Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-07
FREIGHT RATES.
Some Facts and Figures Regarding
Rates ON Lumber Out of Texas
and in Texas.
The Lumbprmen were Instrumental in Defeat
ing the Commission BilI-Where
Their Interests Lie.
M1NEoLA, TEX. Aug. >, 1883.

To the Gazette.
see that Senator Coke in his letter
published by you in THE GAZETTE of the
Sd says ''that except on the single article
of lumber, which all the sections must
bave at any cost, the local rates are sim
ply prohibitory - This is not the first
time that 1 have noticed that some par
ties are making an effort to spread the
idea that the rates on lumber in Texas
are not too high, or at least not as high
as on other freight. Now who but the
railroads could be benefited by spreading
this idea? l was delegate to the freight
convention at Dallas and am q member
of the committee of thirty-One, and
have had some opportunities for forming
an opinion as to the policy of the roads.
If the roads of Texas can make the peO-
pie believe that the rates on lumber are
not too high, and can get the legislature
''or commission if any is ever ap-
pointed to let lumber rates alone and
only reduce rates on other freights
they will have won half of the bat
tie The st. Louis LumbeTman of recent
date remarked that the cotton crop of
Texas aggregated less than thirty thOus-
ity elsewhere cited it is claimed that
Texas lumbermen furnished 1G0,
600 carloads last year to Texas roads
and that this year they will furnish 300
600 carloads So it is very easy to see
that if the roads can maintain their pres
ent rates on lumber they cannot be hurt
very much on their local business, for I
believe that more than one-haIf of their
tonnage that originates in Texas is lum-
Der and ties. In their effort to mislead
the people of Texas on lumber rates the
roads are being ably supported by certain
members of the Lumber dealers assOcia-
ton of Texas, an association whose
methods of transaCting business are very
similar to those of the Standard oil COM
pany. Why these lumbermen should
want to maintain local rates is something
of mystery to me, but l think 1t is be-
cause they now have cut rates and are
interested in Louisiana and Arkansas
pine and want to exclude Texas lumber
as much as possible. So the roads says
to these gentlemen if you want to keep
the advantages you now have over other
and smaller manufactures you must help
us out of this scrape. In this way the
roads drove Them before our own last
legislature to petition and lobby against
informed that these lumber dealers did
more to secure the defeat of the conmIs-
sion and Lane Field bills than all other
interests combined. And these same
people are now at work for the roads of
our own state as combined against the
people l don It accuse Senator Coke of
Intentionally making any wrong state
ment, but 1 think some of these lumber
people have mislead him as to the facts
Now, let us see if the local rates on
lumber are too high, and / will only
speak of local rates that I am familiar
with. Last August Ga year ago. the rate
from MineOla to Dallas in car
load rates was 10 cents per 100 pounds.
Now it is 20 cents per 100 pounds. 1t is
seventy-eight miles from Mneola to
Dallas. The rate from Chicago to Kan
sas City on lumber is to-day 10 cents per
100 pounds, and has not been over Is
cents for many a day. The distance
from Chicago to Kansas City is over five
hundred miles. SO a seventy eight mile
haul in Texas cost $40 per car, and
500 mile haul in Kansas cost S2G per car.
The Texas rate lacks only q small frac-
ton of being 1000 per cent. higher than
the Kansas City and Chicago rate. On
the Kansas City and Chicago basis my
=
100 instead of 20 cents.
I select this Kansas City rate because
Kansas City Is a competitor of Dallas and
Fort Worth. Can Texas city compete
with Kansas City IN the manufacture of
any machinery or article made wholly or
partly of wood when Disseminated
against as above? The rate on all lum-
Der from East Texas to Omaha, Neb. IS
% cents per 100 pounds, while the rate
from East Texas via the direct route
oyer the Texas and Pacific to
FL Paso and many points east Of FL Paso
is now 80 cents, and was until within
the last few weeks 81 cents. This 80
cents all goes to one road, while the %
cents to Omaha is divided between sew
eral roads Then why should FL Paso
pay Is cents more than Omaha for a
shorter haul. FL Paso is charged ex-
actly the rate from Chicago to Kansas
City over and above what the rate to
Omaha now is. The roads of Texas
claim that competition is the only way to
reduce freights. Let us see if this is So
Our rate from MinneOla TO Terrell For
ney Mesquite and Arnold or ScyeneSwitch
is III cents, while the rate from Mime
ola to Dallas is 20 cents. Scyene Switch is
only seven miles east from Dallas Then
W ny dllHOSL uOuDlC tut TdL6 Oh LillS seven
miles? If there Is anything in competi-
ton Dallas should have as low, if not
lower, rate than Scyene; but Dallas is
pool point and has many roads; therefore
Mr.. Waldo said, and now says, no lum-
Der shall be put INTO Dallas for less
than 20 cents. All decisions of
our courts agree that the charges
for hauling freight must be
based upon a reasonable remuneration
for the amount of work done, but the
roads of Texas have reversed this and
base their rates upon what they can make
every industry pay without closing it MP,
and often with view to close out the
home manufacturer for the benefit of
some foreign manufacturers. | have
written too long q letter, but when l be-
gin to think upon this subject (and there
is so much that can be said against the
present policy of our roads, 1 do not
know when to stop.
r. 3. KUTEMAN.