CONCLUSIONS. The action of the roads in reducing the rate on the finished cheap bedroom sets specified in their tariff below that on greatly more valuable finished furniture was, in our opinion, correct, and must be sustained. The same reason, however, that justified this action in reference to the two classes of finished furniture would seem to apply to them in theirunfinished condition. We can, furthermore, find no ground for making theunfinished cheap bedroom sets an exception to the general rule recognized by the defendants thatunfinished furniture should have a lower rate than the finished of the same grade. Our conclusion is, that the cheap bedroom sets described in the tariff when transported in anunfinished condition as shipped by the complainant, should have a lower rate than such sets when finished, and, also, than the more costlyunfinished furniture. The question is, how much lower or what proportion should the rate onunfinished cheap sets bear to that on the finished. As before stated, the complaint is not that the existing rate is unreasonable in itself, but that the same rate is given the two classes of freight. It appears from the statement of rates furnished by complainant that for the four years preceding Sept. 21, 1891, the rates on shipments ofunfinished furniture from complainant's factory at Lansing varied from $1.02 to $1.35 per hundred pounds. During the last three years of that period, the average was over $1.22 per hundred pounds. It must be borne in mind, however, that these rates applied to expensive as well as cheapunfinished furniture and must have been fixed with regard to that fact. If they had covered cheap furniture alone, it is reasonable to suppose they would have been less. Taking into consideration the difference in value of theunfinished and finished furniture involved in this inquiry and the greater tonnage per carload which can be hauled of the former, and having in view the interest of the carrier as well as the shipper, our opinion is that the rate on cheapunfinished bedroom sets should not exceed 85 per cent. of the rate on such sets in a finished condition. While the rate on finished sets remains as at present $1.30, this will give a rate within a fraction of $1.10 on theunfinished sets.
