Statement showing the total number of tons of freight carried by the railroads of the United States for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903, with the total revenue accruing therefrom; also the revenue which would have accrued at the average rate of 95.2 cents per ton for the years ending June 30, 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903, this being the average rate for the year ending June 30, 1899; and the increase in the revenue for the years 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903 resulting from the increase in the average rate per ton for those years.

a The figures given for the year 1903 represent about 98 per cent of the total mileage.

PART II.

Summary showing gross earnings, operating expenses, ratio of operating expenses to earnings, mileage operated, etc., of the railways in the United States, for the years ending June 30, 1899, 1900, 1901, and 1902.

PART II.-Summary showing gross earnings, operating expenses, etc.-Continued.

Further, in respect to advances and reductions in Southern territory, I have a communication recently addressed to me (January 13) by the president of the King Hardware Company, of Atlanta, Ga., in which he states differences in rates on a comparatively unimportant commodity-coffee mills (although this commodity, as a matter of fact is quite an important one in the hardware trade)—which I will not read, but it shows excessive rates to Atlanta as compared with Nashville from Columbus, Ohio; Freeport, Ill., and Meriden, Conn., to which he attaches a statement of changes in classification of various articles of hardware, showing the percentage of increase in rates, as per Southern classification No. 25, which is the classification that was in force in February, 1900, when these advances in classification

were first commenced to be made, extending up to November in that same year, as compared with the current classification, No. 32, now in force, based on current rates from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Atlanta, Ga., in which the former classification and rates and changes in classification and rates are given on thirty-nine different articles of hardware, and the percentage of advance in consequence of that change in classification is shown for each, the result of which is that on the thirty-nine articles the advance in rate arising from changes in classification ranges from 13.1 to 84 per cent, and the average increase, counting the number of articles, without taking the tonnage into consideration (which it is impossible to arrive at), is 34.5 per cent. I will file this also with the committee.

E. P. BACON, Washington, D. C.

OFFICE OF KING HARDWARE COMPANY,

Atlanta, Ga., January 13, 1905.

DEAR SIR: If the papers reported Mr. Spencer correctly on yesterday, it would seem that he had overlooked the true situation with regard to the effect of some changes in the classification.

During a recent period of time, instead of everything being reduced, we herewith inclose a tabulated statement showing the increase in the percentage due to some of these reclassifications.

As an evidence of what some distributing points suffer in the way of discriminations, beg to hand you below a table showing current rates on coffee mills to Atlanta, Ga., and to Nashville, Tenn. :

We have taken the most prominent shipping points in the West, Middle West, and East. Very truly, yours,

W. E. NEWILL, Vice-President.

a These frequently move via Atlanta.

Statement of changes in classifications of hardware, showing percentage of increase in rates, per Southern classification No. 25, compared with current classification No. 32, based on current rates from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Atlanta, Ga.

30

120

50

Thirty-nine articles. Increase in rates arising from change in classification, 13.1 to 84 per cent. Average increase, 34 per cent.

I also received copy of a statement from a very large lumber corporation in Mississippi, signed by Silas W. Gardiner, one of the owners of the corporation, in which he shows the advances made in rates of freight on lumber for ten years, which I will not stop to read, but will file with the committee. It shows an advance of 4 cents per hundred pounds from the lumber district of Georgia, Ala

bama, and Mississippi to points north of the Ohio River since the year 1898. I will not take the time of the committee to read anything further from that.

The paper referred to is as follows:

Senator W. B. ALLISON, Washington, D. C.

DECEMBER 22, 1904.

DEAR SIR: I write to urge upon your attention and favorable consideration the enactment of legislation at this session of Congress giving to the Interstate Commerce Commission the power suggested by the President in his late message to Congress.

The railroads of this country have, by consolidation of interests and mergers, so entrenched and strengthened themselves, and have in so many instances made tyrannous use of their power, that conditions in many lines of business and manufacture are well-nigh intolerable. They claim the sole power to make rates and classifications, and in recent contests, where opposition has been made in this vicinity to arbitrary advances in rates on lumber, they have made the statement that the only criterion as to the justice of a rate made by them was, or is, its publication.

I would state for your information that since the beginning of 1898 rates have been advanced on southern pine lumber to points north of the Ohio River 4 cents per 100 pounds, which means an advance of $1 to $1.50 per 1,000 feet, according to the kind of lumber shipped, whether dry and dressed or rough and heavy. This is a tremendous tax to lay upon southern lumber manufacturers, because they have to absorb it in their prices. To make this clear to you I will make the following statement of average prices received by our company for each year from 1893 to 1904, inclusive:

Statement of average prices per thousand feet received for their lumber production (not including lath) by Eastman, Gardiner & Co., of Laurel, Miss., after deducting freight, for each year from 1893 to 1904, inclusive.

When you consider that wages have advanced 25 per cent and pine timber lands 100 per cent during the above period, you will see that lumbermen are not and have not been in any condition to bear these heavy advances in freight rates.

To assure you of the correctness of the above statement, we shall be willing to submit the same to you or anyone else by affidavit, and you can further confirm the statement in a general way by interviewing any of the northern_lumber dealers who are and have been handling southern pine lumber for a number of years.

This additional burden of freight rates over that of 1898 and previous, amounts to $40,000 or more on our shipments alone annually, and to millions of dollars on southern pine going into northern States.

In view of the facts above presented, I most earnestly hope you will give your support to the endeavors that are being made to enable the Interstate Commerce Commission to name a just and fair rate when complaint is made that in their judgment is unfair and unjust.

We are Iowa people, having been in business there many years, and my home is in Clinton yet. I therefore feel justified in appealing to you as a constituent to give full consideration to this great question.

Very respectfully, yours,

SILAS W. GARDINER.

I want to bring out one point in connection with the result of these advances as compared with the increase in operating expenses, the result of which it seems to me is shown more conclusively and defi