New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-11-09
Railroah FreiEhts.
We copy the following from the St. Louis
ReH7tjicau:

! RepajHcan:
Corn is worth thirty cents and oats
twelve cents a bushel at Rock Island, Hi
n0is: at Peoria corn is worth thirty cents
and oats twenty cents; at Clarinda, Iowa,
corn is worth twenty cents and oats ten
cents. But at New York corn is worth six.
ty-tiye cents and oats from fOrty-seveD to
fifty cents per bushel. The difference be-
tween the prices of these products in Iowa
and Illinois and their price in New York
! suggests the transportation question, which
! IS every day becoming more serious to
| Western farmers. The prices are good
| enough in New York, but in Iowa they
| scarcely repay for raising the grain and haul
| ing 1t - market. Indeed. they do not pay
| tor that trouble and cost, and there are
hundreds Of farmers in Iowa, who, with
| plenty OF corn and oats 10 sell, will not,
! this year, be able to support their families
! and pay the interest on their mortgages.
! Corn is worth no more to them than it was
| twenty years ago, when they had no rail
| roads They have an abundance of grain
| that needs to go to market, and they have
| plenty OF railroads to carry it, but the cost
| OF carriage is greater than cheap grain, like
! corn and oats, can afford to pay; therefore
| il remains on the farm where it is raised,
| OF is sold at the inadequate prices we have
| quoted.
There ought to be some remedy for this
Of the West. There is no doubt that the
| cest of railroad carriage is much greater
than it need be. At the late session of the
National Board of Trade an interesting pa
per on the subject of railroad freights was
read by Mr.. Il. H. Ferguson, of Troy, which
deserves a more general attention than it
has hitherto attracted. Mr.. Ferguson states
that for the last five years the average
charge for carrying bush6l of grain, fifty
six pounds, from Chicago to New York,
has been nearly thrtytw0 cents and from
st. Louis to New York thirty seven and
quarter cents Of fcourse the cost of bringing
the grain from interior points TO Chicago and
st. Louis is to be added to these rates, and
when added it makes the whole cost of get
ting a bushel Of grain from an Iowa or Mis-
souri, farm TO New York hfty-fOur and a
half TO sixty cents per bushel. This cost
has to be deducted from the price of the
grain in New York, and the little that is
left is what the farmer gets for his labor
and trouble. Mr. Ferguson produces esti-
mates and authoritative testimony, includ-
ing statements from a prominent officer of
the Iron MOuntain railroad of Missouri, the
president of the Virginia Central rail
road. and the superintendent of the
Schenectady locomotive works, to show
that a ton forty bushels OF grain at
tifty-six pounds per- bushelj can be
hauled 1000 miles at an actual cost of
s. 63-3-Or little over SIX cents bushel;
and this estimate includes all cost of time,
labor. interest on the cost Of the road and
equipments. 1t is based upon the present
crude and expensive method Of running
railroads. and it is said that with more
economical system of railroad management
the figures could be reduced One-half or to !
81 3i23 a ton. When it is recoilected that
the present railway charge OF hauling a
ton OF grain from Chicago to New York is
Sll -. and from St. Louis to New York
Sl3 IS ton, it is scarcely credible that the
work could be done for the tr!Hing cost of
3: o:: but Mr.. Ferguson makes the asser.
ton with confidence and seems TO know |
what he IS talking about.
The remedy for the evil is beyond the |
reach of any power less formidable than the |
government, for the simple reason that the
railroads are roo strong for any other power
shan the government, if, indeed, they have
not become, without our knowing it, too
strong :or the government itself. To re-
lease the producers of the West from the |
thralIdoin y! these corporations, the gov.
ernment Will have TO provide the West !
wit. cheaper methods of carriage to the |
sea. This might be done by constructing |
seyera! multiple track roads from the East !
to tine West-say from New York, Balti-
more and Norfolk to Chicago. st. Louis and |
Memphis. and throw them OpQn to all trans !
pO!t1tIOn companies that might be able 60 !
run cars upon them, the government |
charging nothing more than barely enough !
20 keep the lines in repair. Another
enterprise that would facilitate and |
cheap"n carriage between the West and the |
scabcard is the construction of the James |
river and kanawha canal, SO rs 10 afford |
unbr0h"n water transit from the Mississippi
and Chic 70 Norfolk. Pro lessor Naury de- !
cIarad. i'll his address at the late St. Louis !
sair. that this canal. it built. would give |
free navigation from the Mississippi to the |
Atlantic for $50 days in the year. and re.
duce the cost of carriage Of grain from
seven to fifty cents a bushei, according to
The point It started from. II this assertion |
IS true. then. great as would be the cost of |
such canal. the saving in expense to the !
West on grain trade OF two hundred mil |
lions would in a few years pay ;or it. This |
whole subject will probably come up before |
Congress at its next session. and be urged |
on its attention until some measure of relief |
slai. be devised. !