St. Paul daily globe., 1891-10-02
The Great Northern's Mime
apolis Cut to Be An
nounced To-Day,
And the Howl Threatened
QFrom Chicago Is Already
in the Air.
Looks Like a Chicago Fight
Against Minneapolis
and Duluth.
The Kansas Central Railway
May Furnish a Hor-
rible Example.

To-day the Great Northern will issue
a new rate sheet for the Aberdeen,
Huron and Glendale district in the Da-
kotas to Minneapolis. This is the out
come of the conference held at Traffic
Manager Shelby's Office in the Great
Northern building last week, when the
Great Northern served notice upon the
other lines tapping this territory tha
it would reduce the wheat rate from
the district in question to Minneap-
oils to two cents, while the rates to
Duluth would remain unchanged. At
that conference the Northern Pacific,
Northwestern. 500, Minneapolis x st.
Louis and Milwaukee desired to settle
the Minneapolis discrimination cry by
raising the rates to Duluth and main
tanning the old rate to Minneapolis.
This the Great Northern opposed on
the ground that the rates to Duluth
were already as high as the serv-
ice was worth. The opposition roads
protested against the proposed change
to Minneapolis on the ground and for
the reason that it would necesSitate
a revision of the rates in force to Chi
cago.. Before the meeting adjourned
the Great Northern served notice that
kOta points mentioned two cents at the
earliest possible moment, regardless of
what the other roads thought or did.
To-day the new rate sheet of the Great
Northern Will be issued, and already
there are mumblingS, principally from
Chicago, that the Western Traffic Asso-
citation is in danger of going to pieces.
Although the Great Northern gave
notice OF the course it proposed to take
week ago it was not until the printing
OF the new rate sheet was commenced
that the other roads became alarmed.
The Northern Pacific was the first one to
let out protest, and Wednesday Traffic
Manager Hannaford, of the latter line,
appealed to Chicago, sending the follow
ing message to Chairman Walker, of
the Western Traffic Association:
The Great Northern is printing a tariff
cutting the rates OH wheat from Dakota to
Minneapolis i'll violation of the Western
agreement.
Chairman Walker telegraphed Presi-
dent Hill urging him not to issue the
rate sheet, but to bring any differences
regarding rates before the board or
commissioners at 10 days meeting.
ibis, it is understood, President Hill
declined to do, and so the new rates
will be out to-day. The Northern Pa
clilc, 1T Is said, will go out of the West
ern Traffic association if the Great
Northern goes ahead in this matter, and
the other lines interested will probably
do the same.
The ferocious manner in which Presi-
dent Hill is being assailed in Chicago
goes long way toward convincing the
public that the whole question is a fight
by Chicago against both Minneapolis
and Duluth. with the st. Paul-Chicago
lines, as usual, ready to discriminate in
favor of the city at the foot of
Lake Michigan. The Northern Pa
cific with its Wisconsin Central
line from the Twin Cities to Chicago is
naturally enough anxious to get as
much as possible out of the wheat crop,
and this can be done by hauling it
through to Chicago. The other lines
are, of course, anxious to haul the
wheat to Chicago rather than to Mime
apolis or part way to Duluth. The
Great Northern is really the only line
that has no interest in having traffic
diverted to Chicago, and herein lies the
whole difficulty,