“Freight Rate Hearing Asked” in Battle Creek Moon Journal (August 14th, 1925)

While the Henry Ford Company is associated primarily with automobiles, in the 1920s it exercised outsized influence over multiple modes of transportation in the Detroit River region. Today’s article details a lawsuit filed by Zug Island’s Hanna Furnace company challenging Ford’s reduction of freight rates on his railway.

Henry Ford’s railroad company, the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway, reduced its freight rates from $1.39 to $1.23 per ton to transport goods (chiefly pig iron) from Toledo to Detroit. Several other railroad companies followed Ford’s lead in reducing prices for deliveries from Toledo. The Hanna Furnace company, located on Detroit’s Zug Island, was forced to pay significantly higher freight rates, making it harder to compete with the Toledo-based companies. The Hanna Furnace company sued for a readjustment of freight rates to level the playing field for everyone involved.

To learn more about Henry Ford’s railroad company, and to see images of the railroad in action, check out this digital exhibit by the Henry Ford Museum.

Transcript:

Effort to Block Cut by Ford’s Railroad Seen in Move by Detroit Firm.

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Lansing, Aug. 14. – Notice of a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission to untangle the rate mix-up on freight between Toledo and Detroit was filed before the Public Utilities Commission yesterday afternoon. The Hanna Furnace company, a Detroit concern operating on Zug island, is the complainant.

State freight traffic men believe the suit is an attempt to block rate decreases recently put into effect by Henry Ford on his Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railroad.

The following are named defendants: Ann Arbor railway, Delray Connecting railway, Detroit & Toledo Shore Line railway; Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railway; Grand Trunk Western lines, Michigan Central, New York Central, Pennsylvania railway, Pere Marquette, Toledo Terminal railway, Wabash, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad.

In its petition the Hanna company claims its blast furnaces cannot meet the competition of furnaces at Ironville, near Toledo, because of the low interstate freight rates on pig iron from Toledo to Detroit, as compared with the high switching charges it pays to get its products distributed in Detroit from Zug island. It asks a general readjustment of switching and interstate rates to make the situation equitable.

The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railway, operated by Henry Ford, was the leader in Ohio-Michigan carriers in cutting its iron rates. Formerly all railroads charged $1.39 a ton for the Toledo-Detroit haul. Ford cut his rates to $1.23 a ton and other railroads, excepting the Pere Marquette and the Wabash, followed his lead. The Hanna company claims that any rate lower than $1.76 a ton is unjust in comparison with the Detroit switching charges.

Original Article:

Citation:

“Freight Rate Hearing Asked.” Battle Creek Moon Journal, 14 Aug. 1925. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1044158264/. Accessed 10 June 2024.