce might be represented before your committee, but the time is too short to induce representative men to leave their business for a trip of that length.

Assuring you that the people of Atlanta will appreciate anything you can do for them in this respect, I am,

EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION BEARING UPON CHANGES IN RAILROAD RATES.

"The pooling system was looked upon with distrust by the public mainly because it seemed to be a scheme whereby competition between the roads could be obviated and rates for railroad service put up or kept up to unreasonable figures. But if railroad managers supposed that by this scheme they were to stop competition among themselves the result has not answered their expectations. The competition has still gone on; each road striving to obtain as large a share of the business as possible, and no agreement among them could altogether prevent a yielding to the pressure of shippers for lower rates.

"In 1877, when the pooling system was put in force by the Trunk Line Association, the rates charged on the first, second, third, and fourth classes of freight from New York to Chicago were, respectively, 100, 75, 60, and 45 cents per hundred pounds. They are now 75, 65, 50, and 35 cents, but the classifications as to many articles has in the meantime been reduced, so that the actual reduction is greater than these figures would indicate. Rates from Chicago to New York are also proportionately less." (First annual report, 1887, p. 34.)

"The tendency of rates has been downward, and they have seldom been permanently advanced except when excessive competition had reduced them to points at which they could not well be maintained." (First annual report, 1887, p. 42.)

"What has been here given will show conclusively that the tendency of freight rates throughout the country is downward, and that this tendency is largely due to the act to regulate commerce." (These lines conclude the "Report upon the changes in freight classifications and freight rates of the railways of the United States," compiled by Auditor McCain, fourth annual report, 1890, p. 229.)

"It was clearly demonstrated" (in Auditor McCain's report, referred to above as embraced in fourth annual report) "that from year to year there had been material reduction in the actual rates, and that the enlargement and extension of freight classification had produced important reductions in the charges upon classified traffic.

"During the current year the Commission, in compliance with a request from the Committee on Finance of the United States Senate, directed its auditor to undertake the collection of statistics showing the changes in transportation rates charged throughout the United States on the more important articles of commerce from the earliest period for which it was possible to obtain such data to the present time. This investigation probably involves a wider range of inquiry than has herertofore been undertaken for the same purpose. report will contain voluminous tables and necessarily will be of such length as will preclude its publication as a part of the Commission's report. The Commission is advised, however, that it is to be included in the report of that committee to the Senate upon the subject of prices and wages.

The

"The report of the investigation will be interesting and instructive as presenting a very full history of the changes in transportation charges throughout the United States. A material and constant decline is observed both in the rates and classifications prescribing rates. This result appears to be universal, and, as stated in one of our

former reports, the minimum has not yet been reached." Annual Report, 1892, pp. 21, 22.)

(Sixth

"While all these expectations have not been fully realized, the operation and administration of the statute have nevertheless brought about reforms in transportation which, compared with the evils that existed prior to the law, amount to commercial emancipation. To-day. extortionate charges are seldom the subject of complaint." (Seventh Annual Report, 1893, p. 12.)

As

"As an appendix to its Fourth Annual Report, the Commission published an elaborate and comprehensive paper, prepared by its auditor, in which an effort was made to present, statistically, a complete exposition of the more important changes in freight rates that had taken place since the passage of the act to regulate commerce. then summarized, the result of these changes was stated as follows: "Where changes of any importance have taken place in the freight rates of any section, either for local or competitive traffic, in nearly all cases lower rates are now charged than prior to the act to regulate commerce.'

"Subsequently a more extended inquiry concerning the rates charged for railway freight transportation covering a period of forty years, from 1852 to 1892, was undertaken by the Finance Committee of the United States Senate, Fifty-second Congress, and was placed in charge of the auditor of the Commission. The results of this investigation fully justified the statement above made."

Then follows a brief résumé of the figures in the Finance Committee's report to the Senate, in the course of which the Commission uses the following language:

"It is impracticable to present here sufficient examples to illustrate the extended reduction shown by that report, and it will probably suffice to say that they cover the entire country and include all important articles commonly offered for shipment by rail." (Eighth Annual Report, 1894, pp. 49, 50, 51.)

Commencing with its annual report of 1895, the Commission began to ask that the rate-making power be conferred upon it, and from that time seems to have refrained from commenting upon further reductions in rates. The Commission does not, however, claim that there have been any advances in rates, except that in its reports for 1899 and 1900 it comments at length on certain increases in rates by changes in classification, and implies that they were without justification. But the Commission refrained from exercising the power, which if those changes were unjustifiable it was both its right and its duty to exercise, of declaring them unlawful and taking steps to prevent their continuance.