The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1886-10-28
a Short and Easy Lesson in
Freight Rates.

s
Freight Rates.
Travelling the other day with the
agent OF one Of the Touring mills OF
Kansas City, we enquired the rates
OF freight In car load lots Of flour to
various points in Iowa. He stated
that from Kansas City to Maryville,
Missouri, the rate is 30 cents per
cwt.,: to Bedford, Taylor county.
Iowa 20 cents: to Lenox, Iowa, 90
cents. to Cres.on. Iowa, II cents;
to Osccola, Iowa, " cents: to Dcs
Moines, Iowa, 10 cents. Here Is
nice illustration OF the long and
short haul. Remember, all this IL
in car lots. The train is made up in
Kansas City, and at Maryville, Mo-,
ll3 miles from Kansas City, drops
off il car at 90 cents per cwt. It
then runs on 81 miles further TO
Bedford. Iowa, and drops off anoth-
g q O. - WINS, tHcUtc 10 Illi1r
further TO LenoN where it drops off
car at 20 cents; thence to Creston,
IL miles further, and drops off car
ut II cents; thence to Osceola, "a
miles further, where it leaves a car
at l. cents; thence to Des Moincs.
81 miles further, at 10 cents. II a
Winterset merchant buys car load
Of this -four Oh track, it is hauled
back over the same track fifteen miles
and twenty-seven miles further west,
on another track, and pays cents
per cWt.. or IL cents il he buys half
4 car load. Under the Reagan bill,
| II the railroads could afford to haul
from Kansas City to Des Moines for
10 cents, one or the other would do
it. They could not then charge
Bedford or Creston or Lenox or Os-
ceola any more. The flour mer-
chants in the cities care little wheth-
er the freight is 20 cents or 10 cents,
for the reason he charges it up to
| the flour and the farmer who buys
it has it to pay.
The farmers all over Iowa are
complaining that they can not take
their own wheat to mill and have il
ground any cheaper than they can
sell their wheat, and buy flour from
Minnesota, or Kansas City, which
has paid freight from the farm to
the mill, the profits to the shipper,
milling expenses, the expenses OF
travelling statesmen, and the profit OF
the local tradesmen. The trouble
lies in this, that these local mills
where there is but one railroad can
not get freight rates.
They cannot ship their product in
competition with mills in Kansas
City, Des Moines oil Minneapolis.
The trouble is not peculiar to them.
1t belongs to all manufacturing es
Establishments in places where there
are but one or two railroads.
No matter how high the tariff on
foreign goods, or how great the
stimnlous given by it to some manu-
facturers, the factory can never
come nearer the home of the farmer
than the nearest town that stands
| nigh in the favor Of the railroads,
and. has manufacturers, OF wholesale
| rates. How can Eedford manufac-
ture, when it has to pay twice the
freight for half the distance that
Des Moines does for the whole dis.
| lance?
Under the Reagan bill the cheap
rents and cheap food, the fresh air
and rosy cheeks Of childhood would
be factors in the production OF
manufactured articles at such pla.
ces as Bedford, Creston, Osceola
and scores Of other inland points.
Under the Cullom bill they would
not, because part Of the line from
Creston to Kansas City through
Bedford is not the same line, but a
| leased line.
These short and simple lessons
are needed just now to open the
eyes Of the farmers to the methods
| by which his advantages and inter-
ests are sacrificed to those of the
railroad centers.-Iowa Homestead.