Middletown transcript., 1891-07-23

THE CASE of the Delaware State
Grange Of the Patrons Of Husbandry
against the various railroad companies
doing business on the Peninsula, all OF
which are under the. control of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. has
been decided by the Interstate Com
merce Commission and the reductions
mentioned in the decision rendered
last spring are continued. The ques-
tion was brought to the attention of
the Commission by the Grange be-
cause the freight charges on perishable
fruit and in fact almost all other kinds
of freight, were unjust and unreason-
able. M
The Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany has secured a monopoly of the
carrying trade from every point on the
Peninsula and has used the advantage
to absorb nearly all the net earnings OF
the people who have no other means of
transportation. When the peach was
found to produce good results here a
new line of business sprang up which
has added greatly to the value of land
and promised to make this Peninsula
a profitable fruit garden had the rail-
road officials done the proper thing the
revenue to be derived from Peninsula
business at this time would be greater
by far than it is, but no encourage
ment was offered and as consequence
Peninsula lands are not developed and
now produce only fraction of what
they would If properly worked, the
people being encouraged by reasonable
freight rates. No liberality has ever
been shown in the dealings of the rail-
road officials with the people; on the
other. hand the people, through the
Legislature, have been liberal and
have thereby strengthened monopoly
which is not only injuring them in q
business way, but Is making its power
felt in the law-making branch Of our
Slate government. There can be no
good reason for the institution of q
schedule in which the freight on a
barrel Of potatoes is set down at forty
cents from Milford, DEL, and forty
cents from Cape Charles, which place
is more than one hundred miles further
south.
The freight on barrel Of kale from
Cape Charles to Jersey City is twenty
cents, yet barrel Of kale shipped from
Milford pays fifty cents. A hundred
pounds of berries from Milford to Jer-
sey City pays sixty-five cents, while
the same quantity shipped from Cape
Charles to Jersey City pays sixty cents.
The difference in the distance is one
hundred and twenty miles and yet the
charge Is the same. Water competi-
ton causes low rates from Norfolk,
but certainly the railroad does not
carry freight from that point at loss;
that being the case why. should the
freight on barrel Of kale be fifteen
cents from Norfolk to Jersey City
when barrel of kale shipped from
any point on the Peninsula pays fifty
cents, more than three times the
amount for about half the distance.
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion finds the cost Of marketing bas-
ket of peaches about sixty cents, in
this estimate including every item of
expense from growing to selling, and
that the profit must be exceedingly
small if the railroad people had work.
ed for their own and the peoples in
terests such would not be the case.
The plea WIS made by the railroad at
torneys that the branch roads through
Delaware and Maryland were operated
at a loss each year, that the expense of
keeping them in running order was
great and that the whole system was
sometimes operated at a loss. The
Commission decided that the branch
roads were necessary and useful, that
hey furnished much business for the
main line and were as necessary to it
IS are fences, fertilizers and drains to |
he farm.
The Commission decided tnat a re-
inction of twenty per cent. on peaches
md berries on apples, peas, kale,
spinach, 'radishes, cabbage and other
vegetables, except potatoes, a redao-
ion Of twenty-five per cent. On pota-
'oes twenty-five per cent, and the
ate not to be more than ten per cent.
higher on the branches than at the
unction points with the main line.o
Even with this reduction the rates are
higher than at Norfolk. When these
'ates have been forced upon the rail-
Dad company and when there is bare
possibility that the people of this PEN
nsula may get justice, shippers should
70 careful to fulfill their part of the
contract and especially so in regard to
he overlooking Of cars and the giving
a of incorrect number OF baskets.
The railroad company are not the only
inners in the transportation business
nd now that certain proper reduc-
ion has been forced upon them the
hippers should be careful to do unto
he railroad company as they would
laye the railroad company do unto
hem. E. II. Bancroft, John G. Hig-
Ins, Jacob G. Brown, Thomas F. Dill
y