Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10
FREIGHT DISCRIMINATION.
Pittsburg Has Always Been n Mark for tho
Railroads-Other Cities Favored While
Local Business Men Must Pay for It
Need of Railroad Competition.

Pittsburg Has Always Been Mark for tho
RaiIroads-Other Cities Favored While
Local Business Men Must Pay for It
Need of Railroad Competition.
Fred Heinz, of Heinz Bros. & Co., pickle
manufacturers, said freight discrimination
did as much as ANYTHING to hamper business
in Pittsburg. "The situation so TAR
! as we are concerned he contin-
ued, "can be explained in few words. Our
product is classified py the roads as first
class for less than car lots and third-class
! for carloads
"Every shipper knows how classification
affects the rates. The result is that our
competitors in Boston can place their goods
In New York, Philadelpha and Baltimore
cheaper than we can. In propotion the
Boston pickle men pay less in freigh. than
we do. The same thing is true of Chicago.
The fact is, we are practically shut out OF
the Windy City markets. In the East our
markets are the large cities, and it keeps us
hustling to hold our own. We haven't
much trade in the New England States.
Where it is possible to get a carload to-
gether it makes a big difference in the
freight rate. We ship goods into New
England to be distributed, but this plan
A Law That Failed in Its Object.
ssBefore the Interstate commerce law every
shipper underbilled and underweighed. The
railroads winked at the practice, because
the freight rates were high. The interstate
act put stop to this business, and the rail-
roads have been getting the benefit ever
since. The freight rates have remained the
same and the manufacturers have had to
paw full weight. OF course this expense is
figured in the cost of production, and 1t
finally comes out of the consumers pocket.
1 fail to see what good the Interstate law
does except to help the railroads.
"But high taxes and high rents for water
and buildings are the most serious draw
backs to trade in Pittsburg. We have had
verv fiattering offers from Steubenville and
Western cities to move our plant, and we
are seriously thinking of doing so. Sup
pose I went to Steubenville; I can get
about the same freight rates as do in Pitts
burg. The difference in name wouldn't affect
the sale of the goods, for they are the same.
Other manufacturers are waiting for an OPP
portunity to get out of town. If the pres
ent rate of taxation continues for five
wears there will be wonderful thinning
out of business men in Pittsburg. Now,
these things should not be. Excessive rents
and taxation detract from town, and some
UdN llle pepple SllN Will uiSSofSA
it, when it is too late to be remedied.
A Suspicion of Jobbcry.
"Another thing that puzzles me, and it
will apply to other cities as we'll as Pitts
burg, and that is how English makers can
land goods in this country and sell them as
cheap as our people in spite of the tariff. I
think there is a good deal of jobbery at the
Custom House in New York. For example,
Blackwell & Cross, of London, in our line
of business, ship pickles to New York, pay
the ocean charges and the tariff of 40 per
cent, and vet they are able to compete with
American manufacturers. 1t is true their
wages are low, but that is not sufficient to
give them such a wonderful advantage"
At S. S. Marvin's establishment the ques-
tion of freight discrimination against Pitts
burg was seized upon at once as an evil that
ought to be corrected. One of the statesmen
said the rate to Philadelphia was 70 cents
per 100 pounds, while it is 42 cents to
Clarion, distant about 100 miles from
Pittsburg. He added that Clarion
merchants told him that the
freight rates from Philadelphia were not
anv higher than from Pittsburg. Local
business men have to contend with this dis
elimination all over the State. 1t costs as
much to send a box 80 miles out of the city 4
as to New York or Philadelphia. The
Quaker City people, however, are more
favorably situated than Pittsburgers, but
recently they discovered that New Yorkers
secured advantages from the railroads that
they do not, and they have been making
wonderful outcry, for Philadelphians,
about it.