The record-union., 1895-03-20
PROTECTION BY FREIGHT RATES.

facturers' Convention at San Francisco,
that the railroads ought to place a high
freight tariff on manufactured wares
moving toward the Pacific Coast by rail,
and low rate of freight upon wares
moving from the seaboard to the interior,
possesses far greater significance than is
embraced in the considerations presented
in our issue of the 10Th.
Community selfshness moves on par
Allel lines with individual selfshness. 1t
is the desire of every community to
grow. The manufacturer wants more
customers for his wares; the merchant
more purchasers for his goods; the agri-
culturist more consumers for his pro-
ducts; the publishers more subscribers;
the minister more pew-holders; the law
yer more clients; and the doctor more pa
tients. Thus there is consensus of de-
sire for accessions to wealth and popula-
tion. The greatest factor in the produc-
ton of wealth is the application of skilled
labor to raw materials, and the popula-
ton is always proportioned to the wealth
producing capacity of a country. This
desire to have manufactures in the midst
Of every community is so common, and
within each community so unanimous,
as to deserve the characterization of COM
munity instinct. 1t is like any natural
attribute of the individual mind. All real
property is enhanced in value by density
of population. and save in rare and ex-
ceptional cases density of population is
dependenton the employment of skilled
labor.
The manufacturers of the Pacific Coast
seek greater prosperity. This is not only
q natural, but perfectly right desire.
Prosperous manufacturers depend upon
the margin of profit, and where profit is
eliminated by competition, the natural
suggestion is to modify or eradicate that
competition.
1t is out of these considerations that the
suggestion comes to the railroads to raise
the rate of overland transportation and
reduce the rate OF distribution to con-
sumers from the manufacturing centers
of the State. We have already pointed
out the impracticability of this sugges-
ton. We have shown that high over
land rate can be established only by the
consent of all connecting lines of road
reaching to the far East. We have sug-
gested the retaliatory effect of this policy.
and that the petition of the manufactur-
ers to the railroads to establish a system
of high protection with high freight rates
as the parallel device to impost duties
will receive no attention at the hands of
railroads.
The Southern Pacific Company is serv-
ing the territory lying west of the
Rocky Mountains. Its natural desire is
for density of population in the territory
served by it. But the Union Pacific is
serving territory lying east of the
Rocky Mountains, and it possesses a cor
responding instinct of self-preservation
and promotion of profit. To ask over
land connections across the States of
New York, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska
and Wyoming to establish a policy of
high protection for California by an arbi-
trarily high rate on manufactured wares
moving westward, and to expect the rail-
road systems serving these States to
establish low rate on the products of
California, is simply wild, inconsistent
and incongruous dream. It is wanting
in every element of practical common
sense.
The thought in the minds of the parties
who drew the resolution requesting the
establishment of protection by freight
rates Is clearly disclosed by the recitation
ITSELF Itdeclares in specific terms that
high rate on all Eastern manufactures
shall be imposed in order to enlarge the
profit on manufactures here by the
elimination of competition, and asks that
low rate on local transportation shall be
established in the carriage of manu-
factured wares from manufacturing CEN
ters to consumers so that the margin of
profit may be still further expanded.
We have already shown that even were
it possible TO secure the consent of the
Eastern States to this exclusion of their
manufactures from Pacific Coast terri
tory, and at the same time accord a
hearty welcome to the products of Cali
fornia in competition with their home
products, the proposition would be i'm
practicable by reason of the influence of
the sea on freight rates. The projectors
of this scheme were evidently not un-
conscious of the fact thar high over
land freight rates meant importation by
the Sea, and that low interior rates meant
at the same time the elimination of
competition with seaboard towns. To
SLATE this in more conspicuous
form: a high overland rate on
manufactured wares would enable the
sea to carry the freight of that
species, while low rate from the sea-
board TO the interior would give further
Anphasis to the seaports as manufacture