The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-03-04
NEW ORLEANS, Feh<1G 1888

you in reference to the Humphries bill
which discussed before your committee.
1t must be apparent to every intelligent
mind, how impossible it would be to make
a rigid tariff of rates, that should not vary
according to the values Of the articles trans
ported, and the distances they might be
carried.
Ifyou were to make uniform rate, APP
plying to all freights, at the same rate pei
ton per mile, many of the products nov
transported by rail would be prohibited
because Of the fact that the rates would alb.
sorb the value of the products.
Surprising you transported barrel o.
-four, bacon, salt, meal, or molasses for q
miles, and charged % cents forts transpor.
tation; then suppose the same articles had
to be transported 800 miles, and you charg.
ed 25 cents for each additional 90 miles
you see at once it would be a prohibition
on transporting the articles a long distance
Again, take lumber. Surprising you trans
ported car load of lumber 80 miles, and
charged for that service $40, which would
be 81 perfthousand feet.
Now suppose that car load oflumber wa:
destined to travel $50 miles, and you were
to charge ~ per thousand feet for each 30
miles, the cost of transportation for this
distance would be $1S per thousand feet,
and the lumber would still be far short,
perhaps, of its final destination. You at
once discover that any such charge would
amount to prohibition on all shipping sin
gle pound.
The lumber shipped from Mississippi,
completes in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio
and Indiana, with the lumber from Michi-
gan, the northwest and Canada; and we
must either transport it at such rates as it
can afford to pay or prohibit its transporta-
ton altogether, by such law as is sought
for in the HUMPHREYS bill
Then, again, take a bale of cotton, and
suppose that we charge so cents for trans
porting it SO miles, The northern limit Of
Mississippi to New Orleans is, in round
numbers, 400 miles, and if we made an adj
ditional charge of50 cents for each so miles
of transportation, the cost would be 81 per
bale-our present charge being So per bale
for this service.
Thus, you see, this uniform tariff would
initiate against the producer or the party
who had any surplus product Of any kind to
ship to market
Now, the great object which the Hum
phries bill has sought to obtain, is that
local freights and passengers for short dis
tances, should pay no more rates per ton
per mile than for long distances, or that
through and local rates should at all times
be the same. Such policy would at once
destroy all through business, simply be-
cause, the traffic intended to travel long
distances, would not bear the rates Of trans
portation that such law.as the HUMPHREYS
bill would impose upon it.
If this bill were enacted into a law, it
would seriously tend to destroy all manu-
featuring in the State, and would impose
burden upon the surplus products of agri-
culture that would work great hardship to
the producer. ~
The value of any article at the point of
production, and she price it will bring at
the point of destination, will, in nearly all
instances, fix the nate which such article
will bear for transportation I; and the car
rier must be willing to transport at such
rates as will leave profit to the producer,
or the raising of such products as will not
bear the charges provided in this bill, must
be abandoned.
Now, if the local shipper is only charged
fair and reasonable rates for the services
performed for him, does not common sense
dictate that he is not injured, in any man
ner, by the railroad hauling for some other
party longer distance, even though it is
lone at lesserarates
Allow me to call your attention to
another matter that does not seem to
be understood, or if understood is pur-
oosely perverted, and that is this: We
laul cotton from Memphis, say, compet-
ng point with river and. with railroads
20 Cincinnati, New York, Norfolk, Charles
onsand Savannah, but specially with the
liver. We transport it from there to
New Orleans for $3.50 per bale. Nine
enths of all the cotton we haul from that
,oint is compressed, and we get 55 bales into
car, which gives to us a gross revenue of
$3.50 per car. Now, all the cotton we
lall from Grenada, point 100 miles nearer
Jew Orleans than Memphis, is uncompress-
d, and we get $3 per bale for hauling it.
IF uncompressed cotton we can get but 20
ales into box car, which gives a gross
evenue of $50, or sometimes % bales, pro-
ucing $66. While the uncompressed cotton
not of the same weight as the compressed,
evertheless, you will observe, it taxes
ally the capacity of the car. Our proper
ion of the rates from Memphis to New Or
cans, gives us $62 Then, you will see,
Thile we charge SO per bale from Grenada,
he cotton from Memphis at 81 so per bale
fords about the same amount of revenue
} US. Now if all points on the road would
rect congresses and compress all their cot
IN, we would be very glad to haul it at the
lme ratio of charge, because it would take
cry many less cars to do the business than
does now,
You must also bear in mind that, in the
lonths of April, May, June, July and Au-
ust there is but little local traffic on the line
our road. At this season of the year we
ave our houses full of idle engines, and our
de-tracks full of empty cars, because there
nothing for them to do. Now, if we send I
1r cars away and seek business at Compel {
lg points, and haul that business at COM I
citing prices, does not common sense show g
lat the local shipper is not injured by any e
lch line of policy? lion the contrary, we t
ID not secure traffic from competing points. h
nd beyond the terminus of our line. we
lould be compelled to charge the local L
afic at least $50 per cent higher rates than
e now charge, III order to earn sufficient {
venue to maintain and keep the road in
inning condition. Therefore, it is To the
terest of the local shipper, that we h
Iould control such traffic as it is DOS
BILE for us to do, to swell the gross i:
venues of the company from which the C