Wichita eagle., 1890-02-12
CORN RATE.

GLEN MARY FARM, Feb. II, 1890.

! To the Editor OF the Eagle.
The farmer himself and all others who
nave sympathy for the tiller of the soil
who produces - cent corn, agree that
the best possible disposition of the crop
is to feed 1t. Therefore, it is hardly to
/ the point to discuss that which is adj
mitted on all hands. The building of ell
evators is also endorsed by farmers and
business men alike. To get farmers in
to condition to store their crops, or to
be able to feed them, seems to me to be
the real question at issue. How can this
be done? Not by trying to persuade
them to do what they all admit to be to
their best interest but which they are
unable to do. Farmers are not able to
purchase stock or to store their grain
away for year. They must sell, and
they must have cash for at least part of
it. The question then resolves itself to
this, that they must either sell at Is
cents a bushel, or the freight rates from
Kansas points to Chicago and st. Louis
must be reduced.
What the Kansas farmer needs and
has a right to demand at the hands of
are not there heard, at the hands OF the
governor and legislature) is that the
freight on grain from Kansas points to
Chicago and st. Louis be reduced, rot
cent or half cent per bushel, but 10
cents per bushel. The reduced rate
which goes into effect on February 10 is,
perhaps, worse than no reduction at all.
1t gives Wichita shippers one cent reduc-
ton per bushel on corn to Chicago. This
will not raise the price of corn percepti-
bly,. and then the cry will be: Il told
YOU So" Frequently corn goes UP or
down a cent or two in as many days
when rates are the same, so that the re-
duction now proposed is entirely too
small 10 materially affect the price, and
on the part of the railroads it is only a
specious subterfuge to quiet the demands
of the farmers.
The present rates were fixed when corn
was worth % cents per bushel. Now 1t
brings Is cents in Wichita. The farmer
gets - or IL cents for a bushel of corn
and the railroads get ID cents to carry
bushel from here 10 Chicago cent or
two more than the article brings the
farmer in Wichita. From Kiowa to
Chicago the freight Is 20 cents per bushel /
on corn, and from Kiowa to ST. Louis it {
Is Il cents, while from ST. Louis to Chi I
cago it is only 3 cents per bushel. This |
sufficiently demonstrates the inequality /
of freight rates.
'kansan" states that If Kansas should 1
get reduced freight rates other states /
would ask it. Well, If rates are too high I
in other states LET them demand reduc- /
ton, and they ought to get it. The I
writer of these lines can also state that /
he is not the special friend of any class. /
clan or industry, but that the oppressed I
OF whatever trade or interest shall not /
want for a word, feeble though it be, in /
their defense. And when the railroads 1
take 20 cents at kiowa for carrying 4
bushel of corn to Chicago. and leave 4
the farmer 9 cents, and At Wichita .
they take Is cents per bushel for carry I
ing 1t to Chicago, and leave the farmer ,
il cenVs-such conditions IL seems TO NE +
make 1t an easy matter TO decide which 4
Is the most oppressed-the railroads or
the farmers. and indicate plainly where
our sympathy should so.
Therefore. ii conclusion, because of +
the two the farmers are the more op-
pressed. and are oppressed by ting I'M
reasonable charges CT the railroads.