The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-04-10
ROUTE YOUR FREIGHTS
What the Local Merchants
Are Adyised.
Ii WOULD ED RAILROAD RULE.
4 Coed Move Proposed for the Traffic
Association.
1t Would Result in Local Rate RedHc-
items and the Breaking Up OF
the Overland Pool.
II MOULD ED RAILROAD RULE.

I'll. .-ecutire committee shall hare the
Do,rey to route all Iretghts of members,
should emergency arise HeceSsitGtin9 the
same. l,yorided that such Gction shall re
ceire the alternative rote of at least ten mem
bers Of said coHnljftee.-COnsiitutIOn OF the
Traffic Association.
The emergency has arisen
San Francisco is being bled by the trans
pOrtation companies.
High railroad rates are driving merchants
and manufacturers out of the business.
The people are aroused as they never were
before
at would not require much more agita-
ton 10 make them join hands and e0nfiscate
The railroad property" said a leading men,
Der of the Traffic Association yesterday.
Who-Talks Huntington is. doing his
best to stop the tide that has set in upon
him.
But you cannot stop a hurricane with
such stTaws as the sophistrieS which he S
giving the people.
Something is going to drop soon.
And the fall Of it viii be heard all over the
land.
A scheme is being Matched among the
members OF the Traffic Association to put
in force the freight-rOutng clause of its con-
stitution.
All the members stand committed to the
support of the clause. All that is needed il
for the executive committee to vote upon
the question. 1t would not fail to receive
the approval of ten members if there was a
full meeting. Then Traffic Manager Leeds
would say to the officers of the Southern
Pacific Company IN his slow. calm way:
"Gentlemen, we have concluded tG ship
oil Nv ha
Topeka and Santa Fe until such time as
ynn shall see fit 20 reduce your local rates"
The local rates would come down.
We would not have TO pay three times as
much to ship hardware. dry goods. bags or
beans for q few hlndred miles over the
Southern Pacific as is charged for ship
ping the same articles for the same distance
over the Northern Pacific.
The routing of the freights could settle
the question.
a CALL reporter, who interviewed sew
eral members of the Traffic Association yes
teTday, found them ready to put the routing
clause into effect.
at is about the only thing that remains for
us TO dc, said a leading member. We have
been organized nearly six mouths, and be-
yond stirring up the Railroad Commission
erS little, and antagoniZiDg them, we have
accomplished no great good"
rs the routing scheme practicabe?"
"Ies, indeed. You hear people say that
it will not work; that the consignees of
freight destined for the East will want il 20
60 the way they choose. but this is not so,
except in few cases"
What proportion of the freight that you
send East can you route to suit yourself?'
Eighty per cent We could get nearly
oil II h On II
doing it. Shippers aud importers as a rule,
stand together. If we could make the man
at the OTHER end see that the market here
will be improved for him if be should leave
bis freight routing in the hands Of the Traf-
fc Association he would leave the matter to
this end Of the line. and We would see that
the freight all went one way, where it
would be practicable to do SO.
OF course, 1t would be impossible to
cover every point For instance, if We
chose the Atchison. Topeka and Santa Fe
Railroad We would not be able to reach
Salt Lake City without sending our freight
by a roundabout route.
'On freight sent from New York or Chi
cago TO San Francisco we could in nearly
every case designate the route 10 the ship
per-.
Another merchant said: at would not
ne two weeks after we had begun such a
movement as the enc proposed before the
Southern Pacific people would be coming
around to see US and begging US to make
terms. Our terms would be lower freight
rates We would not be content with any
small cut either. 1t would nave to be
good big one. Mr.. Leeds says that the
local rates Of the Southern Pacific could be
cut IN two in the middle and they would
still leave big margin Of profit for he rail-
road company. They make a good deal of
their money that way, but they also make
largely OH through rates, and they would
not IKE TO see US route our freight so as to
leave them out in the cold"
But would they not rather suffer a re-
duetion in the volume OF through business
than cut the locals dOwn?''
ii think not. YOu see, the Sunset route
which is controlled by the Southern Pacific
Company, carries 80 per cent of the New
York freight TO San Francisco. 1t does this
because it has a through line and is thus
able to dictate rates TO the Transcontinental
Association"
1t was explained that If this movement
were properly taken up and the work con-
tinued 1t would result in the breaking IN of
the Transcontinental Association, which
maintains the high rates of freight on the
overland lines and STILES Pacific Mail and
CLIPPER ship competition by fat subsidies
and bonuses
Yes, the thing to do, the only feasible
thing that Will bring the Southern Pacific 10
terms, IS the routing of freight.
Tie Traffic Association should take the
matter up at once.
If il should fail it would lose nothing by
the failure.
II il should win, the people of California
would bestow upon it their everlasting graft
fude.
Here IS an item that shows how far-reach
ing Is the effect of corporate greed, how
tyrannical is the treatment of the people
by the railroad:
Edward Leak, the govP-manufacturer Of
this city, has practically closed his factory
here and removed his plant to New York,
which city will hereafter receive the bene-
TT Of the workings of the establishment.
which is a dead loss to San Francisco Mt.
Leak made this move because railroad rates
were 81 high from this city TO many points
In the interior that he could not compete in
BIS own legitimate territory with Eastern
manufacturers, who were favored by the
railroad as against San Francisco.
The Southern Pacific Company drove him
out of business here.
San francisco has lost the glove factory,
ms sort Of thing is discouraging, to say
the least.
Ihe routing of freights and the conseou en-
breaking up OF the Transcontinental Asso.
citation would remedy this.
VIII the Traffic Association begin the work
and push it?