borax pulverized; brimstone and sulphur; flour and mill stuffs; fruit, vegetables, meat and fish canned, and fruit preserved, and sauces in glass or wood; fruit and vegetables of all kinds (green); fruit dried, and raisins; leather of all kinds; maccaroni and vermicelli; tea and tea dust." This correspondence finally resulted in the application to business governed by the Western Classification of the rule. in respect to mixed car-loads found in said Pacific Coast East Bound Classification, upon said trans-continental line. Applying the present rule to the shipment in question, and the charge would have been: Dried fruits, class 4, 1.95, 6,400 lbs.. Total.... $124 80 334 07 $458 87 A new edition of the Western Classification has since been issued, which contains no change in respect to this subject. It appears, therefore, that under the Western Classification, which is in use by more than sixty different roads, two different rules are employed in reference to mixed car-loads-one the rule appearing in the classification itself, and the other the rule recently adopted as aforesaid upon the defendant and other trans-continental roads. The manner in which this subject has been treated by the different railroads of the country has led to great confusion, which will continue until a common principle is established. Official Classification No. 3, used on the roads east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio, sometimes called the Trunk Line Classification, provides as follows: . "Rule 8 (A). When a number of different articles in packages of the same class are shipped at one time by one shipper to one consignee at one point of delivery, in full car-loads, they shall be taken at the rate per hundred pounds for such class in car-loads. If the articles are of more than one class the car-load rate and minimum car-load weight for the article in the highest class shall be charged on all the articles that make up the car-load." In the Classification of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association a rule reads thus: "Car-load rates' applies to one shipment to one consignee of one article of freight to secure reduced rates where provided for by the classification." The Texas Classification, on the other hand, enumerates thirty-four different groups of articles under the following note: "The following articles as described and named below may be loaded in the same car, and on which carload rates for their class will apply." The Pacific Coast West Bound Classification provides that "On mixed car-loads the less than car-load rates will apply." While the Southern Pacific Company, in respect to local tariffs on its Pacific system, has amended Rule 7 of the Western Classification as follows: "Mixed car-loads of articles, for each of which a car-load rate is named, may take the highest car-load rate named on any of the articles in the lot, if for one consignee by one shipper." It is apparant that in every case of a shipment of a mixed car-load of goods the shipper must possess and must carefully study the classifications in use throughout the whole route covered by the way bill in order to ascertain what the proper charge should be or whether he has been overcharged in the transaction. A shipment starting under one rule and passing into a territory where a different rule is in force is liable to have the rate increased unless the station agent at the initial point is thoroughly conversant with all the classifications; and on the other hand, such a shipment is liable to be charged through to the destination upon the less than car-load basis, while entitled to considerable reduction under other classifications before the destination is reached. The aggregate amount of shipments in mixed car-load lots upon all the lines in the country is considerable. The inconsistencies in the treatment of such shipments by different carriers under different classifications, and frequently by the same carrier where different classifications are used for different destinations, have been a source of constant annoyance to the community, and have constituted one of the little things the multiplication of which has tended to create and intensify a feeling of irritation on the part of the public against railroads and their managers. It is excessively annoying for a shipper who has made up a car-load lot in the expectation of receiving a car-load rate to find that a few more dollars are exacted because the rule in force on some connecting road prohibits the car-load rate in case more than one kind of articles are embraced in the shipment, although no substantial increased expense to the carriers is involved; and it is still more annoying to find that a rate apparently shown by the tariff sheets of the carrier at the shipping point is not sufficient to obtain the delivery of the goods at destination; or, on the other hand, that he might have obtained a lower rate if he had been fully apprised of the diversities. prevailing in different sections or in respect to different consignments. This whole matter is in a state of elaborate and unjustifiable confusion. It should be taken up at once by the various traffic managers and associations controlling classification in different parts of the country and a common rule immediately established. Such a rule, in order to be satisfactory and just, should be precisely fair as between the shipper and the carrier, easily comprehended in its terms, reasonable in its nature, and applicable throughout every shipment without change. The carriers of the whole country are interested and would be entitled to be heard, either generally or through their associations, before the Commission could safely make such an order as would meet the case; at the present time, therefore, the Commission only recommends the immediate adoption of some uniform classification rule which shall definitely control the question of mixed car-load shipments. Second-Different Classification of Raisins and Dried Fruit. -Continuing the statement of facts in reference to the case in hand, it should be further noted that a comparison of the classifications shows that in the Western Classification, in force on business from the Pacific Coast to all points west of the Missouri river, raisins are classed higher than dried fruits, while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification, in force on business from the Pacific coast to the Missouri river and common points, St. Louis and common points, Chicago and common points, New York and common points, etc., California raisins in car-load lots are found in the same class with dried fruits in car-loads. These diversities involved the subject in confusion, as understood by complainants and presented in their proofs. It is a source of infinite misunderstanding that classifications so widely different as the two last above named should be employed on business from the same points, in the same direction, over the same lines. Separate tariffs are issued for the business conducted under these classifications, the tariff subject to the Western Classification reading "Joint Through Tariff between San Francisco, Sacramento," and other Pacific coast points, "and all points on the Union Pacific system east of Ogden in Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and all points on the Denver Pacific and Kansas Division in Colorado; and all points on the St. Joseph and Grand Island railroad." Any person having in his hands this tariff would understand that it was applicable as well to Omaha, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Kansas City, as to Denver; but in fact another tariff is used on the business from the same Pacific points to points on the Missouri river, which is subject to the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification; and this is true although the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification contains upon its face a statement of the roads which employ it "in connection with the eastern lines," apparently excluding ; the idea that it is used on business to the eastern terminals of the roads in question. It is not surprising, under these circumstances, that complainants failed to obtain an accurate understanding of the rates to Missouri river points for comparison with the rates to Denver. In the Western Classification Dried Fruits are rated L. C. L. Class 3, C. L. Class 4; while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification the same articles are rated L. C. L. Class 5, C. L. Class 7. Raisins, in the Western Classification, stand L. C. L. Class 2, C. L. Class 3; while in the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification they stand L. C. L. Class 4, C. L. Class 7. One effect of applying the Western Classification to this article is to impose a car-load rate on raisins higher than is charged on dried fruits. In the Pacific Coast East Bound Classification raisins in car-loads are in the same class with dried fruits in car-loads. In less than car-loads the classification of raisins is higher than that of dried fruits in both cases. It appears from the evidence that the value of California raisins is quite uniformly less than the value of the article. sold as California dried fruits. Complainants testify that no distinction in classification between California raisins and dried fruit was enforced on shipments to Denver previous to April 5, 1887. No reason is apparent why the dried fruits of California should not be construed to embrace raisins, except the fact that the classification has the word "Raisins" in another place. This interpretation would have entitled the complainants to a car-load rate in Class 4 of $1.95 on 20,925 lbs. $408.03. These irregularities and inconsistencies are not reasonable. In all matters of classification the influence of the Commission will be cast in the direction of clearnesss and simplicity. Instead of seeking for reasons justifying the existing confusion, persistent efforts should be made to efface it. It is of little consequence how such complications arose. The present question is, what is now reasonable and just in view of |