The Osceola times., 1882-04-15
The Farmers and Ra,lvavs.


the time, passed resolutions, as the sense
OF the Alliance, that legal rate for pas
senger fare shall, in no case, be more
than two cents per mile, and for freight
it shall not exceed two cents per ton per
mile, for distances Of 100 miles or less,
and one cent per ton per nile for dis
tances of over 100 miles. This action
neither has common sense nor business
sense in it, allowing. for argument sake,
that these rates would be correct as an
average rate. Acts passed by the Legis-
latures of States, regulating railways or
other corporations, through pressure
brought by the popular (?) clamor of in.
terested politicians, by means of cast
iron mon. fiexible) laws, have always re
suited in disaster to the people, and for
this reason, if no other, the rate at which
one class of railways could carry, per
mile, and make money, would quickly
swamp another class. 1t has been tried
in various Western States Illinois, Wis
consin, Iowa, etc.-and has failed. The
rate under which Illinois is now work
ing is three cents per mile for passen-
gers as the maximum. In these popu-
lous States, to equalize the whole, the
passengers on those sections of line
where many are carried must pay more
than a fair compensation per mile in
order that those portions carrying few
may give this class of passengers some-
thing out of the pockets of the other
class. This is a fair illustration of the
workings of any castiron law, to manage
a service requiring such extreme flexi-
bility as that of railway transportation,
The Western States still want greater
railroad facilities than they now have,
and the people should be willing to pay
q fair rate for transportation in ratio to
the amount to be carried. 1t is simply
nonsense to suppose that ton Of freight
can be carried one mile at the same rate
per mile that is carried per mile for 100
miles, and no sensible man would for an
instant suppose it TO be fair; no more
than it would be sensible that farmer,
butchering steer, would sell the meat,
cut into steaks, at the same price per
pound rs he would sell the carcass in
bulk. There are railways in Nebraska
which can probably make money by
carrying freight at two cents per ton per
mile; and there are undoubtedly others
which it would send into bankruptcy at
once. 1t clashes directly with the decla-
ration (at the same meeting), aud sen.
sible one, that the public welfare de-
mands law compelling transportation
companies to base their charges upon the
cost and risk of service, with a fair profit
added. 1t looks as if there may have
been two sets of heads at work in the
convention, one set composed of fair
minded farmers, and the other of reso-
lutions carried through by those who
had axes to grind. 1t is to be hoped that
the Nebraska legislature will not enact
laws that will conform to any such cast
iron resolutions. The outcome can only
bring disaster to the people.
Let us look for moment at the his
tory of the freight transportation on the
New York Central Railroad, corpora
ton carrying one of the largest lines of
traffic of any in the country. The rate
for passengers is there fixed, we be-
lieve, by law, at two cents per mile
for each passenger. That road has the
competition of the Erie canal, which
naturally should reduce freight rates to
the lowest possible profitable figure,
allcwing, of course, that railway line
cannot carry as cheaply as a water line
The charge, according to Poor's Manual,
was, in 1860, for moving ton of freight
per mile, 065 cents in 1870 it was | 1858
cents in 1850 1t was S.73 mills. Yet the
percentage of profit on this carriage was
greater in 1880 than in 1870. We leave
any fair minded man to compare the
traffic of New York in 1860 with that OF
Nebraska in 1850. The iniquity, how
ever, in the resolution, is not in the rate
made, but in the injustice to those living
in settlements where they are expecting
rail facilities. Will railways be built if
cast iron law says they shall only re-
ceive a compensation that, while it will
make large-traflic road rich, will utter
" ruin a weaker or low-traflic road? Is
il strange that under such cast-iron laws,
in other States, the wealthy corporations
gobble the weaker onesP That they are
still doingit is true, and railway ma9nates
OF Wall street are laughing In their sleeves
at the way demagogues are drawing
the wool over farmers eyes. This pro-
cess of absorption, too, is still going on.
Yes, until farmers act for themselves,
and cut loose from the class VINO fatten
upon them by crying out wolf, it will
continue so. Do we of the West want to
go back to the time when there were no
railways? Let us see! On ordinary
earth roads, wheat will bear transporta-
ton for a distance of only 250 miles,
when its value is 81 80 per bushel
at the market. Indian corn will bear
transportation only l25 miles, when its
value is IS cents per bushel. Any farmer
can figure up the truth OF this statement,
or in other words, he can easily find
how muck he can make per day hauling
wheat 250 miles, at Sl.50 per bushel, or
corn l25 miles, at 10 cents per bushel.
Then knowing the actual price at his
nearest station, he can easily figure how
many miles of transportation, at thirty
bushels per load, it will take to eat up
his crop at current prices. 1t is upon
these commen-sense conclusions that we
have always figured upon the question
Of railway transportation. But, should
railways be allowed TO absorb the differ
ence between the wagon cost of haul
ing and the railway cost of hauling?
BY no means. Railway companies are
public carriers; they have valuable
franchises; they should conduuct their
business in the most economical manner,
in their own interests as business men,
and also in the interests OF their patrons.
This would seem to be common sense
it will not suit demagogues; we do not
want it to. We hope, however, that the
rank and file of the farming community
will ponder seriously upon what we have
said, and as thinking people, rs they
are, Will, holding all corporations who
act as public carriers, and all corporations
who operate under a franchise, to just
accountability, combat the prejudiced
statements of that class of demagogues
lawyers without briefs, editors without
editorial chairs, and clergymen withou,