The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-08
ACETATE. INCREASINGLY AG1rATE.

ACETATE, INCREASINGLY ACETATE
To the Editor of the Eagle.
Your recent article upon the "Destiny
of Wichita" called to mind the fact tina
if Wichita had been given a just freight
rate the city would, today, be in mucf
better shape to care for her large anG
growing;,wholesale trade than she is. w
would have here a population of O,00(
| people and whole streets of wholcsel,
and jobbing houses.
But Wichita will get the rates t.
which the city is entitled, and having
made the fight and won, fair rates will
be given to other points as well. Will,
ii rates had been given to Wichita with
out a fight the rates to other points
might have remained unchanged. so tina
in the end the railroads will have beater
themselves by making fight against
| Wichita. The fight is not agains,
| Wichita alone but the railroads are hit.
, ting the farmer sGuarely between the
eyes Take for example the charges or
| agricultural implements. The dealer
ships his goods in Car load loss, the price
| of the implements is fixed and the
| freight is added and the farmer puts III
for the railroad robbery. Look at the
charges on agricultural implements il
Car load lots:
The charge from Chicago to Wichita
| is 59a cents per hundred. How is this
divided? Why 81 cents per hundred
will bring the goods from Chicago to
the Missouri river, $50 miles. Now cross
the dead line and come over into the
paradise Of the robbers, and you must
pay 32A cents per hundred to get the
goods to Wichita, 226 miles. Twenty
seven cents for $50 miles outside of
Kansas and S24 cents for 226 miles
within the state Of Kansas Draw your
own conclusions. We must push
this fight; we must show the
companies that we have the man.
hood to stand for our own rights
We must walk into the fight with a
good strong combination of sand and
sense, and strike with the assurance Of
one who is fighting for the right and
against the wrong, and there can be no
question as to the result. "The gods
help those that help themselves"
We must agitate this question of
freight rates. The more it is talked
about the more it will be thought about
and understood; and the better it is un-
derstood the more certain and speedy
will be our relief. In politics we blow
the horn, we beat the drum, we shoot
the gun, we rend the air, and likewise
our garments, our interest is SO great.
We save the country, elect president,
frff Ia
think we have done great things. while
the matter of freight rates we have been
passing by with the utmost indifference,
and it is a matter that touches every one
of us on every side, at every turn, 365
days in the year. Let it be known that
every machine which the farmer rides
and every pillow he follows costs him too
much money on account of railroad rob-
berry within the state. Let it be known
by every good housewife that she has
less of the comforts of life on account of
excessive freight charges on every shovel
full of coal that she uses. Let it be
known that the consumers of Sedgwick
county have lost thousands of dollars In
q single year upon sugar alone by eXtor-
tionate charges. Multiply the loss to
single county by the number of counties
and this again by the number
of years that the robbery has been
carried on and you find the loss runs
into millions of dollars. Let 1t be known
by every toiler in interior Kansas as he
takes in his hand at the close of day a
piece of soap to remove from his person
the evidence of his toll, that on account
of the railroad robbery within the state
it would be impossible for the jobbers of
interior Kansas to sell even soap in COM
petition with Missouri river jobbers, ex-
cept for the fact that the manufacturers,
outside of the state, made concessions in
the way of the payment of freights in
placing their goods here. So with to-
bacco and articles of daily use without
limit. Let the plain facts be known and
not all the passes that can be written,
not all the greenbacks that can
Do put up in convenient packages for
5he Legitimate purposes of legislation"
lot the whole army of railroad attor-
1eys, though able and well paid, nor all
Of these combined, can tor a single day
prevent the passage of Greenlee bill,
maximum freight bill or any other bill
within the bounds of reason. Keep the !
facts always before the people. Let the
husband talk freight rates to his wife, |
;he father to the son, brother to brother,
,he lover to his best girl, and let us agi- |
ate. agitatc, everlastingly agitate.
WIN. c. LITTLE.