The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-02-26
The Great Northern Causingthe Mag
mates Of The Other Railroads
Much Uneasiness.
The Company Thinks IL Can Run
It's Line Without Any
Agreements.
President mn Talks About Rates, and
Insists That Tarins should he Made
on u safe liRsis,

The Great Northern railway, which has So
cured control Of the st. Paul. Minneapolis
a Manitoba, the Montana Central, The East
crn Minnesota and several other railroads,
and is now building an extension from
Great Falls, Mont, 20 the Pacific coast, is
the cause of considerable uneasiness among
the other roads with which il comes in COM
petition, says the Chicago Herald. The
Great Northern railway owns the largest
and fastest line OF steamers plying between
Duluth and Buffalo, and its completed
lines OF railroad stretch westward
from Duluth into Montana and south
westward from Duluth TO ST. Paul,
and down 10 Sioux City ON the Missouri
river. The road cares nothing for the in
terstate law, and its recently issued tariffs
| ignore the long and short haul clause OF the
/ famous measure IN the most open manner.
The Great Northern is popularity supposed
20 be a very near relation 10 the CANADIAN
Pacific. At the meeting Of the eastern and
western lines in New York recently 10 ar
range for summer rates III competition with
/ the lake routes the Great Northern ignored
an invitation TO be present, and now II If
given out that the company thinks il can
conduct its business without any confer
ences or agreements with any other COM
panies. President Hill, of the Great North
ern. says regarding the matters
| Let them tiN rates 10 suit themselves.
and il they are not too high we will agree
10 them. But if they get rates too high
there is sure 10 be cutting, first secretly and
openly. Then there will be Il tumble. fol-
lowed by Generalization. | believe in sta
bility of rates. Let the rates by lake and
la. k.s.f Ia
tanned in the dull sea- ln 0s we'll "a when
business is brisk. and we will agree to
them"
At the meeting in New York mentioned
above il was thought the rates from New
York 10 Duluth should be higher than ON q
basis uf ~ cents, first class, AZ fixed last
year. This basis fell az one time as low AZ
CD cents. Regarding this President Hill
saws.
''The rates have fallen every Summer TO
something like ca cents. That shows that
this Is the only rate which can be main
/ tanned, and IL won't he safe to put II much
/ higher. We wouldn't agree 10 do so, any
way. Rates from Buffalo 20 Duluth have
always been higher than from Buffalo 10
Chica9o. nlthough there IL no justice in IL.
fflS-aistance Is about Tho sNm0- ] believe
that there will be no trouble when they put
them on The same basis. OF course that
would give our SC. Paul a. Duluth line, be-
longing TO the Manitoba system, an adyan-
tage-but shouldn't we have IL! We have n
geographical advantage over the Chicago
lines. IL is only 40 miles from Duluth "a
st. Paul. while il il 400 between Chicago
and 81. Paul, which is 2J0 miles in our fa-
vor. Why shouldn't We curry freight
cheaperrn
President Hill will insist ON big differ
ential. lie would like the trunk lines "a
fix the lake and rail rates from New York Ia
Duluth and Chicago Mt the same figure and
then let the northwestern roads fight II out
among themselves, and he has so advis"d
| the trunk lines. ID Is renorteu.