Minimum 80,000 pounds.

'Lower combination taking precedence over normal joint rate.

As in the case of rates to the Southeast, Arkansas complainants contend that a fair relation between Memphis and Arkansas in rates on clean rice to central territory would be that represented by the column 27.5 rates from Memphis and the column 25 rates from Arkansas. To a number of points in central territory those respective bases would produce rate differences against Arkansas as small as 3 cents. At present the differences under the normal rates, excluding those to St. Louis, range from 9.5 to 15 cents, and in con

219 I. C. C.

At about the same time the water rate from New Orleans, Lake Charles, and Beaumont to the north Atlantic ports was reduced to 15 cents and resulted in the establishment of a blanket water-rail rate of 40 cents from the three ports named, through Baltimore to the eastern half of central territory. This prompted the southwestern carriers in December 1933 to propose the establishment of all-rail rates to all of central territory of 55.5 cents from Texas and Louisiana, and 45 cents from Arkansas. The official-territory carriers refused to concur in this proposal on the ground that the water competition sought to be met existed only from Louisiana and Texas, and that there was no need for reducing the rates from Arkansas. As a result there are no competitive rates from any rice-shipping points in the Southwest to that portion of central territory which lies east of Battle Creek, except to border points such as Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville where the southern and southwestern carriers were free to act without the sanction of their official-territory connections.

Arkansas complainants contend that this is unjust and that inasmuch as Louisiana and Texas have the benefit of water-rail rates to the territory in question Arkansas is entitled, under section 3 of the statute, to lower all-rail rates than those in effect. It is apparent from the foregoing that undue prejudice within the meaning of section 3 has not been shown. Early, however, in 1934 the water rate from the three ports named was increased to 20 cents to Baltimore, 19 cents to Philadelphia, and 17 cents to New York, so that at present the rail-water combination through each of these ports is 45 cents. Of a total of 235 carloads of rice received during the first five months of 1934, at Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo, Ohio, and Battle Creek and Detroit, Mich., 92 moved all-rail, 74 barge-rail, 56 ocean-rail, and 13 by the ocean-canal-lake route. The origin of this rice is not shown of record, but the presumption is that, of the 166 carloads moving over the all-rail and barge-rail routes, a substantial proportion was Arkansas rice, Arkansas having a considerable rate advantage by those routes over Texas and Louisiana.

Interior Louisiana and Texas complainants also assert that the failure of defendants to meet the water competition through the Gulf and north Atlantic ports by reductions in the all-rail rates at least to the eastern portion of central territory is unlawful, although it is not clear upon what section of the statute this assertion rests. The order in Stuttgart Rice Mill Co. v. Alabama & V. Ry. Co., supra, requires the maintenance of all-rail rates from Arkansas to points on the western border of trunk-line territory, such as Buffalo, N. Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., at least 5 cents lower than the rates from New

Texas and interior Louisiana complainants are not much concerned with the rates to western trunk-line territory, but Memphis, Arkansas, and New Orleans complainants feel that the existing differences in the rates affect their interests adversely. Each seeks to prove its contentions in this respect principally by comparison with the class rates. In the absence of prescribed class rates from New Orleans and Memphis to western trunk-line territory, the parties draw diverse and frequently conflicting conclusions from certain theoretical first-class rates made by combining the southern, southwestern, and western trunk-line scales in various ways. The following table sets forth the column 27.5 rates from the different shipping points and areas to the seven western trunk-line destinations listed in the preceding table. The rates from Crowley, Houston, and Stuttgart are those recently prescribed, those from New Orleans and Memphis having been constructed in the manner described in the margin.®

• From New Orleans and Memphis to Kansas City the rates are constructed on the zone II w. t. 1. scale for the entire distance (via Springfield, Mo.), plus a differential for the haul through zone III in Arkansas and southern Missouri. To St. Paul and Duluth the rates have been made by adding to the prescribed class rate to Dubuque, Iowa, a differential in the amount of the difference between the zone I w. t. 1. scale for the entire distance and the distance to Dubuque. To the other three destinations differentials similarly com. puted have been added to the prescribed class rates to St. Louis.