Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1885-06-26

OF all matters connected with rail
road business, none causes more
grumbling on the part of the public
than rates of freight. In the great
majority of cases this grumbling is
unreasonable, and in many cases is
due to the desire on the part Ofship
ers to get some advantage in rates
over their neighbors on the same
line. The effect of railroads is to
equalize values all along their line
so that shipper a hundred miles
away from a market has nearly as
much benefit from it as one who lives
within ten miles. But the nearby
shippers always want to shut out, il
possible, those that are further down
the line, in order that they may not
compete with them. So they en-
deavOr to have the rates so adjusted
as to favor them. One of their favor
lite, most plausible, and at the same
time most selfish arguments is, that
the freight should be so much per
ton per mile, irrespective of the
length of haulage; so that a party a
hundred miles down the road would
pay ten times as much freight rates
as would a party ten miles from the
market. This to most people appears
to be very just and equitable. 1t is
indeed the very essence of the noted
Regain bill lately before Congress,
and is the very embodiment of sell
fishness as it shuts out the distant
shipper from deriving any benefit
from the railroad. We know of a
railroad upon which this equal
freight rate was enforced by legal
enactment to satisfy public clamOr.
The consequence was that those who
resided within five miles of a coal
market, got their coal for thirty cents
per ton freight, while those living
hundred miles away had to pay six
dollars a ton freight. The coal at
the point of shipment was worth, say
four dollars a ton so the nearby con-
sumer got it for four dollars and
thirty cents per ton, while the far
off consumer paid ten dollars per ton.
No manufacturing establishment
could succeed with such a discrimi-
nation against it. 1t was therefore
an embargo against the road, as it
them carrying the coal
and also the freight resultant from
the manufactured goods which it
would have aided to produce.
Discriminating rates, or those
a party obtains for himself
llone a lower rate or rebate than
loes any of his neighbors, are in
nearly all cases alike wrong in prac-
ice and in principle. They are a |
natural outgrowth of competitive
Dads, and are generally sought after
~ men who believe in the maxim
every man for himself and the de-
Ill take the rest" Such man will
70 to the managers of road A and
tate that he has such and such
quantity of freight which he wishes
o have forwarded, and will say, that
the road will give him a certain
ate, perhaps, he will send it by their
me. Having had a rate named, he
ill then go to the agents of road B
nd ask them if they cannot do bet
er. They, anxious to get his trade,
ill name still lower rate; he then ,
Oes back to road A and tells that
Dad B will take it at such a rate
ut if road A will go a point or two
etter that they can have it. Road
determined that B shall not have ,
/, goes the point or two better often
a loss to themselves, and gets it;
len they have to recoupe out Of /,
.her customers. The two compeU-
e roads thus cut each others
lroats, and the man cuts the throats
his competitors in business BY
lving personal rates, and everybody Z
1t himself is i'll served and wronged. 0
From what has been said, in these d
ticles about railroads, we think that r
~ intelligent reader will see that Il
is very intricate and complex v
Isiness, requiring great skill, tact h
ID executive ability; and that much n
the cutlery against railroads and n
cir management is due to ignor- D