New-York tribune., 1873-04-16
CHEAP FREIGHTS.

The three great trunk lines between New
York and the West have reduced their tariffs
of freight in anticipation of the opening OF
navigation, and there will, consequently, be
some relief for the overtaxed grain growers.
How far this relief will extend is not yet en-
tirely clear. In some instances the reduction
is very heavy. In the average it is about 1G
per cent But of course, it will not affect all
localities alike, and the non-competing points
will have to pay for the facilities granted to
their more fortunate neighbOrs.
1t is not to be supposed that this temporary
abatement in the exactiOns of the railroads
will allay the excitement among the Western
farmers. 1t does not touch the core of the
quarrel between the producers and the car
riers. 1t does not go far enough to satisfy
the grain growers, and it is certain to be fol-
lowed by another Winter of high rates and
aggravated determinations The warfare,
therefore, which has been opened in Illinois
and elsewhere will go forward, and out of all
the discussion which it is provoking we may
hope to reach before next season better
comprehension of the difficulties OF the situa-
ton than seems to prevail now. 1t will be
found in time that an Act of the Legislature
ders. The railroads are getting to be masters
of the Legislatures, and If the necessity for
extending their operations arise they will soon
make themselves masters of our State execu-
tiyes also. Anti-consolidatiOn laws, pro rata
laws, legal tariffs of freight and fares, may do
good for little while; but the railroad COM
panies viii ultimately find means to nullify
them all, unless we can devise plan to curb
their power in some other way.
The root of the difficulty is the unsOund
condition of Western industry and the un-
sound condition of the railways themselves.
Extraordinary exertiOns have been made dur
ing this generation to push the tracks into
every county of the fertile West, and to throw
open the entire grain district to the Eastern
market. In the race for the possession of
these new fields the roads on the one hand have
burdened themselves with debt, and the
farmers on the other have made themselves
entirely dependent upon the roads for the
sale of their produce, and for their supplies
of manufactures The producer and the con-
sumer find themselves a thousand miles apart
The wheat grown In Illinois is destined to feed
the manufacturers of New-YOrk, or Pennsyl-
vania, or New-England, and the surplus to be
shipped across the ocean. There is no sale
for it at home because the industry of Hi
nOis is almost exclusively agricultural. Thus
the farmer is entirely at the mercy
of the railway director. The grain
must be got to the seaboard, and its owner
can be forced to pay anything, short of its
full value, to get it there. Perhaps while the
West is trying to compel the roads to carry il
at a reasonable" rate, whatever that may be
it will be found that ready solution of the
trouble is to create market for it near the
farm. We may consider the crop as divided
into two portions. One portion the farmer
must exchange for the manufactured goods
required for his own cOnsumption,-for cloth
ing, boots and shoes, farm implements, and
household furniture. The other portion
is the surplus which represents bis profit
If his exchange could be effected at Spring
field or Chicago, or Peoria, instead of al
New-YOrk or Boston. he would save first the
freight on the grain and secondly the return
freight on the manufactures. The policy oi
nrotection which fosters the development oi
home manufactures, which gives the farmer O
customer for his grain at his own doors, IL
the best ally Of these Western growers we
shall not be surprised if it borrow a fresh Inn