Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-25
wILL Nor HELP RENo.

1
But would not this enlarge the trade of
Reno or Tucson by making those towns
more of trade centers ~
" Not at all for, don't you see that the
same rule works against them. They may
! gain little trade west of them, but they
lose trade east OF them.
Why"
Winnemucca is east of Reno, is it not =?
| Well, Winnemucca would be foolish to pay
the haulage of goods from Reno, would it
not, if it could save that expense by having
! them dropped at its own door? And the
same rule applies all along the line. All
will look to the East for supplies, and not
in the West
And why should they not always look
| to the nearest market2n
Only because the Creator gave San
Francisco ocean competition to specially
favor the city in the matter of freights. But
this Reagan bill seeks to set that advantage
| aside by forbidding railroads TO make any
concession to the propinquity of water
| transportation.
Under this law San Francisco would be
the worst situated city in the Union for
| trade, said Mr.. TUwne. :" You see, every
| thing is east of us. | should think that
! proper title for the bill would be "A scheme
| to place the railroad transportation of the
| United States in the hands of the Canada
| Pacific If we are TO be hampered by rules
which force us to charge higher rates than
We want TO, II will put the trade in the
hands of the Canada Pacific, which will not
come under the operations of the United
States law"
TWO HORNS OF THE DILEMMA.
Our position will be this" suggested
Colonel Crocker. I'VE will be forced to
sacrifice either our local traffic or. our
through traffic.
How is that ?H
If we are forced to a uniform rate we
must make such a rate as will give us in
come enough to pay our fixed charges and
interest. Even the Reagan bill could not
force us to operate at a loss. / am speak
ing of through business. If we keep the
present rate on terminal points and give
the same figure TO interior points our in
come will fall off so much that we Will be
forced to raise the rate on local business,
which does not come under the provisions
of the Act To do this would cripple local
industries which we are now nursing by
special rates. On the other hand, if we
make higher rate on through business to
terminal points TO enable US to get fair
income from non-terminal points on
through business, the steamship lines will
be relieved from our competition and
can charge San Francisco what they
please"
win not clipper freights, by oompeti-
ton, keep the steamers down p
No, replied Mr.. Stubbs. Experience
teaches that they do not. The best evil
dence of that is that, before there was a
railroad, steamer freights were higher than
they have ever been since, and were un-
conscionably high. Clipper ships are all
fs,l,f rafa .t,G
can afford to keep in large stocks, but they
will not serve for general merchandise that
demands time schedule that can be re-
lied upon, and at least a twenty day service
from East to West"
Would you be more likely to sacrifice
your through or local business in this
dilemma ?'
I'VE would let through business go,
said Mr.. Crocker, emphatically. You
can estimate that at present it is only 25
per cent. of our receipts, and the sum is
steadily reducing with the increase of COM
petition, and it is not reasonable to suppose
that the company would sacrifice the inter-
ests of 70 per cent. to save the other 25
Yet, if we leave the through business to the
steamship lines, it would be disastrous to
San Francisco, which would then cease to
be first-class distributing point, and would
have to depend on the supplying of its i'm
mediate back territory, the same as a small
country town. Values of real estate would
go down quickly
THE QUESTION OF POOLING.
Taking up the question of pooling, Mr.
Stubbs said: The concern of the trainers
of the bill is stated to be to prevent dis
elimination and to insure an equal service
to all. Yet they propose to prohibit pool
ing which is the best, in fact the only de-
vice to prevent discrimination that has
ever been suggested"
How do you prove that statement ?"
Pools keep rates uniform replied Mr..
Stubbs. No matter what the rate, it is
the same to all Freight wars are the oppo-
site to pools, and nothing tends to discrimi-
nate and disturb rates so much as a freight
war
How
"Weli, take our own recent freight war
as an illustration, " said Mr.. Towne " Dur
ing the war freight ranged from 50 25 a
hundred pounds to 40 cents, and scarcely
two men got the same figures. Levi Strauss
& Co. shipped lot of goods early in the
season, say at 81 25 A few days later
Murphy, Grant q Co. got a rate of 81 so,
and again little later their trade rivals got
rate OF 40 cents. That meant that the
earlier shippers had to lose the difference
between the high and the low rate, for they
sold at the same price to the retailer"
But, was not the consumer benefted?"
Z" / will answer that by asking what you
saved on a suit of clothes, because the tailor
had to pay 81 cents less freight on ten
pounds of cloth ?' said Mr.. Towne. " But
the freight imperceptible to you was a
heavy loss to the importing merchant.
Then, too, some man had a big lot of
stuff to ship, and all the agents wanted
to get his business. With no pool
to restrict them they would bid lower
| and lower until they took them at a figure
out of all proportion to the value of the
service His smaller competitor would
suffer from that, but with a pool, the big
and little shipper would be served Just the
same"
But the cutting shows that the roads
| charge far too high as a general thing, does
| it not? No one believes thai even in
| freight war railroad companies carry things
at loss.
This is 4 common mistake Railroads
| do carry goods at a loss on such occasions
| 1t is impossible to say what the cost of a
! detached service is, but there is no doubt
| they do carry at a loss. You see, competi-
! ton never comes on all parts of the service
at once So one branch pays the loses Of
the other during war of rates.
| CANNOT SEGREGATE THE ITEMS.
| We run train from San Francisco to
| New York, dropping freight all along the
| line. On our freight to New York, Chicago
and other points we lose heavily, but the
freight to Arizona and other points pays a
profit We cannot segregate every box and
bale, and see what each bit of the service
costs. but are forced to reckon on the ex-
pense and receipts of the whole train. OF
course, we carry goods at loss. We are
often forced to do it to keep up the prestige
of the rosd.
| "Is prestige an element of value to a
road2n
/ "Of course, replied Mr. Stubs; and
amost important factor in getting business
both passenger and freight. If two stores
get into a close competition one may close
It's doors for a time if it pleases, rather than
sell at a loss, but railroad cannot. Il dare
not keep up rates and let trade leave it, be.