No. 12681

CHARGES FOR WHARFAGE, HANDLING, STORAGE, AND OTHER ACCESSORIAL SERVICES AT ATLANTIC AND GULF PORTS

Submitted April 11, 1929. Decided September 30, 1929

1. Previous report 93 I. C. C. 609. Rail-water terminal facilities at north Atlantic, south Atlantic, and Gulf ports shown to be reasonably adequate to accommodate export, import, coastwise, and intercoastal traffic.

2. Evidence insufficient to show that the charges on export, import, coastwise, and intercoastal traffic imposes a burden upon other traffic.

8. The record does not warrant the prescription of a tariff rule requiring the accessorial or terminal charges to be stated separately from the line-haul rates on export, import, coastwise, and intercoastal traffic to and from Atlantic and Gulf ports.

4. Every effort should be made by carriers when leasing their warehouses to shippers to obtain terms no less favorable than would be obtained, under similar restrictions and conditions of use, were the warehouses owned independently of the railroad.

5. Practice of according storage space for fertilizer moving in interstate or foreign commerce at rates other than those named in published tariffs, found in violation of section 6 of the interstate commerce act.

6. Proceeding discontinued.

R. W. Barrett, Joseph F. Eshelman, Clyde Brown, C. R. Webber, H. A. Taylor, W. W. Meyer, D. Lynch Younger, W. J. Larrabee, W. A. Cole, G. P. Bagby, W. L. Kinter, C. H. Blatchford, and H. G. Fitzpatrick for respondents; Erle C. Calhoun and C. A. Halpin for New York Central Railroad Company, Boston & Albany Railroad, and affiliated railroads; J. F. O'Neill for Central Vermont Railway; and W. A. Cole and J. R. MacAnanny for Boston & Maine Railroad; Elmer A. Smith for Illinois Central Railroad Company, Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, and Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company; W. S. Saunders for Virginian Railway; R. G. Henderson for Boston & Albany Railroad; Charles H. Blatchford for Maine Central Railroad Company and Portland Terminal Company; S. T. Roy for J. B. McLaren, comptroller Canadian National Railways, lessee Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railway, Portland, Me.; Frank W. Gwathmey for Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, and Central of Georgia Railway Company; C. A. Stang for Illinois Central Railroad Company and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company; C. W.

Brosius for Texas & Pacific Railway Company, Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal Railroad of New Orleans, La.; Wm. Burger for Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company; J. R. Bell, Denegre, Leavy & Chaffee, and W. H. Stakelum for Southern Pacific lines in Texas and Louisiana; W. N. McGehee for Southern Railway Company, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, New Orleans Terminal Company, and St. Johns River Terminal Company, system lines; E. P. Cole for Galveston Wharf Company, Galveston, Tex.; W. J. Schill for Gulf Coast Lines and International-Great Northern Railroad Company; Wm. E. Davis for Kansas City Southern Railway Company, Texarkana & Fort Smith Railway Company, and Port Arthur Canal & Dock Company; R. B. McKee and M. G. Roberts for Muscle Shoals, Birmingham & Pensacola Railroad Company; and R. Morris for Texas City Terminal Railway Company.

John Nicolson for United States Shipping Board; William H. Bonneville for Interstate Commerce Commission; Richard K. Hale for Department of Public Works of Massachusetts; William H. Day for Boston Chamber of Commerce and Boston Grain and Flour Exchange; Charles F. McSorley and Frank S. Davis for Maritime Association of the Boston Chamber of Commerce; Francis J. Dowd for Associated Industries of Massachusetts; H. A. Davis for Boston Wool Trade Association; C. R. Marshall for Fruit Dispatch Company of New York, N. Y.; Wilbur La Roe, jr., and Julius Henry Cohen for Port of New York Authority; Parker McCollester, Lord Day & Lord, and Chas. J. Austin for New York Produce Exchange; W. H. Chandler for Merchants Association of New York and Shippers Conference of Greater New York; A. C. Welsh and W. A. Becker for Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; A. J. Whitman for American Agricultural Chemical Company; P. W. Moore for Queensboro Chamber of Commerce; Chas. J. Flagg for Newark, N. J., Chamber of Commerce; Milton P. Baumann for New Jersey Industrial Traffic League; B. Hoff Knight for Port of Philadelphia Ocean Traffic Bureau; C. C. McChord, R. Granville Curry, Frederick M. Dolan, and C. W. Edmunds for Philadelphia Bourse, Philadelphia Board of Trade, and Port of Philadelphia Ocean Traffic Bureau; Allen S. Olmsted, 2d, and William A. Glasgow, jr., for Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia; N. B. Kelly for Philadelphia, Pa.; Bruce K. Wimer for Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; W. A. Lockyer for Philadelphia Bourse; Hubert J. Horan for Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia; James W. Carmalt and G. Stewart Henderson for Baltimore Chamber of Commerce; F. G. Moore for National Fertilizer Association, Davison Chemical Company, Eastern Cotton Oil Company, and Davidson Peck Fertilizer,

