The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-01-12
ROCK ISLAND & MERCER co., r.. r.
lOFFICTAL PAPER. !
thursday lamar IL, 1882
LOW RATES.

In referring to an article in the ARGUS
of the 9th, headed Transportation" the
Peoria National Democrt says:
/ 1T is difficult to see, admitting the facts
to be as stated, what there is to prevent
the road from making its two cent rate on
lumber from Rock Island to Peoria, if it
wants TO. There is nothing to prevent a
railroad charging less than the maximum
rate established by the state board, which
on soft lumber in car loads is s.. 80 cents
per 100 pounds for five miles and under
and so on, the only limitation being that
it shall not charge the greater rate in the
same direction for an equal or less dis
lance, at the same any other point on
the road, and shall not charge one person
more than another at the same point That
is. the rate on lumber from Rock
Island to Galva, or from Galva
to Peoria, must not be greater
than from Rock Island to Peoria, and one
Rock Island shipper of lumber must not
be charged more than another. Such
are the provisions of the state
law; they are not provisions of the
state board. as the ARGUS asserts. The
Rock Island road can make rates between
Peoria and Rock Island just as low as it
wants to, and there is nothing in the law
to prevent it. The law certainly will not
prohibit a two cent rate on lumber from
Rock Island to Peoria.
The ARGUS dislikes to contradict its
esteemed contemporary TIE Democrot:
but the law certainly does not prohibit
two cent rate from Rock Island to Peoria.
Not in so many words and pro badly notin
the intention of the trainers, but of neces-
sity from its other features. The Democrat
rightly says that 1.-The rate or lumber from
Rock Island to Galva, or from GaIva to
Peoria, must be greater than from Rock
Island to Peoria" In that statement lies
the gist of the entire matter. Under the
effect Of competition, and for the sake of
securing freight, the Rock Island and
Peoria railroad could make a better rate
from Rock Island to Peoria than il could
the law says, you must charge more for
the longer haul irrespective of all other
conditions. Now. railroads are run like
any other class of business, for the purpose
of making money, and no railroad can
afford to charge comparatively smaller
price for the short haul, where there is no
competition, than it does for the longer
haul, where it makes low rate for the
purpose of securing freight. Under such
tariff it would soon become bankrupt,
and in consequence it would naturally pre-
fer to make its tariff compare
with its highest prices, and not
with its lowest As the ARGUS
has repeatedly stated it is matter of
supreme indifference TO the railroad com
panies, as under the present law they
are allowed to make charges higher
than they ever dared to before The
Democrat says that there is nothing to
stop the Rock Island s. Peoria from max
inga two cent rate on lumber from Rock
Island to Peoria; of course not, but if the
railroad company were to make that rate
they would have to make much lower
one to Milan, Galva, or any point between
the two places; rates altogether too low for
it to be possible for them to do business.
As matter of course they prefer to keep
their high rates to the intermediate points,
rates which the law allows, and which are
higher than formerly, and tell the Rock
Island or Peoria shipper that they are sor-
ry but the law imposes heavy fine upon
them if they make through rates any lower.
That is discrimination" and cannot be al
lowed