CLASSIFICATION AND COMMODITY RATES.
Classification and commodity rates afford many examples of
discrimination in the period we are studying. We find furs and fur
scraps classed as double first-class, while hats and fancy products, for
which these commodities constitute raw material, were first-class.[89]
Celery was classed with peaches and grapes, instead of with cauliflower
and asparagus, lettuce and peas.[90] The charge for beans and peas (70
cents) was almost double the charge on tomatoes (44 cents).[91] Flour
for export was carried at much lower rates than wheat. Before 1886 wheat
was carried from Texas, Missouri, and Kansas at 15 cents per hundred
lbs. less than flour, without regard to distance. From 1886 to the end
of this middle period the rates on wheat for export show a difference of
4 to 11 cents per hundred below the rates on flour. As the profit to
American millers on flour for export is from 1 to 3 cents per hundred it
is clear that such discrimination is prohibitive upon American millers
in favor of English and other foreign millers. The public policy and
good railway policy seem to require the same rate on export wheat and
export flour.[92] Corn was carried between Kansas points and Texas
points for 7 cents per hundred less than corn meal,—a strong
discrimination against Kansas millers.[93] The Eastern railways also
carried corn at lower rates than corn meal to Eastern mills, and carried
the meal, hominy, ground corn, etc., back to Indiana. This gave the
railways more traffic, but it was a tremendous waste of industrial force
and injured the Western mills, since a discrimination of 5 percent was
sufficient to eat up three or four times the profit of any miller.
The Southern Railway put soap in the sixth class with a rate of 49 cents
a hundred, or 33 cents when shipped by large manufacturers, while
Pearline was put in the fourth class with a rate of 73 cents a hundred.
Pearline and soap are competitors. There is no appreciable difference in
the cost of transportation. But Pearline commands a higher price, so the
railways charged more than double the rate they got for soap from the
manufacturers. In another case brought before the Commission in 1889,
soap in carload lots was put in class V, while sugar, cerealine, cracked
wheat, starch, rice, coffee, pickles, etc., were in class VI. One make
of soap was put by many railroads in the second class, while other soaps
of similar use and value were in the fourth class.[94]
One of the strangest anomalies of classification is the rating of patent
medicines as first-class, while ale and beer are third class. In a
complaint on the latter score by a prominent manufacturer of patent
medicines against the New York Central and other railroads, it was shown
that the medicines were similar in bulk and intrinsic value to the
liquors, and it is possible that the similarity went much farther than
this.
Blocks intended for wagon-hubs took one rate on the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern and boards for wagon boxes another rate.
Railroad ties have been charged a higher rate than lumber. A high rate
on railroad ties prevents their being shipped and depreciates their
value at home, so that the discriminating company is able to buy them at
a low price.
The Union Pacific years ago made prohibitory rates on steel rails in
order to hinder or prevent the construction of a road that promised to
become a competitor of one of the Union Pacific’s connecting lines.
Prohibitory rates on rails, ties, etc., have often been maintained to
obstruct the building of competing lines, and to render them more
costly.