N&W in 1912--On trial

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Wed., April 3, 1912

FIRST REBATING CASE SET FOR TRIAL THURSDAY
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Eighteen Counts in Indictments Against Cassell & Elliott and Norfolk and Western
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HEARINGS EXPECTED TO CONSUME SEVERAL DAYS
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 Railroad Charged With Hauling Goods Without Charge and Local Firm Accused of Receiving This Free Transportation
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SOME SHIPMENTS ON WHICH INDICTMENTS ARE BASED
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    Huntington, W. Va., April 2--(Special)--The first of the cases against the Norfolk and Western and Cassell & Elliott, indicted for violating the interstate commerce law, will come up for trial on Thursday and the trials will probably consume several days.  There are six indictments against the railroad for carrying shipments for Cassell & Elliott free, and six indictments against Cassell & Elliott for receiving this free transportation.
    The first indictment consists of nine counts and charges that the railroad carried free for Cassell & Elliott nine separate shipments of meat and meat products purchased by Cassell & Elliott from the National Packing Company at Bluefield and shipped to Graham. There is a corresponding indictment against Cassell & Elliott for receiving these shipments without paying the freight.
    Another indictment consists of four counts and is based on four separate shipments.from Bluefield to Maxwell, Va., sent free by the railroad on account of Cassell & Elliott. The first shipment was three boxes of meat purchased from the National Packing Company, another was one barrel of sugar and another was one barrel of sugar and another two tubs of lard from the Flat Top Grocery Company; the fourth was one barrel of stove castings from the Bluefield Hardware Company.
    Another indictment against the company and Cassell & Elliott jointly is based on a shipment of meat products purchased from the National Packing Company at Bluefield and shipped to Gillespie, Va., free.
    Another contains two counts and refers to two shipments of meat products from Swift & Swift, Northfork, through the state of Virginia to Bluefield, which was carried by the Norfolk and Western and received by Cassell & Elliott.
    Another charge that the Norfolk and Western carried free for Cassell & Elliott five sacks of meat purchased from McCue & Wright, Bluefield, to Pisgah, Va.
    Another charges that the railroad carried free 1000 pounds of meat purchased from Swift & Swift, Northfork, to Cassell & Elliott at Graham, Va.
    It will be noted that there are eighteen counts in these indictments, and the company and firm are each indicted in each case.
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[Even a shipment from Bluefield to Graham would have been an interstate shipment subject to the Interstate Commerce Act.]

Gordon Hamilton
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