Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1900 — WILL CUT RAILROAD RATES. [ARTICLE]

WILL CUT RAILROAD RATES.

Comptroller Hawes Rules on Lines Having; Land Grants. Comptroller Dawes has made a ruling which will cost the railroads of the country a loss of several million dollars on military traffic done since the opening of the Spanish-American war, and which will materially decrease the revenue of Government business to be done by the roads in the future. Mr. Dawes holds, in effect, that in. making settlements for the linndling of troops and military supplies the land grant reductions due the Government will be deducted from prevailing party rates instead of from first-class tariff rates, as heretofore. In other words, the Government now demands the benefit of the material reductions given by party rates, and in addition the land grant reduction. This applies to nearly all the business done by the roads for the Government during the Philippine and Spanish wars, and to all business that may be done in the future. It applies to freight as well as to passenger traffic and will affect nearly every line of railway in the country. Very little of the Government' business done since the opening of the Spanish war has been settled for. A small proportion of it was let under bids, but the great mass was transacted under the land grant law.