MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILWAY. The track of the Mississippi Valley Railway Company crosses and connects with the Frisco system at Steele, and extends from that point westward about 6 miles to Dolphin, and eastward over 9 miles to Tyler, on the Mississippi River. The hardwood mill of the Tyler Land & Timber Company, which owns practically the entire capital stock of the tap line, is at Tyler. The tracks and equipment, together with the mill and timber, were all purchased by the lumber company in 1904 from prior owners, and the tap line corporation was then formed. It has 2 locomotives, a combination car, and about 40 logging cars. It has no agents or clerks, its books being kept for it by employees of the lumber company.

The tap line hauls the logs from the point where they are loaded on the spurs in the woods to the mill, charging the lumber company $5 per car. Some logs are floated down the river to the mill. The tap line moves the lumber from the mill to the Frisco, a distance as heretofore stated of 9 miles, and receives an allowance of 2 cents per 100 pounds. It publishes no tariffs and has no rates on miscellaneous freight, but customarily charges 10 cents per 100 pounds on less than carload shipments, and on grain, cottonseed, and cotton charges from $5 to $10 per car, depending on the loading point.

The tap line is said to pass through a good farming country, the population of which is about 2,000, with a number of cotton gins and some country stores. The traffic for the fiscal year 1910 aggregated 87,245 tons, practically all of which was logs and lumber, and of which 40,434 tons was handled for the proprietary company. It also carries passengers on its logging and lumber trains, which run at irregular times, its revenue from passengers and the mail aggregating $3,571.20 for the year 1910.

Although the tap line has been receiving allowances for several years, at the date of the hearing it had not filed any annual report; but has since submitted its report for the year 1911.

With respect to the product of the mill of the proprietary company we should regard any allowance in excess of 1z cents per 100 pounds as unlawful.