The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-08
WIWAN TALKS CANAL
ENLIGHTENS MILLERS ON THE
BENEFITS OF CHEAPER FREIGHT
RATES.
NOTED VISITORS BANoUETED.
CLOSING CARNIVAL PARADE AND
ILLUMINATION PROVE Sue
CESSFUL.
LABOR PICNICs AT MINNEHAHA
the Opportunity for OratOry
minneapolis Matters.

The Minneapolis Millers club enter
tanned number of distinguished
guests and heard a very interesting
and profitable discussion of rates, flour
tariffs, prospects of Improvement by
reason of ship canals and the prophecy
of one of the railway kings of the
country Of a much greater reduction
in rates than has ever been considered
/ possible.
/ The toasts responded to were: 1.-The
New Erie Canal" by Erastus Wiman;
The Manchester Ship Canal" by
Marshall Stevens, superintendent Of
the Manchester canal, and "The Down
fall of the Barbarous Moors," by J. j.
Hill, president of the Great Northern
road The company was seated in one
of the large dining rooms of the Min
neapolis club, about a great round
discussed, c.. A. Pillsbury, the
president in a few we'll chosen words,
welcomed the guests of the evening
and introduced w. c. Edgar as toast
master. The principal speaker of the
/ evening was Erastus Wiman, who
made plea for a more extensive use
! curing of cheaper rates thereby He
/ said:
To the observer of economic conditions
| that at this time environ the American peo-
! pie, nothing is more wonderful than the
universally of the decline and loss Of profit.
/ Enterprises based upon the soundest founda-
! ton of supply and demand In articles of alb
! solute necessity, alike suffer with those of
most speculative character. The most
| admirable foresight, the widest experience,
! the most strenuous effort, the amplest invest
ment, the best of natural advantages, avail
nothing In the struggle against adverse con-
dition that like garment envelop this peo-
pie.
In country so vast, so productive and so
varied In its resources SO rapid in their full
development, endowed with the best of gov
! eminent and peopled with so great a race of
money makers-that in such country no
money can be made commensurate with the
/ opportunity oHered. presents speculative
difficult OF explanation to wondering
| world.
But that in the wide sweep of failure to
make money, under such favoring circum-
! stances the surprise is all the greater that it
should include those who near to natures
bounty produce that on which all the world
relies for sustenance. Dealing with the
| simplest elements, the farmer, with an indus
try and an economy unapproached with the
inventive faculty employed for his aid to a
remarkable degree. with the of COM
munlcatlon Afforded to unsurpassed eX-
tent-with all these the lack of profit to the
producer of food in North America is a feat
ure in the array of profitless effort Intensity
ing the wonder with which the spectacle of
! failure is regarded.
But even more remarkable than the fail
ure OF the farmer to make more than
miller to hold his own. To maintain his
property intact from depreciation, to make
an interest on his large investment = keep
up to date with new inventions and yet to
make profit is task set for the miller in
these times of trial which may well tax the
keenest intellect absorb the noblest effort,
| thd Of
| enduring than that which endows tie brav-
| est warriors or he greatest statesman.
Yet the duty seems simple one for
| however low in price the product Of the
farmer may be- to buy it at one price, and
| after its manipulation to sell 1t al another
at first sight would not seem to require
! great skill. To buy wheat cheap and sell
! flour dear seems not more difhcult than
the process of money making described by
the Frenchman, who on his return from
England to Paris told his countrymen that
the wav the English made SO much money
was that They bought mutton and sold
veniSon.
Pressed for an explanation he said They
bought Sheep and sold Deer!' 1t is true
that Minneapolis mllers can sell red dog
but yeat they are unable to sell dear!
WHAT THE INABILITY IS.
1.-The inability of the miller to buy wheat
cheap is clear Wherein resides his in
ability to sell -four dear? Will 1t not he
found that interference with this prifit nav
It's complete obliteration comes from the
US. vi r@nspoftaton? is not the miiler's
| quest for profit defeated by the often I'M
necessary and atrocious transfer charges
which, in addition to the cost of transporta,
Ion, the products OF this amount are sub
| !ected TO IN their journey from the point
| OF PRODUCTION to the point of consumption I?
Inc Inc miller may buy well; he may cut off
s silg corners IN the manufacture by every
! appliance that economy may suggest and
invention provide; he may manage with
greatest skill his business and apply metbods
a anosa sasaclous In his finances. But ali his
01H
nausht in producing profit if transnorts-
eion ana transfer charges bring up the cost
81 'ihi ueeipery TO his customers above that for
when rival company or a rival producar
| can supply the product po0uo7i
trop NOW. II Is in regard to this question Of
d,s anSpor.su l and of transfer that the pro
uucer ana the miller of North America arr AZ
serious disadvantage. Compared with all
otner countries with which it has to con
R Rner, IN the markets Of the world, North
| stance to contend with namely tbat FL =
entire food products for export are nroducaS
IN IN Ine center OF vast continent while the
ptooucts or rival countries are produced ar
the edge of those countries All countries
COMPETING with North America have in
aaaltion 70 cheapest labor and favoring cli-
mate, the tremendous advantage of a short
maui to the seaboard by means of chesnesf
! conveyance, when North America on The
otner hand has not only expensive labor and
a rigorous climate, but has the longest haul
from its center to the sea
But not only are the farmers and miIlers
VI the northwest handicapped by the deadly
advantage Of distance, but they have been
confronted with conditions that compel them
to employ the most expensive means of tran
sit True. the railroads have been their sal
Walton and strength, but the cost of trans
portation by rail over great a stretch of
territory, compared with the natural means
of communication furnished by such rivers
as the Platte or the Parana in Argentina or
the Dneiper or the Danube in Russia and
| other competing countries make it simply
impossible to maintain a profit in the mar
kets of the world for either the American
| farmer miller.
The cost of railways has been largely
| added to by the policy Of the country. which.
while it encouraged the railmaker by a duty
of $3.50 for nearly every ton of iron laid
down over this broad stretch from the sea
to the center Of the continent had forever
doomed the nourmaker and the farmer to
pay an annual interest this added charge.
So long as grass grows and water runs the
| interest must be exacted for the bonds issued
for this expensive construction and lust so
| long will freight charges be regulated by
the added cost of this construction. At the
| last analysis the farmer and the miller will
| be compelled to pay the rates necessary to
| this attempt to get rich by taxation.
| but added to- this heavy tribute to this
policy of getting rich by taxation, has been