The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-05-10
The Rail Road Tariff Question.
The Jackson Clarion says:

ton at almost any price, formeu u
pool Saturday and established the
following rates: St Louis IS cents
per 100 Tbs; New York, 81 10;
Liverpool 81 80, thereby proving that
there is never competition where
combination is possible. Legislative
supervision is the only safe reliance
for keeping freights and fares within
Legitimate bounds"
II we had been searching for fig
ures to sustain us in stating the
very reverse Of the Clarion g cenclu-
sion, we could not have been better
Bupplied: Here, in the instaEce
given, we find tariff that takes up
FIVE hundred pound bale OF cotton at
Dallas Texas. transports it to st.
Louis, distance of about 700 miles,
for $4.25; it carries it to New York.
a distance of about 1900 miles from
Dallas, for SIS so, or lands it on the
wharves at Liverpool a distance of
nearly 5000 miles-via New York
for Sc so. In other words these rail
roads have, after a long "Kilkenney
cat fight" in which they were de-
stroying each other, agreed to carry
bale of cotton from Dallas to st.
Louis, a distance of 700 miles, for an
amount of money that would be
cheerfully paid by any farmer living
fifty miles from railroad station, to
have it hauled there in an OK wagon,
over muddy road, and in mii.win-
ter. In fact, there are many farmers
living in Mississippi, remote from
railroad lines, who are to, day devot-
ing two to three days labor of team
and driver to getting one or at most
two bales of cotton to the nearert
market town or place Of shipment,
thus paying more--if they will pause
to count the cost-than Dallas pays
to place her cotton in st. Louis, and
yet these men are appealed to, to
make war upon an incipient railroad
system, and discourage those who if
left alone for few years will bless
them all with transportation facilities.
The tariff adopted by"the railroads
centering at Dallas as reported by
the Clarion, absolutely, in our judge'
ment, vindicates the efficacy Of com>
petition in making low rates for the
freight charges from that town TO
the great cities named are doubtless
fifty per cent, lower than they would
be if Dallas had but q single trans
portation outlet.
The merchant or planter who
ships cotton from Dallas to New
York lands $50 worth OF the staple
in that market for SIS so, while the
farmer Of any of the grain growing
States. west OF the Mississippi river,
must pay 500 or thereabouts for
transporting $50 worth Of wheat to
the Atlantic sea board at the present
price of that grain, in addition to
taking risks on damages in transit
to which cotton is not liable.
We would like to know what those
who demand "railroad supervision"
mean by the expression. Do they
intend us to understand that a reg
ular mileage rate is to be established
that local rates and through rates
are to be placed on the same basil
Do they mean, for instance, that il
a bale of cotton is carried 200 miles
for two dollars, it shall be carried
ten miles for ten cents, involving the
same handling for the shorter dis.
tance as for the greater? If so let
them carry out the argument to its
legitamate result, and for the sake
of making low local frieghts which
are comparatively speaking of little
Importance to us, fix regular mile
age on cotton for all distances, based
upon the lowest local rate at which
it can be handled without absolute
loss, say two cents a bale per mile;
this would make Dallas pay $14 90 u
bale to get her cotton into st. Louis,
about $4,000 bale to lay it down in
New York.
What would be the inevitable re,
suit of such scheme as that's Would
it not have the effect to crush out
cotton planting in all sections remote
from the sea board, and give an ina
mense impetus to the cotton interest
in those regions contiguous to tide
waters or great rivers? And would
it not sacrifice the farmers and land
owners of the interior for the benefit
of those conveniently located on
water courses?
If the farmers Of Mississippi will
study their own interests they will
be unit against the enactment OF
any law that can by any possibility
lupilitate against railrood building in
the State, for it is to the multiplying
: OF these great civilizers that they
must look for the creation OF riva
markets in their neis hborhoods that
e will guarantee demand for not only
their cotton but hun dred other
articles that contribute to the prof
. of busbandry and for which they cal
t at present find no sale; to the multi
plication of railroads they must lool
for enhancement of the value of thei
a lands--an enhancement that has en-
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