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at destination was an overcharge and must be repaid to the complainant. It is proper to add that the defendant's tariff then in force covering the storage and insurance of ex-lake grain at West Fairport, was not a lawful tariff in that while providing for storage it failed to fix the amount of the storage charges or to establish, by reference to other tariffs or otherwise, any specific basis for estimating the charges. The tariff now in force in that behalf is defective in the same respect and ought immediately to be amended. In its present form the tariff is unlawful.

An order will be entered in accordance with these conclusions. 13 I. C. C. Rep.

No. 1235.

TOPEKA BANANA DEALERS' ASSOCIATION

v.

ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY; ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY; MOBILE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY; NEW ORLEANS & NORTHEASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY; MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY; WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY; CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY RAILROAD COMPANY; CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY; ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY; UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, AND LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 1236.

MISSOURI VALLEY BANANA DEALERS' ASSOCIATION

V.

ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY; ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY; MOBILE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY; NEW ORLEANS & NORTHEASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY; MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY; WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY; CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY RAILROAD COMPANY, AND LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 1332.

MISSOURI & KANSAS SHIPPERS' ASSOCIATION

บ.

ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY; ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY; MOBILE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY; NEW ORLEANS & NORTHEASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY; LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE

RAILROAD COMPANY; MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY; ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, AND MISSOURI, KANSAS & TEXAS RAILWAY COMPANY.

Submitted May 15, 1908. Decided June 2, 1908.

1. Defendants' rule of assessing charges on the weight of bananas at point of origin instead of on the weight of the fruit at destination is not, under the circumstances of the case, unjust and unreasonable.

2. The fixing of the minimum weight at 20,000 pounds on shipments of bananas from New Orleans and Mobile to points west of the Mississippi River, while assessing a minimum weight of 18,000 pounds to Chicago and points east of the river, does not result in undue discrimination, as it appears that such difference in minima is made to meet competition through Baltimore and that cars of bananas from New Orleans and Mobile are usually loaded from 2,000 to 4,000 pounds in excess of the 20,000-pound minimum.

3. Complaint that section 4 of the act is violated in that a lesser rate is charged on bananas from New Orleans to Burlington, Iowa, than to Kansas City, an intermediate point, is not sustained, as the joint rate quoted via Kansas City is a paper rate on which the traffic does not move, the bananas destined for Burlington moving through St. Louis.

4. Defendants' banana rates from Mobile and New Orleans to Kansas City and adjacent points are not found to be unreasonable.

C. W. Durbin for complainants.

Ed. Baxter and S. F. Andrews for Illinois Central Railroad Company, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad Company, and Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company.

J. L. Coleman, T. J. Norton, and J. R. Koontz for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company.

E. B. Peirce for St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company.

J. C. Jeffery for Missouri Pacific Railway Company.

N. S. Brown for Wabash Railroad Company.

Hale Holden for Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. W. D. Groseclose for Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company. H. A. Scandrett for Union Pacific Railroad Company.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.

LANE, Commissioner:

These three cases, which were heard together, call in question the rates and practices of the defendant carriers touching the transportation of bananas from the ports of New Orleans and Mobile to

Kansas City, Mo., and adjacent points. The specific matters of complaint are these:

First. That defendants' rule of assessing freight charges on the weight of bananas at point of origin instead of assessing same on the weight of the fruit at destination is unjust and unreasonable.

Second. That the fixing of the minimum weight at 20,000 pounds west of the Mississippi River, while assessing a minimum weight of 18,000 pounds to Chicago and points east of the river, is an unjust discrimination, and that the minimum weight west of the river should be fixed at 18,000 pounds.

Third. That section 4 of the act is violated in that a lesser rate is charged to Burlington, Iowa, than to Kansas City, an intermediate point.

Fourth. That rates on bananas, carloads, from New Orleans and Mobile to Kansas City, Iola, Parsons, Topeka, and Hutchinson, all in the state of Kansas, are unreasonable per se and as compared with the rates to other points.

The rates complained of are, in cents per 100 pounds, as follows: To Kansas City, 63 cents; Iola and Parsons, 73 cents, and Topeka and Hutchinson, 80 cents.

Fifth. Reparation is asked on past shipments.

It is necessary to a proper understanding of the issues involved in these cases to present in a general way the method by which bananas reach the various points of final destination in the middle west.

Some years ago there was organized a company, referred to sometimes as the Fruit Dispatch Company and at other times as the United Fruit Company, which has acquired practical control of the banana business reaching the United States through the ports of New Orleans and Mobile. There are some independent firms at each of these ports, but so far as the evidence discloses they do only a very small portion of the total business.

Bananas are imported from two general sections of the semitropics. Those entering the eastern ports, such as Savannah and Baltimore, come from Jamaica, Cuba, and other West Indian islands, while those coming to the Gulf ports are almost exclusively from Central America. The bananas produced in these two sources of supply differ in that the latter are much heavier than the former. The boats of the fruit company reach both New Orleans and Mobile, and there the bananas are loaded on special trains which are in waiting and are hurried to final destination on the fastest schedule applied to any freight traffic moving over defendants' lines-a schedule faster than obtains as to many passenger trains. The schedule calls for an average movement of 21 miles per hour, which, with stops for inspection and other delays, requires a train movement in

excess of 30 miles per hour. The average time between New Orleans and Kansas City, a distance of 879 miles, is between fifty-five and sixty hours. About one-third as many bananas are imported through Mobile as through New Orleans. The Illinois Central and the New Orleans & Northeastern are the originating roads at New Orleans, and of these two the Illinois Central does much the larger business and gives especial attention and service to the banana traffic. Out of Mobile the Mobile & Ohio is the originating road. All originating lines through both ports necessarily give substantially the same service and apply the same rates to northern destinations in order to participate in this traffic.

Both roads have made an extraordinary effort to handle these bananas promptly after the arrival of the fruit company's boats and to carry them to destination without the necessity for refrigeration. The Illinois Central has set apart for its banana traffic at New Orleans a wharf owned by the city, which makes a dockage charge for each boat discharging cargoes. To handle the business promptly, the railroad has seven tracks which reach to the wharf, and the train of cars is broken up and placed on these different tracks, so that the loading may proceed rapidly. The ships are unloaded in some instances by an apparatus in the form of an endless belt with pockets, which pass down into the hold of the vessel and then out between the cars, the bananas being taken off of this endless belt as they pass the car into which they are to be loaded, The cars used in transporting bananas must be clean and odorless, and if freight which leaves an odor, such as pork, veal, or cheese, has been moved south therein they have to be thoroughly scrubbed and then set aside in the yards to dry, which process takes several days. False floors are placed in the cars at a cost of about $5 each, and these floors need frequently to be renewed. The purchaser of bananas in the northern destinations pays for them at the rate of $2 per 100 pounds, or $400 per car, based on the weight in the car at the port. One of the conditions upon which sales are made by the fruit company is that "the certificate of the official weigher respecting the weight of the bananas or the fruit in any given cars or shipment at the seaboard shall be final and conclusive upon both parties;" that is, the fruit company and the consignee. The railroad charges are based upon the same weight. It becomes necessary, therefore, to have the cars correctly weighed, and to accomplish this two weighers are designated-one the public weigher of the city of New Orleans, holding a certificate from the New Orleans Board of Trade and bonded to that corporation, who represents the fruit company; the other an appointee of the Southern Weighing Association, who is assigned for this work and who is paid by that association. The cars are taken to the scales and

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