Testimony Taken By Interstate Commerce Commission At Minneapolis Minn December 17 19 1906 And At Chicago Ill December 20 And 21 1906 N The Matter Of Car Shortage And Other Insufficient Transportation Facilities And Reports Thereon By Commissioners Lane And Harlan PDF Download

Excerpt from Testimony Taken by Interstate Commerce Commission: At Minneapolis, Minn;, December 17, 18 and 19, 1906, and at Chicago, Ill;, December 20 and 21, 1906, in the Matter of Car Shortage and Other Insufficient Transportation Facilities and Reports Thereon by Commissioners Lane and Harlan Commissioner Lane. Please give me your attention, gentlemen. This investigation into the general subject of car shortage is undertaken upon the initiative of the Interstate Commerce Commission itself, under the general power vested in that body by section 12 of the act to regulate interstate commerce, and related sections of said act. The inquiry will be prosecuted in other portions of the country, but it is appropriate that it should open here, because it was prompted by the facts which developed at the hearing recently had in this city covering the relations of the grain elevators and the railroads, wherein it appeared that a large number of line elevators were at that time filled with grain and had been closed; that the grain buyers had in some cases posted notices upon their elevators stating that they could no longer buy grain because the railroads had failed to move the grain already on hand, and that as a result many of the farmers of the Northwest, being unable to market their crops, were without funds to meet their obligations or provide against the demands of the oncoming winter. A controversy arose at the said hearing as to the responsibility for the deplorable conditions then prevailing. On the part of the railroads, Mr. James J. Hill presented the claim that the terminal elevators were not of sufficient capacity for the needs of the crops. This view was controverted by Mr. Heffelfinger, representing the grain elevators, who cited figures showing that the terminal elevators were almost empty and had been so throughout the grain-receiving season. It is the purpose of the Commission at this time to enter fully into the conditions and practices respecting the movement of freight which obtains in the Northwest, and to search for the reasons or causes which tend to justify or condemn the same. We wish to know whether the shipper or the consignee is in whole or in part to blame, either in his method of delivering or receiving freight, or whether the fault lies with the carriers, because of either their indifference to public necessity, their lack of foresight in providing necessary equipment and terminal facilities, or their too great regard for interests not wholly compatible with the most efficient transportation service. We wish to know how far whatever delinquencies that are apparent may be excused because of the unparalleled and not to be expected crop, and whether all reasonable effort was made to meet the ever-growing demands of this section of the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.