I realized that some historical perspective is in order to understand why the USRA turned to the ICC for their critique of the "Perishable Protective Tariff No.1" in 1920. Beginning in 1905 the ICC was conducting inquiries into how perishable commodities were handled. Although these inquiries began because of the variations in rates being charged for various functions, often seemly capriciously, the quality of services and ultimately the condition and design of refrigerator cars came under scrutiny. Therefore by the time the USRA was preparing to issue their Tariff No. 1, which was intended to make everything fairer and more predictable, they and the ICC had a lot of information. In addition they had the scientific research results done by the USDA over a period of several years that resulted in the USDA and joined by the USRA making recommendations for design standards for refrigerator cars.

Many of the complaints about rates and condition of equipment were focused on the Armour owned Fruit Growers Express, both their business practices and their car fleet, which is why I have found myself researching all of this and writing about it in such excruciating detail in my Chapter One. I also now have a copy of Tariff No. 1 and I am just now sorting out the meaning of all this new information before I integrate into my text, but one thing is clear to me: The work of the ICC, USDA and USRA had a profound effect on perishable traffic after 1920 with better designed refrigerator cars and standards for how the perishables were handled and what the charges would be. Coincidentally 1920, was the first year of operations for the new railroad owned Fruit Growers Express.

Bill Welch