The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-10-01
The Freight Question.

The Freight QuesttOn.
The editor of the News will not
take this bird in any such trap s. he
has set. In our estimate we toek
no account of the corn. The St
Louis market seldom jnstifies the
shipment OF corn from five to seven
hundred miles. We intended our
figures TO cover the surplus wheat,
barley and oats of Kansas, which we
estimated at 100000 bushels, at
about twenty-five cents average
freight from all portions of the
State. Taking the News editors
idea that fifty or sixty millions of
bushels of corn must be shippeu,and
we find no fanlt with his con-
illusions, but a very small amount of
our surplus corn will ever reach as
for east as st. Louis. In all other
particulars, we fully agree with the
NeWs.-Wichita Eagle.
We are happy 10 have the Eagle
agree with our views of the high
freight question. 1t can exert q
good influence in favor of low
freights, and we like to see it take
an actiye course on the peoples side
of the transportation question.
And we must figure in the surplus
corn for expectation. Mr.. GRAY es-
timaies the Kansas wheat crop of
1875 at 15,OO0OOO bushels, of which
6,00O,O00 can be used or kept in the
State, and 1900, 600 are Surplus, " for
which there is no other sale than TO
shippers. This ''surplus" wheat
must be shipped out of the State,
to st. Louis or some other eastern
markets. The farmers cannot afford
10 hold it. just so with their sur
plus oats, and their surplus corn.
Being surplus, it must be sold and
shipped east. The ontlre corn crop
is rs, 600, 600 bushels. Keep 17,O00,-
600 for home use, fattening of cattle.
hogs, &c, and there are 59,O00,O0
bushels "surplus," to be sold to
shippers. IL must be sold to them
there is no one else to buy it, and
the farmer generally cannot hold it
in their cribs over one year. Now
these shippers pay the ST. Louis
market prices. less only their COM
mission, and the cost of getting the
corn there. The st. Louis price is
now, say so cents per bushel. They
pay in Emporia, 25 cents per bushel.
What makes the difference? Why,
the freight is II cents per bushel.
Add that to % cents, and it makes
AZ cents per bnshel. The other 8
cents is the handlers risk, and COM
mission. These latter items are, by
competition, as low as possible, and
the only thing that can be lowered
Is the freight. If, as in 1873, the
freight was IL cents per bushel, the
farmers would get 6 cents more per
bushel than now.
Corn is carried, by railroad, it
was at least q lew weeks ago., from
Chicago to New York, about LOO
miles, for II cents per bushel. The
same ratio would carry it from EN-
poria to st. Louis, 45O miles, for 5
cents per bushel. Yet the freight
is II cents per bushel. 1t is high
freighis on the railroads, not low
market prices in st, Louis, that de-
priVe the farmers of Kansas from
getting fair price for the SO, 900, 900
bushels of Surplus" corn they have
for sale. 1t is high freights that
prevents the immense hay crop of
Kansas from being marketed. Kan
sas farmers can't get 50 per ton for
their hay when it brings $40 in st.
Louis. Kansas farmers raise 3d.
OO0, 900 bushels of corn to ship east,
and the railroads charge theml over
$10,O00,000 freit to take it to st.
Louis. If that freight was reduced
One-half, Kansas farmers would be
benefited $5,000,O00. 1t is well to
say that with a fraction of Kansas
soil under cultivation, her surplus
corn cannOt be shipped out of the
State. But if that is fact. what is
to be done when her population and
corn crop are doubled and quadru-
pied? Kansas surplus crops must
be shipped east, and can be on a low
freight basis, and at paying for all
parties concerned. Down with
high freights!