are grain and stock. By some of the witnesses it is estimated that with better outlets to and from consuming markets this producing area would originate and consume as many as 5,000 carloads of freight yearly, of which 75 per cent would come from or be destined to interstate points. From its various loading stations the complainant actually hauled during the last year 423 carloads of live stock, of which 170 carloads were consigned to points outside the state. It moved during that year a total of 930 carloads of freight of all kinds. Of the several stations along the line of complainant's road Swisher, 9 miles south of Cedar Rapids, and North Liberty, 18 miles south of Cedar Rapids, are the more important shipping points. At the former place there is a grain elevator, a coal yard, a yard for loading live stock, a general store, and a lumber yard. There is sufficient business there to require the complainant to maintain a day and night agent at its station and also to justify a side track 1,000 feet in length. The nearest station from Swisher on the line of the defendant is Fairfax, some 9 miles distant. North Liberty, with a population of from 400 to 500 inhabitants, is a local shipping point of growing activity. It maintains an elevator, a coal yard, a lumber yard, three or four stores, and a blacksmith shop. The complainant also requires a day and night agent at its station at this point. It also has a side track there 1,050 feet in length. At Coralville there are several stores, a flour and feed mill, and an electric-light plant that furnishes light and power to Iowa City, which is 3 miles distant. At this point the complainant also maintains a day and night agent at its station. A number of witnesses residing and doing business at and near the various stations along the line of the complainant unite in saying that it would be a material advantage to them as shippers to have the benefit of through routes and joint rates, as prayed for in the petition. The record does not clearly indicate the distances from all the intermediate points on the complainant's line to the nearest available freight-receiving stations on the lines of the steam railroads that surround the region in question. North Liberty, which is near the center of the area and 5 miles from Tiffin in a straight line, is 7 miles from that point by the country roads; it is 12 miles from Oxford, also a point on the Rock Island road. It will doubtless be agreed that these distances make a long drive for hogs and cattle and a long wagon haul for grains and other heavy farm products produced in the immediate neighborhood of North Liberty; they are long distances for merchants to haul their stocks of goods. And when facilities are closer at hand over another road we regard it as unreasonable to require the intervener and other shippers and merchants at North Liberty to go so far in order to reach a railroad station at and from which they may receive and ship their merchandise under through bills of lading and have the benefit of joint through rates. While some of the other stations on the complainant's line are nearer than is North Liberty to freight-receiving stations of the regular carriers, none is so near as to give its merchants and shippers the prompt and reasonably convenient access to through shipping facilities to which they are fairly entitled. The transportation requirements of these small centers where horses, cattle, hogs, and other products of the adjacent countryside are concentrated for shipment, where some small general merchandizing is done, and to which lumber, coal, and other commodities are brought in to supply local demands, are more extensive than the transportation requirements of a mere country loading point serving one or more farms of the character described in the case above cited. And such centers, though relatively of small commercial importance, are nevertheless entitled to and should receive at the hands of the carriers ample facilities for handling their traffic from and to the markets on through routes and joint rates. On the whole record we are satisfied that the shipping communities on the complainant's line, the merchants and storekeepers doing business there, and the farmers and other producers in the regions tributary to those points, do not at this time enjoy the benefit. of any reasonable or satisfactory through routes from and to Chicago and other points served by the defendant carrier. We are also satisfied that there is sufficient traffic offered for through movement to justify the Commission in ordering the establishment of such through routes and joint through rates. These observations must be understood as applying to Coralville and to all stations on the complainant's line north of that point. As heretofore stated, the southern terminus of the complainant is Iowa City. Although there was an effort to prove that the shippers of Iowa City are not well served by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, which has long maintained a freight and passenger station at that point, the contention is practically unsupported by testimony and we must regard it therefore as being without merit. On the evidence adduced we are of the opinion that the Rock Island, through various junction points with the lines of the defendant, offers the shippers of Iowa City and the country district tributary to it reasonable and satisfactory through routes to and from Chicago and various other points on the lines of the defendant; there is therefore no sufficient basis for an order establishing through routes from and to Iowa City via the complainant's line. There remains for consideration, therefore, only the question as to what joint through rates shall be established from and to Coralville, and the intermediate points to the north on the line of the complainant, to and from Chicago and other points on the line of the defendant via the junction point of the two roads at Cedar Rapids. The class rates of the defendant, expressed in cents per 100 pounds, between Chicago and common points and Cedar Rapids are as follows: Classes.. 11 The rates on some of the more important commodities produced in and shipped, in more or less large quantity, from the country surrounding Cedar Rapids are as follows: The towns of Beverly, Fairfax, Norway, Watkins, Blairstown, and Luzerne lie on the line of the defendant west of Cedar Rapids at distances of 6, 9, 15, 20, 25, and 30 miles, respectively. All these points are grouped by the defendant with Cedar Rapids and take the same class rates. As far west as Watkins the rates on the commodities above mentioned are also substantially the same as the rates on the same commodities to Cedar Rapids. Lying some miles west of the right of way of the complainant are Fairfax, Walford, and Amana on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and Oxford and Tiffin on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; all of which points have been grouped by the respective roads, so far as rates are concerned, more or less closely with Cedar Rapids. While it may not be quite accurate to say that they all take the Cedar Rapids class and commodity rates, such a statement would be substantially true, for the variations, where variations exist at all, are very slight. Moreover, the class and commodity rates between Chicago and common points and Iowa City are substantially the same as the Cedar Rapids rates. Coralville and points north of it, intermediate to Cedar Rapids, thus lie in a group of points taking practically the same rates to and from Chicago. And therefore to deny to them equal rates with those points will manifestly leave shippers on the line of the complainant at a disadvantage. Nevertheless some recognition must be given to the well-established rule that joint rates over two or more connecting lines may and ought ordinarily to be higher than the rates on one-line movements. Taking all these elements into consideration, a proper adjustment of the matter would seem to require us to group Coralville with all other points on complainant's line intermediate to Cedar Rapids, and to establish joint through rates between the group so formed and all interstate points on the defendant's line by adding 10 per cent to the defendant's class and commodity rates between Cedar Rapids and other points on its line. It will be understood, however, that the joint rates so to be established shall in no case exceed the combination of locals on Cedar Rapids. In case no agreement can be reached by the two companies as to the divisions of the joint through rates so established, the Commission upon suggestion by either of them will give the matter further consideration and will direct what the divisions shall be. An order may be entered accordingly. 13 I. C. C. Rep. No. 1156. F. J. GENTRY v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY AND CHOCTAW, OKLAHOMA & GULF RAILROAD COMPANY. Submitted January 2, 1908. Decided March 9, 1908. For reasons given in Haines v. C., R. I. & P. Ry. Co. et al., 13 I. C. C. Rep., 214, the complaint in this case is dismissed. West, Scott & Otjen, F. G. Walling, and F. L. Boynton for complainant. E. B. Peirce and M. L. Bell for defendants. REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. LANE, Commissioner: This complaint was filed on June 28, 1907, by a retail coal dealer, residing at Pond Creek, Okla. The complaint is as to rates on coal from Hartford and Huntington, Ark., and Alderson, Krebs, Dow, McAlester, Fairville, Wilburton, Haileyville, Burr Oak, Baker, Howe, Gowan, Mulberry, and Henryetta, all in the state of Oklahoma (formerly Indian Territory), to Pond Creek and other points in Grant County, Okla. This case is in all respects the same as that of Haines v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company et al., 13 I. C. C., Rep. 214, and for the reasons therein stated this complaint will be dismissed. 13 I. C. C. Rep. |