An order will be issued in accordance with the conclusions herein expressed.

To all points intermediate or related to the points specified herein the carriers will be required to establish rates in harmony with those here prescribed, giving due consideration to distance.

Several of the respondent carriers have granted the exclusive use of some of their piers, docks, storage plants, retail delivery trestles, and other properties to their allied coal companies at inadequate rental charges and under conditions which constitute substantial discrimination in favor of such coal shippers. The exclusive right to operate certain of the carriers' public docks and piers has also been granted to such coal companies who in operating such properties gain information as to the shipments of their competitors, handled over the docks and piers, which section 15 of the Act to regulate commerce prohibits common carriers from giving to shippers and prohibits shippers from receiving from common carriers. It has often been held that it is the object of the Interstate Commerce Act and the Elkins Act to prevent favoritism by any means or device whatsoever and to place all shippers upon equal terms. United States v. Union Stock Yards Co., 226 U. S., 286; Southern Pacific Terminal case, 219 U.S., 498; Tap Line cases, 234 U. S., 1, 28; Phillips v. Grand Trunk Ry. 236 U. S., 662. We assume the carriers will at once adjust these practices to remove the discrimination and conform with the requirements of the law.

The evidence shows that several of these carriers have in the past declined to establish joint rates for all shippers, while the coal production of their allied coal companies has been accorded an interline movement by means of trackage arrangements and the free transportation to junction points of the coal production exchanged by the coal companies controlled by the carriers. Such a practice is unlawful and is discriminatory in its worst sense, since the discrimination results to the benefit of the carriers. The carriers will be required to establish through routes and to publish joint rates, of which other shippers may avail, such as will neutralize any such undue benefit heretofore enjoyed by the coal operations of railroad ownership.

35 I. C. C.

HARLAN, Commissioner, dissenting:

In June, 1911, upon a voluminous record in Meeker & Co. v. L. V. R. R. Co., 21 I. C. C., 129, affirmed in 236 U. S., 412, we condemned the rates on anthracite coal from the Wyoming coal fields of Pennsylvania to tidewater and fixed reasonable rates for the future. Under ordinary circumstances and in the absence of any showing of changed conditions there would be no objection to the acceptance at this time of that basis as a general standard for fixing rates to tidewater, and also as a foundation upon which to construct rates to interior points. But three years later in The Five Per Cent case, 31 I. C. C., 351, and upon an exhaustive showing of their financial condition by all the carriers operating in official classification territory, we found, because of the growing increase in operating costs, interest values, and for other reasons, that the carriers in that territory were in need of additional revenues. Upon that finding and in a subsequent supplemental report in the same proceedings, 32 I. C. C., 325, we authorized in that territory an increase by 5 per cent in the general level of rates on practically all traffic. The rates on anthracite coal were excepted, as expressly stated in the report, because those rates were under consideration on the record before us here. In dissenting to the supplemental report (id., p. 332), I explained that I was unable to accept the principle that a horizontal increase in rates was lawful without some further test as to the reasonableness of the rates so constructed; and I expressed the view that by following the suggestions of the original report the carriers could procure the required revenue and at the same time would put their general rate structure on a sounder and more satisfactory basis and eliminate from it the inconsistencies and discriminations then admitted to exist, many of which, as illustrated by the record before us in this case, have not since been removed. Nevertheless, the Commission having authorized a general horizontal increase of 5 per cent with respect to practically all other traffic, it seems to me inconsistent, if not discriminatory, now to take the level of rates, prescribed three years previously in Meeker & Co., v. L. V. R. R. Co., supra, as a basis for rates in the future on anthracite coal without taking into consideration the advances allowed in the general rate structure throughout this territory in The Five Per Cent case. In view of the course ultimately taken in that proceeding no commodity should be relieved from bearing its proportion of the increased revenues found to be required.

In my judgment the record before us here justifies a modification of many of the present rates, but for the future a rate structure on anthracite coal based upon the general standard of the Meeker case, surcharged, so far as that would result in a reasonable rate schedule, with the 5 per cent increase that has been imposed in The Five Per Cent case upon substantially all other traffic in official classification territory would seem to be a more consistent disposition of the case.

APPENDIX.

The order of the Commission under date of June 10, 1912, reads in part as follows:

It appearing, That the rates, practices, rules, and regulations governing the transportation of anthracite coal have been the subject of formal and informal complaints to the Commission:

It is ordered, That an inquiry be, and the same hereby is, instituted by the Commission on its own motion into the rates, practices, rules, and regulations of common carriers governing the transportation of anthracite coal from producing fields to all points in the United States east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, known as official classification territory, including domestic and export rates and shipside or bunker coal rates to tidewater and lake ports.

It is further ordered, That said inquiry shall ascertain whether the coal is mined or produced by or under the authority of common carriers engaged in the transportation thereof, or whether common carriers own in whole or in part any mine or mines producing anthracite coal which they transport or whether common carriers are directly or indirectly interested in any mine or mines producing anthracite coal which they transport.