Incorporated; Frank Lyon for Luckenbach Steamship Company and American-Hawaiian Steamship Company; H. J. Wagner for Norfolk Port Commission and Norfolk-Portsmouth Freight Traffic Commission; D. A. Dashiell for National Fertilizer Association and F. S. Royster Guano Company; W. W. Manker for Armour Fertilizer Works; J. H. Hunt and A. J. Young for International Agricultural Corporation and National Fertilizer Association; W. A. Mayfield for Swift & Company; T. A. Bosley for Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corporation and National Fertilizer Association; J. Russell Wait for Port Utilities Commission of Charleston, S. C., Fred Richards, Oakdene Compress & Warehouse Corporation, and Middleton Compress & Warehouse Company, Charleston, S. C.; Thos. J. Burke for Alabama State Docks Commission, Board of Commissioners of Mobile, Ala., Port Utilities Commission of Charleston, S. C., Turner Terminal Company, Fred Richards, Oakdene Compress & Warehouse Company, and Middleton Compress & Warehouse Company, Charleston, S. C.; William L. Sibert for Alabama State Docks Commission; Leon Schwarz for Board of Commissioners of Mobile, Ala.; Horace Turner for Turner Terminal Company of Mobile, Ala.; F. C. Hillyer for Municipal Docks and Terminals of Jacksonville, Fla., Commodores Point Terminal Company, Jacksonville, Fla.; Jacksonville Traffic Bureau, Incorporated, Wilmington Compress & Warehouse Company, and others; Carl Giessow and Edgar Moulton for New Orleans Joint Traffic Bureau; William S. Cahill for Port of Seattle, Wash.; S. P. Gaillard, jr., for Turner Terminal Company of Mobile, Ala., Mobile Chamber of Commerce, Port of Seattle, Wash., and Alabama State Docks Commission; Edwin H. Duff for Munson Steamship Line; H. E. S. Wilson for Campbell Stores, Hoboken, N. J., and New York Warehousemen's Association; A. C. Pouch for American Dock Company and Pouch Terminal Incorporated; H. C. McCollom, Charles E. Hotchkiss, and D. L. Tilly for New York Dock Company; Charles E. Cotterill for American Warehousemen's Association; Wm. L. Kinter for Reading Company; G. H. Pouder for Export & Import Bureau of Baltimore, Md.; G. H. Cobb for Export Steamship Corporation, New York, N. Y.; Roscoe H. Hupper and William J. Dean for Atlantic Transport Line; A. H. Ferguson for New England Traffic League, New Bedford Board of Commerce, and Fall River Chamber of Commerce; H. A. Davis for Boston Wool Trade Association; A. J. Whitman for American Agricultural Chemical Company and National Fertilizer Association; P. L. Gerhardt and Harper A. Holt for Bush Terminal Company and Bush Terminal Railroad; E. G. Siedle for Armstrong Cork & Insulation Company; J. S. Farish for Southern Pine Association;

K. A. Albrecht and C. U. Smith for Board of Harbor Commissioners, Milwaukee, Wis.; H. J. Luhn for Board of Commissioners Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District; Shelby Wiggins for Dock and Wharf Commissioners, Beaumont, Tex.; E. B. Gaines for Savannah Traffic Bureau; Lawrence I. Daspit for Brown Paper Mill, Yellow Pine Paper Mill, and Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, Incorporated; G. C. Kiefer for Southern Pine Association; Frank P. Morgan for Alabama Public Service Commission; M. M. Caskie for Alabama Farm Bureau Federation; and R. W. Dietrich for New Orleans Public Warehousemen.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON FURTHER HEARING

BY THE COMMISSION:

Exceptions were filed by various interests to the report proposed by the examiner. Replies to the exceptions were also filed and oral argument has been had. Our conclusions do not differ materially from those recommended by the examiner.

