The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-02
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LOSING ITS HEAD.


The Record Union apparently does not
comprehend the meaning of THE CALL In,
saying that high rate freights from this city
to the interior open territory which hat
uraliy belongs to San Francisco. That jour
nal says, This reasserted claim of exclu-
siye ownership of a: right to sell goods to
the Interior is nothing less than impudent"
We are also asked. 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 i
chooses p, No city has right.to sell goods
|. in any: territory which is net held subjectto
| its. ability to sell more cheaply than CON-
peting cities This is so we'll understood
that IL need not be inserted:in AN expression
like "territory that naturally belongs to San
/ francisco" No territory in a commercial.
sense belongs 10 San Francisco that she can
not hold against competitors. A San Fran
! cisco merchant, as he well knows. has no
right a Chicago drummer is bound 10. re-
| spect. When, therefore, we speak Of terri
tory which naturally belongs TO San Fran
cisco we meau territory which under a
| possible deve fopment of natural conditions
San Francisco can supply with certain
classes Of goods on more favorable rates to
| city. For example, San Francisco may re-
eeiye- non perishable goods from Atlantic.
ports by elpper-shipa Mt SIS tom. It may re-.
ceive another class of goods by steamship
~ way of Panama at $50 per ton. These
goods may be distributed over territory sew
eral hundreds Of miles in extent at lower
rates-than the merchants of Atlantic cities
could afford. But ii transcontnental rail-
| road company steps In and arranges with
clipper liues and steamship lines to charge
the same rates as the railroad charges.
.Freightrates at once 60 up from IS to $40 per
ton on upperisbable goods and from $50
to 500 on other. classes that might
be shipped ON steamship lines. The
railroad company meantime is bring
ing goods from Atlantic ports to the
very doors of San Francisco by reason Of
lower charges 10 points on the way than to
San Francisco. The merchants of San
Francisco are thus shut out of territory
which is theirs ia a commercial sense by
| natural right That is, Ii natural routes
were not closed by combinations with th q
railroad company, San Francisco could get
| goods from the Atlantic ports at rates
which would enable her merchants 10 sell
/ on better terms than merchants in Atlantic
ports. There heing a common cost for
goods in the Atlantic ports the cost to
tne consumer on the Pacific Coast Is deter
mined by the rate of freight aud the profit
/ exacted by the distributor. II then it costs
less to send goods 2500 miles Ivy rail from
The Atlantic cities to the Pacific Coast than
1t costs to send them by water oSan Fran
cisco and see miles by rail from San Fran
| cisco TO the consumer, the Atlantic merchant
! gets the trade. San Francisco merchants.
are now trying to establish lines of clippers
| that will bring goods to this coast as
| .cheaply as they can be brought. Their
next work will be to establish interior
| lines. either by water or rail, which will
enable them to distribute goods over the
| entire coast as cheaply as possible There
! viii be a limit to the territory which COM
| petng cities can control, and often there
| viii be a kind of joint occupancy of the
| same territory. What the San Francisco
! merchants expect is, by reducing the cost
| of getting goods to this market and
| also the cost of distributing goods to in
| terror points. to reach as far into the in
| terror as natural conditions render. possi-
| bic. They expect to sell only where they
| can sell more eheaDly than their competi-
| tors. In all this there is no proposition to
| prevent interior merchants from buying
i where they please and on such terms as
/ they may choose, providing the terms are
such as the seller agrees to-.