Published Pursuant to Authority and Requirement of Sec. 25, VOLUME ONE OKLAHOMA CITY To the Honorable Lee Cruce, Governor of Oklahoma: We have the honor to transmit herewith the Fifth Annual Report of the Corporation Commission of the State of Oklahoma for the year ending June 30, 1912, as required by law. The Commission has made more substantial progress during the last year than any preceding year, due largely to having collected more accurate and definite information as to all subjects with which we have had to deal. The expert force has grown more proficient than when the Commission was first organized and the work in general has been satisfactory to the public. During the year there were 222 formal complaints filed and tried. There were more than 1,000 informal complaints made to the Commission which were adjusted without trial, many of which required special investigation and were usually adjusted to the satisfaction of all concerned. OVERCHARGES RETURNED TO SHIPPERS. In addition to the usual work of the Commission as contemplated by law, we have prepared through the rate department to check any rates for shippers and return to them any overcharges either on state or interstate shipments. Through this department more money is returned to the shippers each year than is required to maintain the department. The amount so returned ranges from fifteen to twentyfive thousand dollars a year. If the overcharge is on an interstate shipment and the carriers decline to make the refund upon request of the Commission, the same is presented to the Interstate Commerce Commission where prompt adjustments have been made. CASES PROSECUTED BEFORE THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. During the year, the commission filed and prosecuted before the Interstate Commerce Commission, or assisted in the prosecution, the following cases: 1. Live Stock and Packing House Products' rates. (a) Live Stock rates from all points in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Kansas to Oklahoma. (b) Fresh Meat and Packing House Products, rates from Oklahoma to all points in the United States. (c) Salt rates from Kansas salt fields to Oklahoma. (d) Rates on Hides and By-products from Oklahoma throughout the United States. 2. 3. Portland Cement rates from Oklahoma to Texas. 4. Rates on Cotton Seed and its products between Oklahoma and the various markets. 5. Wheat rates between Texas and Oklahoma. 6. Rates on Sucker Rods used in oil wells from Pittsburg and the east to Oklahoma. 7. Rates on iron and Steel articles from Pittsburg and the east to Oklahoma. :8; Rates on Bags from Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and Galveston to Oklahoma. 9. Rates on all commodities from New York. 10. Oklahoma. Rates on bagging and ties from the primary markets to 11. Express rates from Oklahoma to the Southeast. 12. General investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission of weights and measures. grain. 13. Rules and regulations in reference to milling in transit of 14. Express hearing by the Interstate Commerce Commission. 15. Suspension of Western Classification No. 51. About 100 informal complaints each of which directly benefitted a few shippers in the state which were presented to the Interstate Commerce Commission and adjustments secured. The above cases have all been decided except the Western Classification and two others and the contentions of the Oklahoma commission have been sustained by the Interstate Commerce Commission in each case. The preparation and presentation and the filing of briefs and arguing the same before the Commission in Washington has required approximately half the time of one member of the Commission and the rate expert and a portion of the time of other employees. WORK IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER COMMISSIONS. The Nebraska Railroad Commission called a meeting of the commissions west of the Mississippi river to discuss the uniform method of valuing railroads. This meeting was attended by the engineers and one member of most of the commissions west of the Mississippi river and east of Colorado. At this conference it was agreed that the state commissions should file a brief in the rate and two-cent fare cases pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. Twelve states joined in this work and appointed a committee of five, of which one was a member of this commission, to prepare and present the brief. A brief and argument consisting of 400 printed pages was filed in accordance with this arrangement. The commissions again acted in conjunction in opposing the Western Classification No. 51 which was promulgated by the railroads ostensibly in the interest of uniformity. Eighteen states joined and also appointed a committee of five, of which one was a member of the Oklahoma Commission, and with the assistance of the expert of the various commissions, we succeeded in suspending the operation of the classification, and the case is still pending before the Interstate Commerce Commission. It has been the most persistently and stubbornly contested case tried for many years. If it had gone into effect it would have had the result of increasing the revenues of the carriers west of the Mississippi river from twenty to thirty million dollars annually, and some have placed the amount at a much higher figure. The result of the Commission's efforts before the Interstate Commerce Commission has had the effect of reducing the live stock rate to Oklahoma City from 1 to 9 cents per hundred pounds, with a reduction on salt of 3 cents per hundred pounds and a reduction on outbound products, such as fresh meat and packing house products, hides, etc., from 3 to 27 cents per hundred pounds, amounting on the present business of the two packing plants in Oklahoma City, in and outbound products, to from seven hundred fifty thousand to one million dollars per year. The adjustment of cement rates from Oklahoma and Kansas in connection with the adjustment within the state of Oklahoma greatly increased the output of the Oklahoma mills and in some instances caused mills to run at full time which would otherwise have been compelled to shut down or run on half time. The saving on these commodities amounted to over $100,000 per year. There was the same relative reduction on the other cases above mentioned tried before the Interstate Commerce Commission, and as a whole we have been extremely successful before the Interstate Commerce Commission, which has resulted in great benefit to the shippers and manufacturers of Oklahoma. The expense of carrying on this litigation. before the Interstate Commerce Commission was paid from the Commission's contingent fund and without including the salaries of the commissioner or the employees, the traveling expenses, printing of briefs and other costs amounted to $2,670.09. SUSPENSION OF TARIFFS RAISING RATES BEFORE THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. The law provides that when a carrier files an interstate tariff advancing rates, the Interstate Commerce Commission may upon its own motion or upon the objections filed by parties in interest, suspend the operation of the tariff until a hearing can be had. The Commission has filed objections to all advanced rates materially affecting the interests of Oklahoma which it could with its present force. This was so important to shippers that a committee waited upon the commission and insisted that we employ an additional clerk in the rate department to especially check advances in tariffs. The Commission transferred an employee from another department and is now checking all tariffs thoroughly that effect Oklahoma. JUDGE HOOK. Upon investigation we ascertained that when a supreme judge was to be appointed no one took any interest in the question of whom should be appointed except such interests throughout the country as had the principal part of litigation in the federal courts, and these interests conducted campaigns of the applicants for most all federal judicial positions. A member of the Railroad Commission of Iowa wired us that the president of the United States had a conference that evening with the presidents of the railroads, and that he had agreed to appoint Judge Hook a member of the Supreme Court of the United States. We im |