This proceeding was instituted by our order of April 9, 1921, to determine

the reasonableness and propriety of the charges of common carriers subject to the interstate commerce act and applicable to interstate and foreign commerce, for wharfage, handling, storage and other accessorial services at the south Atlantic and Gulf ports at and south of Hampton Roads, Va.; and also as to the propriety of including in the rates to and from the ports the cost of or charges for the above services with a view to prescribing such reasonable and proper rules, regulations and charges as may appear to be appropriate.

Hearings were had at various south Atlantic and Gulf ports throughout the years 1921 and 1922 and, in response to a motion on behalf of the United States Shipping Board, we reopened and broadened the scope of the investigation to include the terminal situation also at north Atlantic ports as shown in our previous report, 93 I. C .C. 609, of December 9, 1924. Hearings at north Atlantic ports and further hearings at south Atlantic and Gulf ports were held during 1927 and 1928.

HISTORY OF PROCEEDING

On March 25, 1921, the Secretary of War submitted to us a report of its chief of engineers. The substance of the report was that the World War had resulted in a large fleet of commercial vessels seeking to operate in competition with commercial rivals; that the railroads were unable to provide costly piers to reduce the time in the ports; that the railroads' charges at south Atlantic and Gulf ports equaled about one-fourth of the cost of the accessorial services; that private terminals could not operate at such low charges in competition with

the rail carriers; and that inadequate and inefficient facilities afforded by the railroads at those ports restricted shippers of import and export traffic. Other issues were raised but the foregoing were the dominant ones.

Apparently the purpose of that report was to carry out the duties of the War Department and to seek our aid in bringing about the remedies necessary to conform the port situation to the policy declared by the Congress of promoting, encouraging, and developing water-transportation facilities in connection with the commerce of the United States. Section 500 of the transportation act, 1920, after declaring it to be the policy of Congress to promote, encourage, and develop water transportation, service, and facilities in connection with the commerce of the United States, and to foster and preserve in full vigor both rail and water transportation, provides that it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War

to investigate the subject of water terminals, both for inland waterway traffic and for through traffic by water and rail, including the necessary docks, warehouses, apparatus, equipment and appliances in connection therewith, and also railroad spurs and switches connecting with such terminals, with a view to devising the types most appropriate for different locations, and for the more expeditious and economical transfer of passengers and property between carriers by water and carriers by rail

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Section 8 of the merchant marine act authorizes the Shipping Board, in cooperation with the Secretary of War, to make somewhat similar investigations with the object of promoting, encouraging, and developing ports and transportation facilities in connection with water commerce over which it has jurisdiction. This section provides:

It shall be the duty of the Board, in cooperation with the Secretary of War, with the object of promoting, encouraging, and developing ports and transportation facilities in connection with water commerce over which it has jurisdiction, to investigate territorial regions and zones tributary to such ports, taking into consideration the economies of transportation by rail, water and highway and the natural direction of the flow of commerce; to investigate the causes of the congestion of commerce at ports and the remedies applicable thereto; to investigate the subject of water terminals, including the necessary docks, warehouses, apparatus, equipment and appliances in connection therewith, with a view to devising and suggesting the types most appropriate for different locations and for the most expeditious and economical transfer or interchange of passengers or property between carriers by water and carriers by rail; to advise with communities regarding the appropriate location and plan of construction of wharves, piers and water terminals; to investigate the practicability and advantages of harbor, river and port improvements in connection with foreign and coastwise trade; and to investigate any other matter that may tend to promote and encourage the use by vessels of ports adequate to care for the freight which would naturally pass through such ports; Provided, That if after such investigation the Board shall be of the