The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-09-18
1R. LIND AND RAILROAD RATES.

M AIN
r1R. LIND AND RAILROAD RATES.
The facts in the case evidently are
of little Importance to the Popocratic
combination that is making desper-
ate attempt to ride into power by in
flaming the passions of the masses
against capital. Assertions are all
they have use for, and the more wild
and infiammable they are the better
the members of the combine seem to
like it. Mr.. Bryan started out his
campaign of misrepresentation by
stating that since 1873 freight rates
had not been reduced TO keep pace
with falling prices" Either Mr..
Bryan had not informed himself up
on the subject or else did not care
whether he gave the facts in the case
or not, one feature being as bad as
the other for man in his position.
But Mr.. III. V. Poor, who is doubtless
he best informed and most reliable
authority on railroad matters in this
country, showed the fallacy of this
statement at once by table which
he published over his own name, CIV
ing the number of miles of railroad,
the miles constructed, the total
freight earnings, the tons of freight
me we'd and the average rate per ton
per mile for each year since 1873. This
table shows that the average freight
rate in 1873 was 2.21O cents per ton
per mile, and that there has been a
gradual reduction in the rate ever
since, until in 1895 the average rate
was 0. 1899 of a cent per mile. Can Mr..
Bryan name any product of the farm
or the factory that has made greater
decline since 1873?
Following in the footsteps of the
man whom he designates as the
noblest specimen of American man
hood. John Lind in his Minneapolis
speech said that freight rates in this
state had not declined, that in 1923
the rate from New Ulm to Chicago
for wheat was Is cents per bushel, land
that now it is 10 cents bushel. In
his letter of acceptance he reiterates
this charge, but changes the figures
to read Is cents per hundred during
the former period and 20 cents per
hundred at present. The ST. Paul
Pioneer Press has been looking up the
facts as to these statements, and finds
that Mr.. Lind has not given them as
they are. 1t says, referring to the
freight rates published in the reports
of the railroad commissioners of this
state:
These reports do not give the COM
parative rates later than 1890, but up
to that time the freight on wheat for
a long distance of $50 miles on the
Hastings & Dakota railroad had de-
clined from 20 cents per 100 pounds to
IL cents per 100 pounds. While on the
Great Northern it had declined on the
same distance from 81 cents in 1880 to
III cents in $780,
The freight rate to Chicago is not
given in these reports; but it was
ascertained that instead of being 193
cents per bushel, las Mr.. Lind stated, it
was 19t cents a hundred pounds, or
III cents per bushel, and this was &C
companied with the statement that
on Sept. 1st this rate was to be still
urther reduced cent, making the
rate IL 2-5 cents a bushel.
And yet, in the face of these facts,
in his letter of acceptance Mr.. Lind
has the hardihood, instead of correct
ing his figures to square with the
facts, to change them so as to falsify
both terms of the comparison. In
stead of Is cents bushel as the rate
to Chicago from New Ulm in 1924
he states in that letter that it was Is
cents a hundred, and instead of 10
cents a hundred in September, 1896,
he states that it was 20 cents hun
dred. What confidence can be placed
in the assertions Of man who thus
deliberately falsities the facts?
Continuing, the Pioneer Press says:
But the meanest kind of falsehood