The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-11-03
Lubin's Plan of Moving Farm
Products.

LuDln'S flan or moving f'arm
Products.
David Lubin has added the conclusions Of
his reflections and study on the transporta.
ton problem to the economic literature Of
the day, in the form OF closely printed
pamphlet Of 80 pages. This includes mum
erous opinions OF the project from newspapers
and individuals who have examined Mr..
Lubin's plan. The idea presented is novel,
and proposes to protect the farmer by gov
eminent undertaking TO transport all farm
products in the same manner the mails are
transported, by the owner attaching stamp
| TO the package of grain or whateyer kind Of
produce it might be, this stamp 10 insure
carriage of the package any distance, the
same as postage stamp secures the delivery
of the package of mail matter at its destiDa-
would tax the public In order TO defray the
expense of this voluminous agricultural
mail matter, the postage stamp, as we under
stand, would be nominal in meeting the
heavy expense.
If we understand Mr.. Lubin's project it is
difficult TO treat such scheme seriously,
but as the theory costs nothing to consider
we will suppose the single stamp costing
- dollars for prescribed weight of farm
produce mail matter at any distance,-the
same cost for transporting car load of-say
l. e r. .tl,
same quantity of grain from any point
within the State, say so miles from the
metropolis.
The first objection TO the scheme is that
farm products and proper mail matter are
widely different in every respect. Mail
matter proper is cassed with literature, ano
the widest diffusion of intelligence possible
| results in benefit TO the whole community,
while its spread benefits no individual espec-
| tally, as the transportation of his produce to
market at nominal cost to him would
Secondly-A uniform rate for carriage
without limit of distance, would continue to
| build up great cities at the expense of all
other sections, and the great bane of our
monopoly system of railroads would be
aggravated. All wealth would be gathered
to these large centers and all manner of
business would be crowded within their
narrow limits, with the inevitable crowding
of population with its accompanying poverty,
dirt. disease and misery 10 every form.
We will next consider the superior adj
yantages which government ownership of
railroads and transportation would have
over Mr.. Lnbin's M all carriage scheme. In
place of a uniform price for any distance we
substitute the more equitable and business
method of pro rata charges, gagged by the
actual cost of moving freight and passengers.
| What would naturally result from so bene-
| fetal a change in the transportation bus
mess? Population would 60 to the raw
materiel and take with it its machinery for
manufacturing, and thus spread compare
lively evenly over the entire country
Hundreds of small towns would spring mp
with thrifty, industrious populations well
| fed, well clothed and we'll housed The
| large cities would be drained of their surplus
populations and congested wealth, their
immortality, their filth, their disease and
their nameless misery in hundred forms
The revolution in this respect which the
simple transfer of railroads from the present
vicious management TO government owner
ship with pro rata cost of transportation, is
we'll nigh inconceivable. Applied to this
vast country with its labor saving machinery
and industrious population the beneficial
results would be such as no other country
could compare, placed under similar con-
dtions. The more closely government
ownership of railroads is examined the more
grandly the benefits it would confer upon
the whole people. rise before US. Trans
porting the mails proper, and transportation
of merchandise are strictly different lines of
business aiming at entirely different results.
But Mr. Lubin wants to equalize the
benefit to the farmer by the post office
method of moving his produce, with that
afforded the manufacturer by a protective
tariff, and he takes a roundabout way of
getting at it. Better repeal the tariff and
put both on their own resources than in
crease taxation in order to establish an
impossible system of government protection
to the farmer. If Mr.. Lubin will turn his
attention to taxing land monopoly out of
California he will find the State would I'll
up with population more rapidly than his
postal scheme will or rather would ever
increase il.