posed rate of 50 cents will be established only over the direct tariff routes of the Southern Pacific Company and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee) and short-line originating carriers. The distances over these routes are 736 and 706 miles, respectively. The following examples are illustrative of departures which will occur under the proposed adjustment: Over the Southern Pacific route from Harlingen to Sabine River and Avondale, La., 481 and 719 miles, respectively, the present respective rates of 58 and 67 cents will be maintained. Similarly, over the Missouri Pacific route to Sompayrac and Baton Rouge, La.,3 479 and 617 miles, respectively, the present respective rates of 63 and 67 cents will apply. The proposed rate over the Southern Pacific will yield 13.59 mills per ton-mile and 20.76 cents per car-mile, and over the Missouri Pacific, 14.18 mills per ton-mile and 21.67 cents per car-mile.1 For the purpose of demonstrating that the present rates on citrus fruit to intermediate destinations on their lines compare favorably with the rates on similar traffic, applicants refer to rates of 68 cents on beets with tops, 58 cents on cabbage, and 53 cents on potatoes, minimum 24,000 pounds, applicable from Harlingen to Lake Charles, La., 477 miles, and rates of 82, 70, and 64 cents applicable on the same vegetables, respectively, from Harlingen to Avondale, 684 miles. These latter rates are on the bases prescribed by the Commission in Southwestern Vegetable Case. As hereinbefore stated Baton Rouge is intermediate to New Orleans over the route of the Missouri Pacific. The traffic bureau of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce contends that Baton Rouge should be accorded the 50-cent rate or, in any event, a rate not more than 3.5 cents higher. The latter amount represents the difference between drayage costs, previously indicated, from the docks in New Orleans to the warehouses and the estimated cost of 7.5 cents per 100 pounds for trucking fruit from the wharves at New Orleans to Baton Rouge, a distance of 82 miles by highway. It is asserted that this low trucking cost from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is due to the fact that dealers at the latter point move commodities in their own trucks as far south as La Place, La., 31 miles from New Orleans and then go on into that city and return with other commodities, including citrus fruits from Florida. A New Orleans fruit and vegetable broker testified that it was his understanding that the trucking charge from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is 15 cents per 90-pound box and that Baton Rouge uses between two and three carloads of citrus fruits per week, most of which moves from Florida. Among other intermediate points. Car-mile revenue shown is based on minimum of 30,600 pounds. 200 I. C. C. 855, 203 I. C. C. 635, 209 I. C. C. 606, and 214 I. C. C. 63. A witness for the traffic bureau of Baton Rouge testified that in 1938 about 337,000 pounds, approximately 11 carloads, of citrus fruit moved to Baton Rouge by truck from Texas, and that 80 percent of this traffic moved in trucks owned and operated by shippers. The opinion is expressed that if the rail rate were reduced to 50 cents the traffic would move by railroad and also that the purchase of this fruit from the Rio Grande Valley would increase by about 500 percent. This witness further testified that the Baton Rouge dealers are in direct competition with those in New Orleans and urged that competitive conditions with respect to citrus fruit from Florida is not such as would warrant the approval of the proposed rate to New Orleans without according similar recognition to Baton Rouge. However, the record is conclusive that competitive conditions with respect to this traffic from Florida are not the same at Baton Rouge as at New Orleans. There is no evidence as to any water service from Florida to Baton Rouge, and the rail rate from Lake Wales, for example, to Baton Rouge is 71 cents as compared with 44 cents to New Orleans. Furthermore, the rail rate from Lake Wales to Baton Rouge is 4 cents higher than the present rate of 67 cents from Harlingen. We conclude that the facts presented constitute a special case that justifies relief, subject to the conditions hereinafter prescribed, to enable applicants to meet the market competition herein before described, and that the proposed rate of 50 cents will be reasonably compensatory. Applicants will be authorized to establish and maintain over routes as described in the application, for the transportation of citrus fruit, minimum weight 30,600 pounds, from points in Texas, except Eagle Pass and El Paso, as named in Agent J. R. Peel's tariff I. C. C. No. 2965 to New Orleans, rates of not less than 50 cents, and to maintain higher rates to intermediate points; provided, that the rates to such higher-rated intermediate points shall not be increased except as authorized by this Commission and shall not exceed the lowest combination of rates subject to the act. All other and further relief prayed will