LAKE CHARLES RAILWAY. The Lake Charles Railway & Navigation Company was incorporated in 1908 as a common carrier of freight only, and all but $2,000 of its capital stock, amounting to $50,000, was issued to four stockholders of the Powell Lumber Company in consideration for the logging road theretofore constructed, and which at one time had been known as the Kelly Tram, together with the rolling stock and certain boats belonging to the lumber company. The railroad corporation and the lumber company are owned by the same stock-holders and have the same officers. Moreover, there is an indebtedness to the lumber company of nearly $30,000.

The track of the Lake Charles Railway & Navigation Company connects with the Iron Mountain at Edna, La., and extends from that point southward and westward to a point known as Hecker, on the Calcasieu River. There are 20 miles of incorporated railroad, in addition to which the lumber company has several miles of unincorporated spurs connecting with the main track at various points, the steel in which is furnished by the tap line. The tap line has 3 locomotives, 15 flat cars, and 50 logging cars. It also owns and operates one steamboat and two barges, which run from Hecker down the Calcasieu River to Lake Charles, a distance of about 25 miles. One log and lumber train is run over its track between Hecker and Edna daily in each direction.

The lumber company has a mill at Edna directly on the tracks of the Iron Mountain, which switches the empty and loaded cars for lumber movements from the mill. It also has a mill at Lake Charles, La., to which the Kansas City Southern, the Iron Mountain, and the Southern Pacific all have direct access, and from which they switch the loaded cars of lumber. The only service which the tap line performs for the lumber company, therefore, is the movement of the logs from the woods to the mill at Edna on the one hand, or to Hecker and thence by boat or barge to the mill at Lake Charles on the other hand. The divisions allowed by the trunk lines range from three-fourths cent to 3 cents per 100 pounds. The annual re-port to the Commission for the year 1910 indicates the movement of 212 tons of naval stores and 1,014 tons of merchandise and sup-plies, in addition to 108,700 tons of lumber. There is very little outside traffic, and the record does not disclose the existence of any independent mills on the line. The town of Hecker is said to have a population of nearly 500, with two general stores and a turpentine plant. The lumber company has a commissary which, as we assume, took a substantial portion of the merchandise shipments moving over the tap line.

The lumber is moved directly from the mills by the trunk lines, as heretofore stated. No allowance may lawfully be paid to the tap line on account of the service which it performs for the proprietary company.