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Railroad Rate Regulation in Utah, 1896–1923
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In 1908 Salt Lake City jobbers, or wholesalers, met in hard times. The national economy was prospering, but railroads were charging more to ship goods from the East to Salt Lake City than they charged to ship the same goods through Salt Lake City and on to San Francisco. Because of those freight rates, Salt Lake jobbers could not meet San Francisco competition even in parts of Utah. While most other states had taken sides with their citizens against high railroad charges, Utah state government, under Republican control, had become an ally of the railroads in hopes of luring investment and rail expansion. “Our state has needed the railroads too badly to do anything they would object to,” said Samuel Weitz, a leading member of the Salt Lake Commercial Club.1 This article recounts early conflicts over railroad regulation and tells two separate but intertwined stories: first, how Utahns complained of “despotic” railroad charges, and Salt Lake jobbers used federal regulation to win lower rates; and second, how state government, led by Republicans, relied on free markets, while Democrats came to advocate state regulation and eventually to enact a public utilities commission, thus bringing Utah into line with other states and the federal government. Railroads presented the first instance of an enduring Utah question: how to attract needed investment while preventing exploitation by big out-of-state corporations. Unjust rail rates “crippled and killed struggling industry in Utah,” Governor Heber Wells told Utah’s First State Legislature in 1896. He asked for a public utilities commission to regulate the roads.2 Three commission bills were quickly introduced. Debate focused on how railroads both owned coal mines and controlled the price of coal. Since the 1870s, Utahns had complained of the “rapacity of the railroad monopolists” and the “outrageous prices” they charged.3 The Salt Lake Commercial Club, which later became the Chamber of Commerce, supported a
