Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1907 — GIVES CAUSE OF CAR SHORTAGE. [ARTICLE]

GIVES CAUSE OF CAR SHORTAGE.

Fane Thinks Roads Accepted Most Profitable Trntfie. In a report submitted to President; Roosevelt Interstate Commerce Commissioner Franklin I\. Lane defined the cause of the ear shortage in the Northwest and the resulting- coal- famine in North Dakota. “It is a fair inference," the report says, “from all the testimony that the’ real cause of the coal scarcity in North Dakota was' such an abundance of westbound traffic at the head of the lakes that ears were not available in the' congested State of that terminal for the carrying of coal to North Dakota—-a comparatively short haul for a low-class commodity.” In his letter of transmission to the. President. Mr. Lane says that the report will'be followed iu due course by the special recommendations of the commission a-j a whole to Whatever legislation, if any, may be deemed advisable. Referring to the report that the coal shortage was due to the presence of a

tiust or combination between dealers in coal which fixed prices in the Northwest and refused to sell to “outsiders” and “irregulars,” the report says: “The commission lias gained indisputable proof of an agreement between coal dealers to maintain prices and to boycott all who do not so agree; but there is no evidence at all justifying the contention that this combination is chargeable with the coal shortage prevailing, nor that the railroads were party in such a way to such a conspiracy.”