Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-09-27
The Transportation Question,
What New York Merchant has TO Say
ON the Subject.


AT the cheap transportation meeting
in New York, represented by $500, 600, :
900 in capital A. VI. Tenney, in the
course of his remarks, said: The sub
iect of Cheap Transportation concerns
not the banker, the merchant, and the
capitalist of our States alone, but it
concerns the mechanic, the farmer, the
manufacturer, and the consumer of this
entire land. To a man of wealth it
matters little what may be the price of
a barrel of flour or ton of coal, but to
those sons of toll who earn their daily
bread by the sweat of their brotFs and
the blood of theft hearts it matters
much what they pay in dollars and
cents for the necessities of life. 1t is
to them an earnest and sober question.
Workmen! why is it that you are pay
ing 81 and So for barrel of -four
when you should not pay more than SO,
and perhaps not more than ST? The
reason is found in the great expense
necessary to transport that barrel of
-four from the wheat-felds of the West
to the grain-marts of the East. Why is
it you are obliged to pay SO and SO for
coal when yot should not pay more
than So, and perhaps not more than So I?
The reason is not because of the scarcity
of coal nor the want of laborers, nor is
the fault to be found in Elizabethport
or in and around the markets of New
York. The reason is the great price
charged by railroads for the transporta-
ton of the coal from the mines of
Pennsylvania to the coal markets of
New York. Why is it that the farmers
of the West are, as class, poorer to-
day than they were five years ago
Why are their farms more habitually
mortgaged, and the owners themselves
deeper in debt?
The answer is simply that the labor
of their hands has proved unremuner-
alive, from the fact that they have been
unable to pay the enormous freight
charges for transporting their products
TO the buyers and consumers in the
East. The question of cheap trans
portation then applies itself directly to
the industrial interests of the country ;
and If we would have general prosperity
among all classes of our citizens, we
must foster and protect with Jealous
care the industries of the Republic. We
must have the benefits of cheap trans
portation at once for the farming in
terest of Illinois, for the cotton port of
Mississippi, for the coal mining of
Pennsylvania, and for the manufac-
turing interests of New England. The
interests of the North, South, East and
West are mutual and reciprocal. You
cannot, you cannot over enrich one
class of your citizens without CORES
pondingly impoverishing another. True
prosperity depends not upon the pros
perity of few, but upon the general
prosperity of all. The draft drawn al
sight upon the blood and sinews of the
door man will have to be honored and
paid sooner or later by the blood and
sinews of the rich man. What we want
is that every man will stand shoulder tc
shoulder with his fellow man, and that
every branch of industry shall be the
equal and the counterpart of every
other, as we go forth to lay the founda
tions of new States, developing the I'M
told resources of this great land.
honor here tonight the City of New
York for the promptness with which
this stand has been taken. This is no
the first time that New York has taker
her place on the side of right and OF
the side of the people.