Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-03-01
llshment in Cedar Rapids, and until within

pork packing establishment west OF Chicago.
There are some possibly at Kansas City and
Omaha now that cut up moro hogs. This
flourished and paid its local rates to Cedar
Rapids, manufacturing 1t into product and
they shipped ii TO New York and Chicago in
competition with the Chicago packers. These
gentlemen have made money in the opera
alton. They go on and enlarge their works
from year to year. Ii has been considered
as prosperous institution. l know of no
reason why, with the necessary amount of
capital, with the necessary experience In
conducting business of that kind, that q
packing house If instead of being located ut
Cedar Rapids had been located anywhere In
the State further away from the general
markets, and had been located in locality
within twenty or forty or even one hundred
miles of where hogs were raised In sufficient
quantities to justify the establishment OF
packing house of that magnitude, of any
magnitude so ii would be moneymaking
operation to run il, don't know any reason
why II would not be as prosperous rs the one
at Cedar Rapids. That Is the only one with
which l am familiar, but the prosperity of
that house Is assured
You mentioned the other matter in regard
to the shippers. 1t Is necessary in making
aliH that for the first mile or ten miles the
rate per hundred pounds must be higher In
proportion than when IL advances ON from
ten to fifty and one hundred and two hun
bred and so on. And why? Because IL a
higher rate per mile at which the short mile
age was taken was applied clear through tho
tate would be prohbitory by the time II
reached any considerable distance. On the
other hand, If the rate per mile which is
used in such tariff on q longer haul was
placed on a short haul there would be no
revenue. 1t would not give revenue enough
to pay for the handling of the property, to
say nothing of its hauling. That is the prin-
ciple, and the only principle on which tariffs
are made, and when so made, as you will
readily see, the shipper buys his goods either
in the Eastern cities. New York, Boston and
Chicago, and he puts them down, for in
stance, at Cedar Raplds--that being the
place am best acquainted with--and we
have jobbng house there that has been in
successful operation for good many years,
that being two hundred and twenty miles
away from Chicago. The next twenty miles
or fifty miles must necessarily be on regu-
lar tariff. Take the Northwestern road, the
tariff would run from Chicago to Council
Bluffs with decreased rate per ton per mile
as ii got further away, the shipper pay
ing his freight at Cedar Rapids and under
taking to ship from there it would be no
more than fair that he should pay the same
for ten or twenty or fifty miles west of Cedar
Rapids that the Chicago man would pay
from Chicago west the same distance. 1t
will exceed the pro rata rate. 1t Is one OF
the points that my railroad experience does
not help me to solve. Ii is simply the work
ing OF n natural law of transportation to
which all shippers are equally subject.
There is only one way that the shipper Is
going to maintain himself, and that is by
handling his goods in ear loads. In his
moving them out from there he has TO over
come this difference in the rate by ton per
mile. l will say further that the building
up of the jobbing houses at Cedar Rapids or
Des Moines or any of these interior points,
the establishment of their trade TO enable
them to establish trade, has been done by
the railroads giving those jobbers better
rate, not only car load rate, but better
rate than was given to the retail Dealers and
therefore gave them an advantage which
left them margins sufficient to ship these
goods out again and pay the same freight
out that the man would if he had shipped
them out from Chicago that distance, and
that enabled our jobbers TO build up busi-
ness and hold custom, l will say that so
far as the jobbers are concerned the matter
of rates applies In much larger degree to
the heavier goods in grocery house than to
dry goods house. The freight is mnch
larger element in the case Of handling those
goods. They having built up the trade
which they have, and having secured their
customers, are able TO go on and do their
business even though the rates beyond them
are much higher in proportion than the rate
between Cedar Rapids for instance and any
of the interior points, as far as Marshalltown
or forfhar co far nc rat l..
we make what we call Cedar Rapids tar
iff, a tariff perhaps made in the inter
ests of the jobbers of Cedar Rapids, and
which we have endeavored TO make as low
and as reasonable as possible, in order to en-
able them to still maintain their business. /
have not compared that tariff with the tariff
of other roads to know whether II is lower
do not think il is materially lower. Itmay
be little lower possibly, l won't say as to
that. But at any rate the jobbing houses In
Cedar Rapids have so far expressed them
selves satisfied with our arrangements for
their benefit in that respect OF course you
understand this tariff of Cedar Rapids TO all
points beyond to which they have access is
hurting nobody; the jobber or retailer, the
farmer, whoever comes along with box OF
household goods, gets the same rate. But
of course the volume of that business is in
small proportion. The volume of the bust
ness is from the jobbing houses, and Of
course this tariff was made more in their in
terests than anyone else, because their bust
ness is of such magnitude.
Member: If our roads would work In
connection with our business men could not
they work together in building up the Iowa
towns?
Mr.. Ives: / will tell you how jobbing
houses in Cedar Rapids were built up. |
don't deny that they got better rates at Cedar
Rapids than anybody else. Of course that
is done away with now. We cannot do that
even If we wanted TO. And now comes the
question, can jObbing center be maintained
at every county seat in the State of Iowa?
Is there the capital, is there the business
men of ability to conduct that business?
Will they find circle large enough which
they can reach with their goods to justify
the establishment of the shipping point?
All these matters enter directly into that
calculation. The man must have place to
ship his goods. If the jobber at Cedar Rap
ids can only ship his goods half way to Vim
ton and there meets another jobbing house,
he goes out on the Northwestern road and
can only go half way to Marshalltown, he
goes down toward Ottumwa and cannot go
further than Iowa City, he Is so situated that
there Is not business to maintain his house..
For that reason mercantile centers cannot be
built up unless they have territory to supply
of sufficient magnitude to justify man to
put in the capital necessary to conduct such
business 1t is si,nply impossible to make
rates or do anything that will put jobbing
house into every county seat in the State OF
Iowa, or half or quarter of them. There
Is not people enough within their reach they
can naturally supply with these goods to
maintain the business. Great jobbing or