the highest class shall be charged on all the articles that make up the car-load."

In the Classification of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association a rule reads thus:

"Car-load rates' applies to one shipment to one consignee of one article of freight to secure reduced rates where provided for by the classification."

The Texas Classification, on the other hand, enumerates thirty-four different groups of articles under the following

note:

"The following articles as described and named below may be loaded in the same car, and on which carload rates for their class will apply."

The Pacific Coast West Bound Classification provides that

"On mixed car-loads the less than car-load rates will apply."

While the Southern Pacific Company, in respect to local tariffs on its Pacific system, has amended Rule 7 of the Western Classification as follows:

"Mixed car-loads of articles, for each of which a car-load rate is named, may take the highest car-load rate named on any of the articles in the lot, if for one consignee by one shipper."

It is apparant that in every case of a shipment of a mixed car-load of goods the shipper must possess and must carefully study the classifications in use throughout the whole route covered by the way bill in order to ascertain what the proper charge should be or whether he has been overcharged in the transaction. A shipment starting under one rule and passing into a territory where a different rule is in force is liable to have the rate increased unless the station agent at the initial point is thoroughly conversant with all the classifications; and on the other hand, such a shipment is liable to be charged through to the destination upon the

less than car-load basis, while entitled to considerable reduction under other classifications before the destination is reached.

The aggregate amount of shipments in mixed car-load lots upon all the lines in the country is considerable. The inconsistencies in the treatment of such shipments by different carriers under different classifications, and frequently by the same carrier where different classifications are used for different destinations, have been a source of constant annoyance to the community, and have constituted one of the little things the multiplication of which has tended to create and intensify a feeling of irritation on the part of the public against railroads and their managers. It is excessively annoying for a shipper who has made up a car-load lot in the expectation of receiving a car-load rate to find that a few more dollars are exacted because the rule in force on some connecting road prohibits the car-load rate in case more than one kind of articles are embraced in the shipment, although no substantial increased expense to the carriers is involved; and it is still more annoying to find that a rate apparently shown by the tariff sheets of the carrier at the shipping point is not sufficient to obtain the delivery of the goods at destination; or, on the other hand, that he might have obtained a lower rate if he had been fully apprised of the diversities prevailing in different sections or in respect to different consignments.

This whole matter is in a state of elaborate and unjustifiable confusion. It should be taken up at once by the various traffic managers and associations controlling classification in different parts of the country and a common rule immediately established. Such a rule, in order to be satisfactory and just, should be precisely fair as between the shipper and the carrier, easily comprehended in its terms, reasonable in its nature, and applicable throughout every shipment without change.

The carriers of the whole country are interested and would be entitled to be heard, either generally or through their associations, before the Commission could safely make such an order as would meet the case; at the present time, therefore,

the Commission only recommends the immediate adoption of some uniform classification rule which shall definitely control the question of mixed car-load shipments.

Second-Different Classification of Raisins and Dried Fruit. -Continuing the statement of facts in reference to the case in hand, it should be further noted that a comparison of the classifications shows that in the Western Classification, in force on business from the Pacific Coast to all points west of the Missouri river, raisins are classed higher than dried fruits, while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification, in force on business from the Pacific coast to the Missouri river and common points, St. Louis and common points, Chicago and common points, New York and common points, etc., California raisins in car-load lots are found in the same class with dried fruits in car-loads.

These diversities involved the subject in confusion, as understood by complainants and presented in their proofs. It is a source of infinite misunderstanding that classifications so widely different as the two last above named should be employed on business from the same points, in the same direction, over the same lines. Separate tariffs are issued for the business conducted under these classifications, the tariff subject to the Western Classification reading “Joint Through Tariff between San Francisco, Sacramento," and other Pacific coast points, "and all points on the Union Pacific system east of Ogden in Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas; and all points on the Denver Pacific and Kansas Division in Colorado; and all points on the St. Joseph and Grand Island railroad."

Any person having in his hands this tariff would understand that it was applicable as well to Omaha, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Kansas City, as to Denver; but in fact another tariff is used on the business from the same Pacific points to points on the Missouri river, which is subject to the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification; and this is true although the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification contains upon its face a statement of the roads which employ it "in connection with the eastern lines," apparently excluding

the idea that it is used on business to the eastern terminals of the roads in question.

It is not surprising, under these circumstances, that complainants failed to obtain an accurate understanding of the rates to Missouri river points for comparison with the rates to Denver.

In the Western Classification Dried Fruits are rated L. C. L. Class 3, C. L. Class 4; while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification the same articles are rated L. C. L. Class 5, C. L. Class 7. Raisins, in the Western Classification, stand L. C. L. Class 2, C. L. Class 3; while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification they stand L. C. L. Class 4, C. L. Class 7.

One effect of applying the Western Classification to this article is to impose a car-load rate on raisins higher than is charged on dried fruits. In the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification raisins in car-loads are in the same class with dried fruits in car-loads. In less than car-loads the classification of raisins is higher than that of dried fruits in both

cases.

It appears from the evidence that the value of California raisins is quite uniformly less than the value of the article sold as California dried fruits. Complainants testify that no distinction in classification between California raisins and dried fruit was enforced on shipments to Denver previous to April 5, 1887. No reason is apparent why the dried fruits of California should not be construed to embrace raisins, except the fact that the classification has the word "Raisins" in another place. This interpretation would have entitled the complainants to a car-load rate in Class 4 of $1.95 on 20,925 lbs. $408.03.

These irregularities and inconsistencies are not reasonable. In all matters of classification the influence of the Commission will be cast in the direction of clearnesss and simplicity. Instead of seeking for reasons justifying the existing confusion, persistent efforts should be made to efface it. It is of little consequence how such complications arose. The present question is, what is now reasonable and just in view of

the principles established in the Act to regulate commerce. Whatever is not so should be corrected as speedily as is practicable.

In the present case the rating of the same kind of commodities in different classes works an injustice which needs only be stated to be seen. Dried grapes are certainly dried fruit, equally with dried peaches, plums, or apricots; their value, as above shown, is less; and the word "raisins" in the Western Classification (very likely in the first instance applied to the shipments west from Chicago of the imported "raisins" of Europe), has the effect here to impose a burden which is not supported upon any reason adduced in the proofs, and which the East Bound Classification for through business, deliberately adopted by the same carriers, does not impose.

Third-Intermediate Rates Exceeding Rates to Terminus and Return.-Returning again to the complainant's statement of complaint, they allege that the rates from San Francisco to Denver are greater than the rates from San Francisco to the Missouri river and back again to Denver, by means of which discrimination they aver that they have been driven out of the market in the vicinity of their own home. They introduced evidence in support of this allegation, which they evidently believed to be true. This evidence need not be stated in detail, for the reason that it was founded upon a natural confusion growing out of the application of different classifications to the rates in the tariff sheets. It is sufficient to say that the Commission does not find the fact to be as alleged; but, on the contrary, it appears from a careful examination of all the tariffs, classifications, rules, and circulars in force upon the lines in question that in no case does the rate charged to or from any local station now exceed the rate which would be made by adding the rate to or from the nearest terminal point to the local from such terminal point to the station in question.

It is proper to add that this subject also is one which was