Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1920 — UNFAIR FREIGHT RATES TO GO FEB. 15 [ARTICLE]

UNFAIR FREIGHT RATES TO GO FEB. 15

The actual wiping out of the freight rate discrimination between Indiana and Illinois will take place Feb. 15. E. I. Lewis, chairman of the Indiana Public Service Commission was informed officially yesterdtiy • _ On that date the Central Freight Association rates and official classification will be effective in Illinois, thus pushing back the discriminatory freight rate line from the Indi-ana-Illinois border to a line from Chicago to Peoria, thence along the Illinois River and the ‘ Mississippi River, and including St. Louis and other cities and towns pn the west bank of the river. A copy of the new Illinois tariff has been received by O. P. Gothlin, rate expert of the commission, from the United State railroad administration. At present the Illinois in-tra-state shippers are ehjoying rates lower than in Indiana, but under the new tariffs the Illinois rates will be the same as in Indiana and the other states comprising the C. F. A. territory. —— —- Nearly two years ago the Indiana commission took up a fight in the interest of the Indiana shippers who have for years 'tried to bring about a reform in the freight rates between the two states so that ike Hoosier commercial interests oculd compete with Chicago and Illinois firms in territory that was within geographical trade radius of the Indiana shippers. The fight was bitterly contested by the Illinois interests and was carried through several lengthy hearings and was finally brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission. In the fight against the unfair Illinois rates, the commission co-op-erated with the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce and a number of Indiana shippers.