Spokane Merchants Take the Railroad Monopoly Back to Court

The merchants of Spokane yesterday renewed the fight in the courts to compel the Northern Pacific railroad to cease the discrimination which they allege it has been practicing against them, and they make use of the fact that the road is in the hands of the United States court by bringing it before Judge Hanford. A petition signed by thirty-five of the leading wholesale, retail and commission merchants of that city was filed in the United States court asking that the receivers of both the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific roads be ordered to comply with the order of the interstate commerce commission in the case tried before it in 1891, in which the relation between rates to Spokane and Coast points were defined.

The petitioners state that they are citizens and business men of Spokane, Wash., and that all of them have a pecuniary interest in securing to that city fair and reasonable freight rates.

They state that for the last fifteen years, or ever since the Northern Pacific railroad has been completed through to the Sound, it has been the policy of the management of the road to discriminate against them in the matter of freight rates.

The petition represents that for many years the rule by which the traffic managers of that railroad made their freight rates on articles of merchandise from Eastern terminals to Spokane was the through rate to Western terminals, plus the local rate back to Spokane. As the local rate back to Spokane from Western terminals exceeded the through rate in all cases, the consequence has been that shippers at Spokane on all classes of merchandise were compelled to pay twice, and in some instances three times, as much as on articles shipped from Eastern terminals to such points as Seattle, Portland and Tacoma were required to pay on the same articles from the same points.

The petitioners further represent that the matter of freight rates maintained by the railroad to Spokane was investigated by the interstate commerce commission in 1891, and that body found that the railroad officials' claim that they were compelled by the pressure of water competition to pursue this policy was largely a fiction, and that it was only upon a small line of articles that there was such competition. The commission further found that, considering the distance of Spokane from the Pacific ocean, the disparity in freight rates upon such articles as could be transported by water was such as to create an unreasonable discrimination against Spokane and in favor of Western terminal points. The commission, as the result of its examination, ordered the railroad company to readjust its rates, so as to charge Spokane no greater rate than 82 per cent of the rate charged to Western terminals on all merchandise not truly subject to water competition, and so as to charge Spokane a reasonable rate on merchandise which was subject to water competition.

The petitioners further represent that this order was made to apply to the Union Pacific road, as well as to the Northern Pacific, but that neither of these roads has attempted to comply with it, but that the discriminations practiced against Spokane, with but few exceptions, have been continued without regard to the order.

The petitioners then submitted a statement of the rates from Chicago to Spokane, and from Spokane to Chicago, showing that the rate from Chicago to Spokane is considerably greater than from Spokane to Chicago.

The petitioners therefore respectfully pray that, as the foregoing roads are in the hands of the courts through their receivers, the court investigate the matter of freight rates as maintained by the receivers, and that the officials be required to adjust the same so as to be relative and within themselves reasonable, and that no greater charge be permitted from Spokane to Eastern terminals than from Eastern terminals to Spokane, except on such articles as are truly subject to water competition.