Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-16
GROUP. OR COMMON POINT RATES.
i System That Brings Large Areas of
Country into CnImnetition.

Country into Competition.
Referring briefly to the present common
point or group rate system prevailing III
Texas, we think it is very generally found
ed on the value of service principle. 1t mas
been asked why the railroads could trans
port freight through DenisOn to San Antonio
j15 miles, for the same rate that it charges
10 Deuison, apparently making the haul
from Denison to San Antonio free.
BY the nearest raIl route DeniSon is $50
miles from New Orleans, 3SS miles to Gal
weston and 425 miles to Corpus Christi,
while San Antonio is J7l miles to New Or
leans, $50 miles to Galveston and l50 miles
to Corpus Christi. If the rail lines leading
from St. Louis and Kansas City TO San An
tonic did not give the same rate to San An
tonic as to Denison, they would have to go
out of the business at San Antonio San
Antonio. owing to her nearer situation to
competitive water points, is entitled on the
value of service principle 10 the same rates
from Kansas City and st. Louis as DeniSOn
St. Louis and Kansas City can be reached
by water from san Antonio with only 100
miles rail haul, and II Kansas City and St
Louis rail lines did not give San Antonio
the same rate as Denison. all of her bust
ness would come down the Mississippi and
thence by boat to Corpus Christi, or 1t
would come to New Orleans or Galveston
by water and thence by rail to San Antonio.
While Denison is only twenty-five miles
tonic, at the same time the rates as far as
Galveston are controlled by water competi-
ton. The low rail rates between New Or
leans and Galveston are owing to the fact
that if they were raised water competition
would shortly come in and lower them, so
that it is 10 the interest OF the railway com
panv, in order to retain all of the business,
to maintain the low rates; hence the basing
point would be Galveston instead of New
Orleans, and Denison IS :}SS miles from Gal
weston, as against 259 Galveston to San An
tonic.
While there is an apparent injustice
against DenisOn TO see freight pass through
the town to San Antonio. at the same rate,
she is really being benefited by the system
because her cotton and other exports 90 TO
Galveston. 3SS miles. at the same rate as
from San Antonio, 2J9 miles, and she gets
all freight from the Atlantic seabOard
through the port of Galveston at the same
rate as San Antonio and she gets the prod
ucts Of the Pacific coast hauled to her. q
distance of $40 miles further, at the same
rate as San Antonio.
Thus the group rate is not only based, 10
a large extent, on correct principles, but by
working both ways it
OFFSETS APPARENT Determinations.
Take. for instance, Dallas and Corsicana,
situated north and south Of each other.
While Dallas sends her export products TO
Galveston at the same rate as COrSlc3Q2 on
the other hand COrsiCana gets her Western
produce by rail at the same rate IS Dallas;
being situated considerably further from
the Pacific coast she gets the produce of
that coast at the same rate as Dallas.
Thus the group rate system. Ia the long
run balances the account and brings large
areas OF country into competition, thereby
stimulating traffic and benefi ting the rail
roads by additional tonnage. Ii is not based,
as some people suppose, on the undertaking
of the railway companies to regulate the
commerce of the country, but IS approx
mately the result OF true principles of rate
making, from the standpoint Of the railways
as well as the public. Another advantage
of the group rate system. which is not to be
overlooked. is the facility with which
through rates can be made to all parts of
the country Under the alleged mileage
system i requires q tariff of seventy pages
about the size of the pages of the Revised
Statutes, to make the rates from the city of
Memphis alone TO points in Tennessee, Ala
bama. Georgia, Florida, South Carolina,
North Carolina and Virginia. To make rates
that way from every shipping point to every
consuming point. would probably require
printing establishment a dozen or more
times the size of the state capitol, with in
Vulnerable rate clerks, which. though not
impossible, would certainly be far from
practicable.
Under the group rate system tariff of
one-half dozen pages enables business
man to ascertain the rates from most any
point in the United States to any station in
Texas, and vice versa, and enables the bus
mess man in the greater portion of Texas
to readily learn the rates from one point in
Texas TO another, thereby enabling the