in the Wilson case, was requested from East St. Louis by the Baltimore & Ohio, and from Chicago by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis.

Protestant ships over both the Louisville & Nashville and Southern routes. Because of the high level of the rates over the latter as compared with those over the former it made practically no shipments over the Southern route between March 1, 1926, and November 1, 1928. It states that it is desirable that all normal and feasible routes be available at the same rates. Embargoes, transportation conditions, and high water affecting the service over one route are instanced as reasons for having available other routes. The Southern's peddler cars depart from East St. Louis approximately two hours later than those of the Louisville & Nashville, but both make the same connections at Louisville. Due to this difference in time, protestant frequently finds that it is to its advantage to use the Southern route.

Protestant relies on the findings in the Wilson case as showing that the rates therein prescribed over the Louisville & Nashville route would be reasonable also for application over the Southern route. There is no showing by respondents that the transportation conditions over the Southern route are less favorable and protestant urges that the conditions over that route are more favorable up to Louisville. From Louisville the service and transportation conditions are identical. We are of the opinion that the proposed rates are unreasonable. It is therefore unnecessary to give consideration to protestant's contention that the proposed schedules are in violation of the provisions of paragraph 3 of section 3 of the interstate commerce act, which forbids discrimination between connecting lines.

We find that the proposed schedules have not been justified. An order will be entered requiring their cancellation and discontinuing this proceeding.

157 I. C. C.

No. 20505

HALLSBORO MANUFACTURING COMPANY ET AL. V. ATLANTIC COAST LINE RAILROAD COMPANY ET AL.

Submitted December 26, 1928. Decided September 4, 1929

Rates on excelsior, in carloads, from Hallsboro, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond,
Petersburg, Ashland, and Jarratt, Va., to Louisville, Ky., St. Louis, Mo., and
Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio, found unreasonable but not
otherwise unlawful. Reasonable rates prescribed for the future.

H. E. Manghum and Manghum & Shands for complainants.
Mason Manghum and T. C. Crouch for intervener.

J. P. Cook, E. R. Gardner, T. Jefferson, jr., Theodore W. Reath, W. H. T. Loyall, H. G. Fitzpatrick, D. Lynch Younger, and W. N. McGehee for defendants.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION

DIVISION 3, COMMISSIONERS AITCHISON, TAYLOR, AND PORTER

BY DIVISION 3:

Exceptions were filed by complainants and defendants to the report proposed by the examiner. Our conclusions differ from those recommended by him.

Complainants, J. P. Baker, D. W. Quarles, and W. Howard Baker, copartners, manufacturing and selling excelsior at Hallsboro, Va., under the firm name of Hallsboro Manufacturing Company, and the Virginia Shippers' Association, a voluntary unincorporated association of shippers, allege by complaint filed December 30, 1927, that the rates on excelsior, in carloads, from Hallsboro, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Petersburg, Ashland, and Jarratt, Va., to Louisville, Ky., St. Louis, Mo., and Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio, were, are, and for the future will be unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory, unduly prejudicial to Hallsboro and the other Virginia points, and unduly preferential of producing points in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and nonprejudicial rates for the future are sought. The Chamber of Commerce of Richmond, Va., intervened on behalf of complainants, but introduced no evidence. Rates will be stated in amounts per 100 pounds.

There are no excelsior-producing plants at Richmond or Norfolk. The producers at Hallsboro, Petersburg, Jarratt, Portsmouth, and Ashland ship to the same destinations. No shipments have been made, however, to the destinations here considered, and it is contended that none can be made under the rates assailed. The gravamen of the complaint is that complainants can not compete with excelsior producers at Donaldson, Malvern, Benton, and Little Rock, Ark., Mobile, McWilliams, and Suggsville, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Green Bay, Wis., because of the higher rates applicable from the Virginia points, and from Hallsboro in particular.

Excelsior is used in packing, upholstering, and wrapping furniture, making mattresses, and stuffing various articles, in competition with shavings, sawdust, rice straw, and cottonseed-hull fiber or shavings, which are fairly comparable with excelsior from a transportation standpoint. The excelsior produced by the Hallsboro Manufacturing Company is made from pine wood drawn from the surrounding country. It is compressed into bales and shipped in box cars. The bales are 17 inches thick, 22 inches wide, and about 4 feet long, and weigh from 90 to 150 pounds each, or an average of about 110 pounds. About 230 bales, weighing approximately 26,000 pounds, are loaded in a standard 36-foot box car. The value of excelsior at Hallsboro ranged from $14.80 per net ton in 1924 to $10.30 per net ton in February, 1928. The average value in 1928 was about $13 per net ton, or 65 cents per 100 pounds.

Hallsboro is on the Southern between Richmond and Danville, Va. Norfolk and Portsmouth are also on the Southern; Petersburg and Jarratt are on the Atlantic Coast Line; and Richmond and Ashland are on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. These points are all in official territory although rates to and from Hallsboro are governed by the southern classification. All of the destinations considered are in official territory, except St. Louis, which is in western territory.

The following table compiled from exhibits of record shows the distances, rates assailed, rates sought, and the average car-mile earnings under those rates:

157 I. C. C.

Based on the average value of $13 per net ton, the rates assailed from Hallsboro are about 67 per cent, and those from the Alabama,

sin.

157 L. C. O.

Florida, and Arkansas points are about 45 per cent, of the value of the excelsior. Other rates for comparable distances are as follows:

The applicable fifth-class rates from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Cleveland and Columbus, 332 and 318 miles, respectively, are 28.5 and 29.5 cents. The foregoing rate comparisons clearly indicate that the rates assailed are too high.

Defendants contend that the rates on excelsior from the Virginia points to the destinations considered should be seventh class. The seventh-class rates from Hallsboro to Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Columbus are 55, 49, 62, 50, and 50 cents, respectively. In Hay, Straw, and Excelsior, 146 I. C. C. 664, wherein ratings on numerous commodities from points in southern territory to official territory were considered, we found that the carload rating on excelsior in southern classification should not exceed 27.5 per cent of first class. Our finding therein was without prejudice to the establishment of interterritorial rates on excelsior based on the rating approved for southern territory.

In the following table the average distances, first-class rates, and 27.5 per cent thereof, from Norfolk, Petersburg, and Richmond to Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis are compared with the average distances and corresponding rates from Hallsboro to the same destinations.