San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-07
sAN ANTONI0 US. sT. LOrIs.

St.LOuiS htsi week that are of tn,
most vital Importance to the mer
chants of this city, and yet San
Antonio is virtually unrepresent
ed there, hanging on to the Skin
of Dallas and Waco and little
CuerO, trusting to them to pull
her hot Chestnuts out of the fire
that the st. Louis jObbers have
built to burn up the business
and profits of San Antonio Job
bers, 1t seems strange that the
jObbers and wholesalers of this
city are content to sit quietly
down and wait the outcome of a
fight in which they should be ac,
tive participants, and that with
their coats off and blood in their
eye. st. Louis is fighting before
the Interstate Railway commits
sion for Il rate on Texas freights
that will virtually shut out the
San Antonio jObbcr from the
southwest market, She is fight
ing to put goods on the markets
here within a hundred miles of
this city, in less than carload lots
for the same rate that San AntO-
Mo pays for carload rates. This
would compel the San Antonio
jObber to pay out of his own
pocket the freights to such com
peting points, in order to meet
the rates that are given to the st.
Louis jObber. That this cannot
be done goes without saying. and
as Il result if the fight is won by
st. Louis, San Antonio is shut
out. The only remedy would be
for the state railway commission
to put the rates in Texas so low
that the aggregate rates to San
Antonio and from San Antonio
to the outlying towns would par
allel the st. Louis rate to the
same point. But this is impOs-
sible where st. Louis gets the
same rate on broken carload lots
to such points, as San Antonio
gets from st. Louis to San AptO-
Mo on carload lots. The local
lines in Texas are not aiding st.
Louis in this fight, for they know
that if the rates are made by the
Interstate Commerce commits
sion as low as it is possible to
make them, consistent with run
ming expenses of the roads, it
will be necessary for the state
railway commission to put the
rate even lower in Texas in order
to prevent her merchants being
shut out. This is the fight that
is now on in st. Louis. San An
tonic merchants should be rep
resented in st. Louis in this
thing they should be found
there side by side with the mer-
chants of Dallas and Fort
Worth and Waco and other in
land towns fighting against
rate by the Interstate commits
sion that means the death of her
jObbing trade in all inland cities.
When st. Louis jObbers can put
barrel of goods in CuerO at the
same rate per barrel that San
Antonio can put into her own
warehouses a carload lot Of such
goods, it is certain that San An
tonic CanOt send her goods to
CuerO. That this discrimina-
ton in favor of st. Louis is wrong
goes without saying, but the fell
low who is energetically in the
wrong gets away with the fellow
who is supinely in the right. San
Antonio cannot expect to win in
any fighting proxy. 1t is too
cOwardly of her to sit down and
commit the success of this fight
to the merchants of other cities,
while posing as the metropolis of
the state. Texas towns should
all be banded together against
outside filching of the trade that
legitimately belongs to her own
wholesalers and jobbers. There
is no economy in this thing in
the long run to the retailer, land it
means death to the iobbing trade
Of thn Sfata What 10 naaHaJ