Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1873-09-19
CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.

ALE. DOTRN, =, Editor and Proprietor.
CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.
All u Eastern exchanges are full
of the cheap transportation question.
Conventions are attended, speeches
reported and commented upon, and
editorial disquisitions without end, are
heaped upon the heads Of the reading
~populace. It Is we'll that this Is SO.
There Is something la this movement,
which, beginning among the grain
producers Of a West Mississippi State,
has In 80 short q tins extended Its
power and enlarged Its numerical
strength and influence until 1t Is
courted by politicians and parties, and
numbers as Its supporters, laborers
and advocates, not only the farmers Of
the nation, but those classes who after
all, are dependent upon the producer
for business, wealth, and In fact ex-
istence. So we have seen Farmers
Oranges organized, not alone In rural
districts, not solely BY "horny-handed
farmers" but at the centres Of civil
izatlon and in the busy marts Of trade
and commerce. 1t Is not simply a war
Of the people against railroads. nor
the cutlery Of the masses against mo-
nopoly encroachment. These are but
elements in the great struggle. For
years the production Of grain In the
Mississippi Valley and westward has
been increasing with vast rapidity.
From simply being sufficient to supply
the consumption Of the great cities Of
the valley and the lakes, 1t came into
competition with the product of the
Eastern and sesboard States, and then
In European markets tried Its strength
with the products Of Russia from the
Black Sea and California on the Pa
cifc. By the facilities afforded In u
railroad system, the farmer. has push
cd out over the great prairies Of Kan
sas and Nebraska until the distance
from market and the unexampled sup
ply, have combined to render grain
growing Improbable.
There are only two solutions to this
question Of transportation which meet
the case in all It's bearings. One Is,
"less farming and more manufacture"
The other |, competing lines" es-
tablished for freight movements only.
The suggestion that the Government
run railroads and thus prevent the
watering Of stock, e%xtortionste
charges and invidious discrimination,
Is met by an argument, which to our
mind. IL absolute. The field OF cor
ruption which 1t opens to the politics
Of this nation, and the centrallzing.
un-Democratic, un-Republican idea
involved therein, are to US Its insur-
mountable attendant evils. 1t Is evil.
dent that there Is q limit In distance
beyond which even wheat cannot be
raised and carried at a profit with
present carrying facilities, and this
limit 9eems to have been reached in
Nebraska and Iowa. 1t was long ago
reached In the ease Of corn and other
coarser grains. 1t Is also evident that
the world consumes but a certain guam
tity Of bread. When more than this
amount Is raised it Is surplus aud UNI
saleable at any price. Mr.. Delmar, o
very able sta~tistician, in a pamphlet re-
Gently published, has shown plainly
enough that the world Is today rails
Ing too much bread stuff. Aside from
all prejudice, and Invested Of all soPh-
istry, the demands Of America to-day
seem to be: First. moro manufactures.
Second. vast trunk lines for freight
movement. The laws d trade are ln-
exorable. They rest upon the basis OF
supply and demand, and there are
limits to the usefulness or necessity
OF any branch Of Industry. Home
markets must be made Ia the great
West by the building up and encour-
agement Of manufactures labor must
be diverted from agriculture to other
pursuits, or In another decade the glut
Of our grain production will render a
market impossible. Egypt raises
wheat in vast quantities. Russia from
the Black Sea sends to England and
the Continent her surplus which each
year Is augmenting, and it Is plain to
see that with the question Of cheap
transportation rs now discussed and
agitated. must be closely allied a
larger home demand, andtor the pres
ent no increase Of production.