JAMES & ABBOTT v. THE EAST TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA & GEORGIA RAILWAY COMPANY; THE NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY; THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY; THE CUMBERLAND VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY; THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY; THE NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD COMPANY; AND THE NEW YORK & NEW ENGLAND RAILROAD COMPANY. Complaint filed February 18, 1889. Answers filed separately, the last, 1. GREATER CHARGE FOR A SHORTER DISTANCE. When combined competition by rail and water do not justify it. The presence of combined rail and water competition at a longer-distance point does not justify a greater charge for a shorter distance while the carrier maintains the shorter-distance rate where such competition is of greater force and more controlling than at the longer-distance point. 2. SAME.- Where freights have paid local rates. Nor does the fact that the freight is lumber which has paid a local rate over the roads of the defendants or of other railroad companies to the longer-distance point justify such greater charge for a shorter distance. 3. SAME.-Empty cars and return loads. Nor is such greater charge justified by the fact that the lumber business of the roads of a connecting line or any of them was done in cars which carried machinery to the longerdistance point when profitable return loads were not always to be had. 4. SAME.-Bulk and value of the freight. Nor does a difference in the bulk and value of lumber justify such greater charge when the carriers in their published rate sheets put the lumber in the same class and at the same rate. 5. REASONABLE RATES.-Distance as a measure of railroad service. Distance is not always the controlling element in determining what is a reasonable rate, but there is ordinarily no better measure of railroad service in carrying goods than the distance they are carried. And where the rate of freight charges over one line, on similar freight carried from neighboring territory to the same market, is considerably greater than over other lines for distances as long or longer, such greater rate is held to be excessive and should be reduced. A. B. Paine, for complainants. William M. Baxter, for the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Co. and other defendants. Enoch Totten, for the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. REPORT AND OPINION OF THE COMMISSION. MORRISON, Commissioner: This is a complaint of the transportation charges on lumber carried from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Boston, Massachusetts. The rate of which complaint is made is thirty-six cents per hundred pounds of lumber in the car-load for a distance of nine hundred and eleven miles, though from the more distant point of Atlanta, Georgia, twelve hundred and forty miles, a lower rate of thirty-four cents is charged, which is alleged to be in violation of the Fourth Section of the Act to regulate commerce. From Macon, Georgia, to Boston, the freight charge is the same as from Johnson City, four hundred and seventeen miles the shorter distance over the same line. The complainants aver that said railroad companies form under joint traffic arrangements one connecting through line and in carrying lumber at these rates perform for others a much greater service for the same compensation and for others again a much greater service for less compensation than is exacted and received from the complainants as shippers from Johnson City. They further aver that the rate so exacted from them restricts and injures their business, that their reasonable request for its reduction has been refused and they are obliged in their trade to ship over said roads. They therefore complain and ask that the Johnson City rate may be so reduced as to bear a just relation to the rates charged from Macon and Atlanta, and that they may be granted such other relief as may be found on investigation. to be reasonable. The defendant Railroad Companies, answering separately, admit that the rates charged and the distances are the same as stated in the complaint, and aver that said rates are made by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company, the initial or sending company, and that as forwarders the other companies are not responsible for the rates so made. Defendants deny that the rates on lumber carried over their roads are unjust or unreasonable, and aver that the reasons justifying the said rates of thirty-six cents and thirty-four cents per hundred pounds, respectively, from Macon and Atlanta, distant thirteen hundred and twenty-eight and twelve hundred and forty miles from Boston, as compared with the rate of thirty-six cents per hundred pounds for the shorter distance from Johnson City to Boston, are as follows: "a.-That the rates in the State of Georgia are fixed and controlled by the Railroad Commissioners of that State, that Commission fixing the charges for transportation to coast cities from mills in the State of Georgia." "b.—The fact of water competition from Brunswick, Georgia, on the Atlantic ocean to Boston and other North Atlantic points; that, adding the rate from the mills to Brunswick, as fixed by the Railroad Commissioners of Georgia, to the rate given by the coast-line water carriers to Boston, the aggregate is less than the amount charged, as aforesaid, upon the tariffs of the respondents on their through railroad carriage from Macon and Atlanta to Boston." "c.-A large amount of freight is received at Atlanta and Macon from eastern cities, including Boston, the cars containing which would have to return empty in large part, but for the fact that they can be returned loaded with lumber." "d. The reason why the Atlanta charge is the same as that from Macon (the Atlanta charge is two cents lower) arises from the fact that lumber shipped from Atlanta is manufactured at mills a considerable distance from that city, and transported there over local roads before being marketed." "e. That the lumber shipped from Johnson City is for the most part poplar lumber, while that which goes from Georgia territory is exclusively Georgia pine; and that the rate per hundred pounds per mile for hauling poplar, by reason of its greater bulk, should reasonably be greater than that for hauling pine." The amended answer of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company states that the rate from Macon, Georgia, to Boston is two cents higher than from Atlanta to Boston, the statement in its original answer that the rate was the same being a mistake-and for further answer: "That poplar lumber is of much greater value than the yellow pine lumber of Georgia, and upon that ground also it should bear a higher rate than yellow pine." The rate of charges and the distances to which the charges apply are admitted to be as stated in the complaint, and additional facts are found on investigation, viz: I. The complainants are lumber merchants and have in connection with their business invested a considerable sum at Johnson City, Tennessee, where they buy poplar lumber and ship it over the defendants' roads to Boston, the complainants' place of business. The lumber is there sold in competition with similar lumber carried to that market at lower aggregate rates. Some of the points from which the competing lumber is shipped are: Miles. Rate. Parkersburg and West Va., distance from Boston, 860, 26 cts. per 100 lbs. Kanawha, Albans, Milton and St.) 64 1,000, 29 935) and 33 973) II. The defendants' several lines form a through and connecting line over which lumber and other property are carried to Boston and other northeastern points from various places in the States of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, on the lines of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company, including Johnson City, Tennessee, and Atlanta and Macon, Georgia, on one and the same line. Such through line extends from Boston southwesterly to Cleveland, Tennessee, and from there curves southeasterly to the coast at Brunswick, Georgia. Defendants have another line, being the same as that described above, from Boston to Cleveland, and from there extends through Chattanooga, Tennessee, Decatur, Alabama, Corinth, Mississippi, and to the Mississippi river at Memphis, Tennessee. III. The charges complained of were in force in 1885, when complainants commenced shipping lumber from Johnson City. Of the Atlanta rate, 34 cts., the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company receives 89-10 cts. for the haul over its line to Bristol, and the other defendants 251-10 cts. for the haul over their lines east of Bristol. The Johnson City rate, 36 cts., is divided, 4 cts. to the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company for the haul to Bristol and 32 cts. to the lines east of Bristol. The 4 cts. which goes to the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company is arbitrary and would be the same under the traffic arrangement of defendants if the through rate were reduced or increased. The local rate from Atlanta to Johnson City is 12 cts. per hundred pounds. The defendants' rates on goods of the first class are : IV. The Railroad Commissioners of Georgia are authorized to establish maximum rates in that State, and have established rates on lumber in the car-load of 24,000 pounds, viz: Miles. Between Atlanta and the coast at Savannah.... 295, $24.00 The rates to the coast combined with the ocean rate usu |