The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-30

stock of the ranges want to move dur
ing the fall months. In plentiful
crop year there necessarily results
car famine in the country and a block
ade in Chicago and at other terminal
points.
THE car accountant of the Chicago
Great Western informs me that for a
considerable length of time in 1872,
not only it's Chicago yards were full
of cars but every side track for 800
miles towards Kansas City was also
thus blocked, more than half of It's
available freight cars being thus COM
PEELED to do duty as warehouses, with
out compensation, and large number
Of the remaining half of it's freight cars
were sidetracked on Eastern lines be-
tween Chicago and the seaboard and
were on Western lines to be loaded. I
understand that substantially the same
conditions existed on all the other lines.
These experiences induced all the
Western railway companies to expend
large sums of money to increase their
equipment and motive power while the
investigation which have since made
leads me to believe that loading their
cars to their maximum capacity would
have been equivalent to nearly doub-
ling their number without the invest
ment of a single cent.
But under conditions which prevail
ed in the Southwest, during the season
and since to a large extent this has
been an impossibility, growing out Of
the fact that corn and wheat have been
| bought Chicago weights and grade,
which has made 1t necessary to pre-
| serve the identity Of the grain in each
car, although it was only half the load
which car was capable of carrying
from the point of shipment in the far
! West to Chicago. OF the 629 car
loads, which, according to the Midgley
reports, were shipped in the twelve
months, July, 1892, to June, 1898, over
| $4,000 car loads, or, say, "a million BUSH
els of grain, or about 20 per cent of the
| total were forwarded in the five months,
| August to December, 1892, at a time
when the local shipments of each of
the lines would have taxed their econo-
mical capacity. These five months, as
| is usual, We're followed by seven
months January to July, Of dull bust
ness and idle equipment.
THE economy which would result from
| a distribution of the grain traffic equal
| ly over each day of the year is only
measurably attainable, but at the same
time a strong market at Kansas City
! would aid to such an extent as to ma
| terially reduce the cost of such trans
portation. 1t is therefore absurd for
| the railway companies to claim that
| I1Sy CdunOC AFFORD make the TWO
| local rates no higher than the through
| rate.
| 1.-THE claim that when the grain is
| loaded on cars in Kansas it can under
existing conditions, be hauled through
| to Chicago at a less cost than it can be
| hauled to Kansas City, and there I'M
loaded into an elevator and again load
ed and hauled to Chicago, is certainly
untenable. The claim that a railway
| company has the legal, the moral or
the economical right to dictate to it's
| patrons to what market they shall send
their grain or other produce must also
| rail-. Such claim is not even justified
by an intelligent selfishness on the part
| OF the railway companies.
| What the Western railways need to
make them as profitable as the East
ern systems are larger towns and vii
lagos and increased population. What
| will bring them? Railway companies
have spent thousands Of dollars to ad-
Vertise the natural advantages Of the
country through which they run, in or
DER TO induce settlement by immigra-
ton, to little purpose. But, 1 say, make
Kansas farmers more prosperous, and
you can't build wall around the state
nigh enough or strong enough to keep
additional farmers out Of it. Increased
population on the farms will make
more and larger towns and villages.
| w L
will increase your west-bound freight
and passenger business, as we'll as the
east-bound business
IAN enlightened selfishness REQUIRES
| that a railway company should seek to
build up rather than to tear down. L
cannot understand the point Of view Of
railway manager who would detract
| one particle from the business Of such
| a town as Kansas City, located on it's
line midway Of its system. The same
principle Of rates which would tend
to destroy the grain trade Of Kansas
City would destroy it's magnificent live
stock industry, and, as that supports
approximately half Of the population,
compel half it's inhabitants to seek
other homes, and leave half the dwell
ing houses, stores and other buildings
empty. The same principle applied to
its wholesale trade would destroy that,
and, to it's manufacturing business,
| would ruin it,