The record-union., 1892-08-31
THE COMPLAINT OF SAN FRAN
cisco.

out competition was passing away.
THE COMPLAINT OF SAN FRAN
CISCO.
The San Francisco CaU of the 10Th inst,
in. an attempted reply to the RECORD
UNIONS statement that if San Francisco
is tie tail-end of transcontinental rail-
road it IS her own fault, said:
'"Thl complaint of San Francisco now
q that the high freight rates from the
e.ty to the interior opens territory which
naturally belongs. to San Francisco to
Eastern cities" Further on in the same
article the CaU says that as a result of
conditions which it recites, but misinter-
prets, merchants in other cities have
supplied goods in territory that by nat
ural location belonged to u.s."
This reasserted claim of exclusive
ownership of right to sell goods to the
interior is nothing less than impudent.
We may we'll inquire in what respect
nature has invested San Francisco with
the monopoly of distributions By what
means did San Francisco secure the sole
right to sell to the interior as against the
right of the latter to buy where it pleases
and on what terms it chooses?
But what the San Francisco complaint
as voiced by the CdIL really is, what it
practically declares is, that San Francisco
wants high rates from the East in order
that she alone may supply the interior
and charge such margin of profit as her
disposition dictates. That is to say, the
CdU practically declares that San Fran
cisco commerce is kept down because, as
it claims, local rates are high while East
ern rates are low.
Let the people for a moment examine
this claim and ascertain just what it
means. 1t means that San Francisco
claims that she ought to receive goods by
freight so low, and be able to reship them
so low, that the interior consumer must
perforce buy of and pay tribute to her.
This carries with it exclusion of the inte-
rior by prohibitive freight tariffs from its
right to buy in the East level with the
San Francisco merchants. 1t is, there
fore, the old, old story over again, and is
precisely repetition of the claim once
preferred in a petition by San Francisco
merchants that the railroads should adopt
the policy of shipping to San Francisco
alone at the through or terminal rate,
and compel all other points to pay way
or non-competitive rates.
With precisely as much reason as re-
sides in the complaint of San Francisco
Sacramento might object to rival compet-
tive points between her and the East,
and insist that all goods should come to
her overland at a through rate to the ex-
clusion of all other points in order that
she as natural distributor might live
upon the necessities of the interior.
1t must be clear to the commonest in
telligence that if the Eastern rates open
territory to distribution by interior cities
in competition with San Francisco, then
to secure to the latter the exclusive "nat-
ural right she claims, these rates must
be reformed so as to prevent interior cit
les from securing goods at the same rate
as is charged to San Francisco distrib-
utors. The interior can and does buy in
the same marts sought by San Francisco.
If, therefore, these are to be closed to the
interior, it must be. done by high rates
from the East to the interior cities, and
that is precisely what the Cars declara-
ton reads between the lines.
The clamor about low local rates is in
sincere. If local rates are lowered from
San Francisco interiorward, the inland
distributing centers must be sharers in
such lowering, and therefore their ability
as distributors will remain upon pre-
cisely the same plane as at present. As
it now is the interior merchant buys in
the East abreast with the merchant of the
metropolis. His goods once in hand are
shipped back. perhaps over part of the
incoming route, to consumers at local
rates. San Francisco dealers must of
necessity do precisely the same thing,
and because of this equality and the fact
that San Francisco is more westerly, and
therefore farther removed from the great
mass of consumers, she demands in effect
high Eastern rates by rail that she may,
with her facilities by sea, resume the po-
sition she once enjoyed of sole distributor
of supplies.
tESs& Mrs. Mary E. O'Fanon
nurse, of Piqua Ohio