THE ORANGE ROUTING CASE not subject to the Interstate Commerce Act. To fay these rebates, the car line had to get them from the Eastern railroads; and to get them, it had to be able to award the Eastern traffic. To the latter, the shippers were easily persuaded to agree, and to the former the Eastern roads agreed with equal readi ness. The selection of Eastern routing was thus sold by the shipper to the car line, in consideration of the payment of rebates by the latter. This transfer of the routing privilege transferred also the objective of the connecting carriers' fight for business from the shipper to the car line. The weapon employed was now, as before, the rebate, but in a disguised form. An East ern road, competing for business, simply agreed with a car line that in consideration of the latter's routing its oranges over the former's road it would pay to such car line an excessive mileage per car, viz., instead of the usual mileage of three-fourths of a cent a mileage of a cent or a cent and a half. This excess the car line divided with the shipper for the privilege of routing his fruit. At the opening of the season, an understand ing was had between the shipper and the car line that the use of its particular cars would secure the shipper an allowance on refrigera tion charges. The full tariff was duly paid by the shipper, and his rebate was after wards returned to him by the car line. Even when there was no refrigeration, it was cus tomary to allow a rebate nevertheless. The rebate from the car line to the shipper amounted, under refrigeration, to as much as $35 per car to the Atlantic seaboard. When the fruit was not moved under refrig eration, the rebate varied, according to dis tance, from $10 to $25 per car. In four years, as we have already said, one of the large shippers received in such rebates nearly one hundred and seventy-five thousand dol lars. The Santa Fe and Southern Pacific sys tems, while not competing with any true belligerency, sometimes found themselves competitors against their will by reason of
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the state of affairs we have been describing. For instance, the Arlington Heights Fruit Company, a large shipper at Riverside, had its natural shipping station exclusively on the Santa F6 line. In 1897-98 the general freight agent of the Santa Fe" found that the entire business of the Arlington Heights Fruit Company was going to the Southern Pacific at its station at Colton. The freight agent protested to the manager of the Fruit Company that it did not seem exactly right that the latter's business should go over the lines of the Southern Pacific when it was located on the lines of the Santa Fe". The answer was that the Continental Fruit Ex press, the car company to which the routing of the fruit had been surrendered, absolutely refused to allow it to go over the Santa Fe The latter's freight agent called on the man ager of the Continental Fruit Express to find out what the trouble was, and, as he says, "he soon learned." The trouble was simply this: " If the Santa Fe" Railroad would allow the Continental Fruit Express excess mileage amounting to $10 per car to Kansas City, and $12.50 per car to Chicago, the busi ness of the Arlington Heights Fruit Com pany would be sent over the Santa Fe" lines, otherwise the Continental Fruit Express could not afford to let the business go over the Santa Fe" lines, as they had contracted to pay the Arlington Heights Fruit Company a certain amount per car for the routing. ' The Santa F£ was obliged to come to terms; it did so and got the business. The general competition was reaching fever heat. To command the power of routing, the car lines were compelled to grant the demands of the large shippers, who were becoming more and more clamorous. To reimburse themselves, they were obliged to demand in turn heavy excess mileage from the Eastern roads, which were obliged either to pay it or to lose the business. A point was reached where the connecting car riers, in the excess of their zeal, took this business often at a positive loss and in al most every case without profit. In spite of
