CADDO & CHOCTAW RAILROAD. We are definitely advised that since the submission of this proceeding the tap line known as the Caddo & Choctaw Railroad has been taken over by the Memphis, Dallas & Gulf, another tap line that is party to the record and which is hereinafter discussed. We shall therefore make only a brief statement of the principal facts shown of record with respect to the Caddo & Choctaw. It was incorporated in 1.907, and the first 4 miles of its track connecting with the Iron Mountain at Rosboro, Ark., and extending into the woods was constructed. In addition to this track, the Caddo River Lumber Company, in whose interest the tap line was incorporated and owned, had an unincorporated logging track about 2 miles in length. Subsequently extensions of the tap line were laid, until at the time of the hearing it had about 14 miles of track running from Rosboro to a point known as Cooper, about a mile and a half from a town of 500 people known as Daisy. The statement on the record was that the people of Daisy were moving over to Cooper. Each holder of two shares of the Caddo River Lumber Company held one share in the railroad corporation. The latter was indebted to the lumber company in a sum exceeding $100,000 for money advanced for the construction of the line.

The mill of the lumber company was about one-fourth of a mile from the Iron Mountain station at Rosboro. It had at the time of the hearing several miles of unincorporated logging tracks connecting with the tap line at various points. The tap line had 1 loco-motive and 18 cars, used chiefly in hauling the logs to the mill, for which service a charge of 50 cents per 1,000 feet, log scale, was made against the lumber company, there being no tariff covering the charge. The tap line also switched the lumber from the mill to the Iron Mountain, and received out of the earnings of that company a division of 4 cents per 100 pounds, except to a limited territory, where the division was only 2 cents. On shipments to points within the state of Arkansas the tap line's charge of 4 cents was added to the rate of the Iron Mountain, there being no joint rate.

The record indicates that no logs were hauled for others than the controlling company, but there were a few outside shippers of staves, etc. Out of its total traffic of 150,000 tons for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, more than 95 per cent was the logs and lumber of the proprietary company. Very little merchandise freight was handled and no charge was assessed on less-than-carload movements. There were two or three carloads of fertilizer, cottonseed meal, and cake. A single log train was run daily in each direction, on which passengers were permitted to ride at their own risk, without charge. Out of the aggregate earnings of $19,688.62 for the fiscal year 1909, only $27.96 accrued on traffic in which the lumber company was not directly interested. The following year the operating revenue was $24,550.53. It files annual reports with the Commission.

As its facilities and practices are described on the record, it is apparent that the Caddo & Choctaw was nothing more or less than a facility of the plant of the Caddo River Lumber Company.

In disposing of its ownership of this tap line the Caddo River Lumber Company reserved a trackage right over it for its own logging trains, and in this manner the lumber company continues to haul logs from its forest to its mill. That is our information, and we do not understand that it receives any allowance out of the rate. If, as probably is the case, the Memphis, Dallas & Gulf switches the lumber from the mill to the Iron Mountain rails, it is entitled to receive for the service nothing beyond a reasonable switching charge, which we fix at $1.50 a car.