It is further ordered, That this proceeding and inquiry be conducted with a view to the issuance of an order or orders requiring such respondents to cease and desist from charging, demanding, collecting, or receiving rates and charges for and from enforcing their practices, rules, and regulations governing the transportation of anthracite coal from points of origin herein named to destinations herein referred to, in so far as the same may be found to be unlawful, and requiring such respondents to substitute and thereafter to put in force and effect such rates, rules, practices, and regulations relative to the transportation of anthracite coal as aforesaid as may be found just and reasonable, and not unjustly discriminatory, including such joint and proportional rates as in the opinion of the Commission should be established from points of origin to the various destinations referred to.

Eleven carriers, the initial anthracite carriers whose lines of railway extend into the producing regions and reach the collieries therein, were required to furnish special reports as to their anthracite coal transportation operations and appeared before the Commission at the hearings conducted in this case. The revenue earned by these 11 respondents from the transportation of anthracite coal amounted to $96,516,183 for the year ended June 30, 1913.

The 11 anthracite carriers and the relative importance of their anthracite coal traffic and the relative proportion of their anthracite coal revenue and other operating revenues are indicated in the following:

The Reading Company, a holding company, owns the entire capital stock of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company and a majority of the capital stock of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. The Erie Railroad Company owns the entire capital stock of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Company, and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Company owns the entire capital stock of the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad Company, so that these may be regarded as Erie lines.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company owns a majority of the stock of the Northern Central Railway Company, and practically controls its operations.

For the purpose of this investigation, the Commission, by its order under date of December 23, 1912, required the 11 initial anthracite coal carrying railroad companies to render exhaustive reports in great detail as to their operations. The coal companies engaged in mining and selling anthracite coal, whose capital stocks are to a large extent owned by the initial anthracite carriers, have also submitted, at the Commission's request, reports as to their financial condition and operating results.

The Commission's examiners made an extensive examination of the accounts and records of the initial anthracite carriers, in the carriers' offices, and the results of their examinations were submitted in evidence during the hearings.

Transportation expenses arising from the transportation of anthracite coal over the railway lines of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey from the mines to tidewater (Morgan Exhibit No. 41) were compiled by the Commission's examiners. Terminal handling costs arising from the transportation of anthracite coal on the Port Reading Railroad (Morgan Exhibit No. 15), and part of the transportation costs arising from the transportation of anthracite coal from mines to tidewater on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (Morgan Exhibit No. 42) were compiled by the Commission's examiners and are part of the record in this case.

THE ANTHRACITE PRODUCING REGION.

The extent and geographical location of the anthracite coal fields of the United States are described in the Government publications, as follows:

There is probably no other commodity entering into human consumption which possesses so much the character of a natural monopoly as the anthracite coal of Pennsylvania. The only other known deposits of anthracite coal of economic value in the United States are in Colorado and New Mexico, but these are all comparatively insignificant, yielding less than 100,000 tons annually. Practically, therefore, the entire source of supply of this fuel is confined to an area of 496 square miles, in nine counties in the state of Pennsylvania. Of these nine counties, five-i. e., Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and Carbon-produce 96 per cent of the total output. The four less important producing counties are Susquehanna, Dauphin, Columbia, and Sullivan. (Bulletin 46, May, 1903, Department of Labor, Report of Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, p. 443.)

The coal areas of the United States are divided, for the sake of convenience, into two great divisionsanthracite and bituminous. The areas in which anthracite is produced are confined almost exclusively to the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and as a usual thing, when the anthracite fields of the United States are referred to, those of eastern Pennsylvania are considered. This region is included in the counties of Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Carbon, Schuylkill, Columbia, Northumberland, Dauphin, and Sullivan, and underlies an area of about 484 square miles. In addition to these well-known anthracite fields of Pennsylvania there are two small areas in the Rocky Mountain region where the coal has been locally anthracited, although the production from these districts has never amounted to as much as 100,000

tons in any one year. One of these localities is in Gunnison county, Colo., and the other in Santa Fe county, N. Mex. The coal, although only locally metamorphosed, is a true anthracite and of good quality. In previous years some coal which was classed as anthracite was mined and sold in New England. The productive area was confined to the eastern part of Rhode Island, and the counties of Bristol and Plymouth, in Massachusetts. This product, however, is in reality a graphitic and not an anthracito coal, and is no longer mined for fuel purposes. The production in the last few years has been included with the graphite production. (Mineral Resources of the United States, 1902, United States Geological Survey, p. 291.) The anthracite coal-producing fields are divided into three trade regions. These regions, with their local districts and the coal fields or basins, are indicated in the following table:

The tonnage (gross tons) of anthracite coal shipped from the three regions is shown in the following table:

In addition to the tonnage shipped as shown in the table next preceding, the following tonnage of anthracite coal was shipped from washeries, in tons of 2,240 pounds. Figures are not available showing apportionment to regions: