Steamship Company Bringsr Test: €ase AffeCting

Water-Hauled Pacific Coast'Lumber

A rati case of great. inferest to the lumber dealers: bf the South, an.d Southwdst, as well as to the lumber and shingle. prodbcers of the Pacific Coast, has just been filed by the Luckenbach Steamship Comp4ny, Inc., before the fnterstate Commerce Commission against the railroads of the Sorrthwest and against the railroads serVing the Port of New Orleans.

The Steamship Company claims that undue prejudice is being shoivn by'fhe.rpilroads against goods delivered from the Pacific C.oest, in rates from port ,to interior destination. This Steamship Company handles a great deal of lumber and shingles fromthe Pacific Coast to the Gulf Coast, and the contest will be watched by the lumbermen with eagerness.

In the petition filed, specific reference is made to the case of canned goods delivered to the same interior point fromAtlantic and Pacific points. They recite the fact that when the Luckenbach Steamship Company hauls canned goods from the Pacific Coast to New Orleans, for rail delivery from New Orleans to Birmingham, as an instance, the railroads charge 49 cents per hundred for that rail haul. When canned goods are hauled from the Atlantic Coast to New Orleans by water, and from New Orleans to Birmingham by rail, the division of the through rate to Birmingham allotted to this New Orleans-Birmingham rail haul, is just 168 cents per hundred.

The complaint is brought under the provisions of subparagraph (C) of Section 13 of the Interstate Commerce

Commission'Act, which law is well understood as intending ttr,at the railroads should establish proportional rates on rail traffic' delivered them at the pori from coast-wise, and inter-coastal boat lines, Congresi even went so far as to say that proportigna! rates are those which differ from the local class rates to.and from a port, and which apply only on traffic moved via water routes into the ports.-While this complaint is filed specifically on the subject of canned goods, it is openly understood that the decision of the Commission in the case will be controlling with regard to lumber shipments by water from Pacific Coast ports, and moving inland by rail from Gulf ports.

For Sale

RETAIL YARD IN SACRAMENTO VALLEY. WILL TAKE ABOUT $18,000.GOOD LOCA. TION. ADDRESS BOX A.74, CARE CALIFOR. NIA LUMBER M,ERCHANT.

HAROLD S. WHEELER RETIRES FROM LUMBER BUSINESS

Harold S. Wheeler, president of the Far West Lumber Co., Tacoma, is retiring from business and will make Los Angeles his home, he having already started cohstruction on a residence in the southern city.