be denied. An appropriate order will be entered. APPENDIX List of applicant carriers Asherton and Gulf Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). Asphalt Belt Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). The Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). International-Great Northern Railroad Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). Rio Grande City Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). San Antonio Southern Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf Railroad Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railway Company (Guy A. Thompson, trustee). Port Isabel & Rio Grande Valley Railway. Rio Grande and Eagle Pass Railway Company. The Texas Mexican Railway Company. The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company. 235 I. C. C. FOURTH SECTION APPLICATION NO. 17282 CHROME ORE FROM BALTIMORE, MD. Submitted September 27, 1939. Decided December 19, 1939 Upon further hearing, relief from the long-and-short-haul provision of section 4 of the Interstate Commerce Act in rates on chrome ore, in carloads, from Baltimore, Md., and points taking the same rates to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Suspension Bridge, N. Y., authorized in the prior report, 232 I. C. C. 445, modified by eliminating the equidistant requirement. Additional appearance: J. P. Canny for applicants. REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON FURTHER HEARING DIVISION 2, COMMISSIONERS AITCHISON, SPLAWN, AND CASKIE BY DIVISION 2: In the prior report, 232 I. C. C. 445, we authorized the applicants 1 to establish and maintain on chrome ore, in carloads, over routes described in that report, from Baltimore, Md., points taking the same rates, and intermediate points from which rates are provided by an intermediate rule as authorized by rule 27 of Tariff Circular 20 to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Suspension Bridge, N. Y., a rate the same as that concurrently in effect over the direct line or route from Baltimore to the named destinations, but not less than $2.15 per long ton, and to maintain higher rates to intermediate points. The relief authorized was subject, among other conditions, to the equidistant provision of section 4 of the act. Upon petition of applicants seekng elimination of the equidistant requirement, the proceeding was eopened and assigned for further hearing, which now has been held. As stated in the prior report, the rates from Baltimore to intermediate points on the applicants' routes are based on the McGraham Formula. Rates constructed according to that formula normally aply on chrome ore throughout official territory and, from the ports, sually reflect relations observed on all traffic which arrives at the orts by water, while the rate proposed from Baltimore to the morestant points is on a lower basis and is observed as maximum to termediate points on the direct routes. The relief sought was to mable applicants to participate in traffic to the more-distant points Western Maryland Railway Company, The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Comy, The New York Central Railroad Company, and the Erie Railroad Company (C. E. nney and John A. Hadden, trustees). without disrupting the adjustment to intermediate points. Compliance with the equidistant provision would require reductions in rates from Baltimore to a large part of the intermediate territory, which includes a number of important consuming points. At the further hearing it was shown that a rate of $2.15 applies from Philadelphia, Pa., and New York, N. Y., as well as from Baltimore, to the named destinations; that normally the rates from those ports to the Niagara Frontier are on a parity; and that over a period of years, owing to water competition, rates on a depressed basis have been maintained from those ports to the named destinations. Chrome ore is not consumed in quantity at any intermediate point on the direct routes, and there is no definite relation in the rates from the ports to these intermediate points, such as the relation in the rates from the same ports to intermediate points on applicants' routes under the McGraham formula. It was shown also that there has been a substantial movement of chrome ore over applicants' routes from Baltimore to the named destinations, as well as to representative points to which rates would be affected by the equidistant provision. To the former points the volume amounted to 3,167 tons in 1937, 10,912 tons in 1938, and 6,480 tons during the first 8 months of 1939. To the latter points, eight in number, the volume moved during those respective periods totalled 24,172, 33,351, and 18,950 tons. Upon the record now before us we conclude that relief is warranted to enable applicants to meet the water-compelled rate to the more-distant points without disturbing existing port relations in the rates to intermediate points on applicants' routes, and that we need not impose the equidistant provision. An appropriate supplemental order will be entered. COMMISSIONER CASKIE dissents. 235 I. C. C. |