Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-10-04


alton in favor of new industries, or to
towns trying to create them. Half q car
load left at an intermediate point at which
there is little business, must not be charg-
ed for at higher proportionate rate than
a full carload, carried beyond to gen.
eral distributing point, or where there Is
competition with rival roads. One result
is that where there are two routes be-
tween given points, the shorter must be
favored at the expense of the other,
though there may be no difference in the
running time. The Illinois Commission
ers are said to have announced that they
understand that this law prohibits dis
elimination in shipments carried in the
State, though made to or from points out
side of it. Freights carried across the
long local freights. AS many of the llli-
nois roads have termini on the east bank
of the Mississippi, and by the addition of
mile or two reach the Iowa or Missouri
bank, where they receive the traffic of
roads from the west, under this tariff To-
wa or Missouri must stop shipping their
coarse products, or find routes to the East
that do not cross Illinois. That being so,
the local business of Illinois on such
roads must support them, without the
help afforded by through freights /; and
the roads must either carry at loss or
charge higher local rates. The through
freight that paid part of the income of
the companies, though the profit on that
business was small, under such law
will necessarily be turned off to the Mil
waukee and st. Paul and the Lake Su-
perior and Mississippi roads and grain
will be carried up the Mississippi to
La Crosse and st. Paul, instead of down
/ a.. IA hn Mic
sissippi to New Orleans. The railroad
law OF Illinois, as construed, is an impas-
sable barrier to the Iowa and Missouri
shipper.
The aim of the Illinois law is to equal
ize through and local freights. The as
sumption is made that through freights
are profitable, and local freights on the
same scale will therefore pay. This is
independent Of the question whether the
average of freight is too high or too low.
Where railroad must make as its gross
earnings $4,000 per mile to pay the cost
Of maintenance and a small profit on the
investment, if it earns $4,000 by doing the
business that is necessarily given to 1t, it
is no injury to those whose business it
thus does if it carries other or through
freight at lower rate, to exc out its nee
essary income, in cars that would other
wise lie idle, and Mt rates at which it
would be impossible to do the entire bus.
mess. SO far from doing an injury it is n
benefit, in that it takes off an expense of
S2,000per mile from local traffic. Through
freight is generally obtained by sharp
competition, and is taken if it can be
moved at little above the cost of move
ment; whilst the whole business of road
must not only pay the cost of movement
/ hnt nlsn oil nf and faar
maintenance, interest on debt and on cap
/ ital. A large through business on small
profit enables n road to reduce local
treights. One Of the errors of the Illinois
law seems to be that it may prevent
through traffic and divert to the cities
and roads Of other States n profitable
trade.
now SUCH LAW WOULD OPERATE HERE.
Who is prepared to say that precisely
similar results would not follow similar
law here q? Before the Pacific Railroad
was built, all the exports and imports of
! Central and Northern California and of
Nevada passed through The Golden Gate
and were handled by the dealers of San
Francisco. The great Panama steamers
and numerous sailing vessels crowded the
harbor. The city grew with rapidity
only equalled by that of Chicago under
the stimulus of its new railroads. Real
estate reached high figure. Every rill
of prosperity of the State became an atilu
ent that enriched the Queen City. When
the railroad was completed il etopped the
stream of travel to San Francisco that
formerly took the isthmus line. Gradu-
ally interior merchants began to find that
many articles could be bought cheaper in
the East and brought here by rail, than
in San francisco. The tides of business
and travel measurably changed and San
Francisco suffered somewhat thereby. If
there were were legislative power in this
State to now fix II unit for freight trans
port, so that freight coming from Ogden
should be charged for in proportion to
distance, and way and through freights
be equalized If freight paid for the dis
tance it passed over without regard to
competing points, so that companies had
no power to discriminate between through
and local freight, the result would be
that not pound of freight that could
be bought in the East would pass over
the railroad from San Francisco to Utah,
Nevada, or the mountain towns of Cali
fornia, unless the whole trade was driven
off by the isthmus. Merchants of Reno,
Eko or Virginia would have no need of
business connections with this State. For
example, the local freight from the East
ern cities to Reno is greater than through
freight from those cities TO San Francisc,
plus that from San Francisco TO Reno.
Hence the Nevada merchants now find it
to their interest in many cases to purchase
in California. Give them the advantage
Of less freight to their own towns than
San Francisco pays and they have no
need 10 deal in San Francisco in fact,
I Il - 4 a. 1T
are controlled by competition, and so re-
duced to the lowest limit. The Panama
steamers, Cape Horn and Suez Canal
concur to reduce through rates. Local
rates beyond the State line cannot be
reached except by Congress. When
Congress shall legislate upon this subject,
it will be little apt to care whether San
Francisco or Chicago gets the trade of
the State of Nevada and of Utah Terri
tory.
This question is little complex, and
with your indulgence, will further illus
trate it. The combined legislative action
of California and Nevada could not effec:
a relief of the interior from the present
discrimination in favor of San Francisco
for two reasons:
First-Such legislation could not reach
the roads east of Ogden to the Atlantic
that run in connection with the Central
Pacific Railroad. For instance, freights
at New York for San Francisco, in con-
sideraton of their being through freights
to the latter city, are charged less rates
on the roads between New York and Chi
cago than would be charged for them if
they stopped at Chicago. The same is
true as they pass over the roads from
Chicago to Omaha, and from Omaha to
Ogden; so that the party who. sends this
freight through to San francisco gets it
there on special low conditions. The
Eastern companies for time refused to