The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-02
Producers and Carriers.

Producers and Carriers.
In general way everyone knows
that railway rates have shared the gen.
eral decline in prices that has been
the leading industrial feature of the
last thirty years. Apparently possess
Ing monOpolistic powers to make the
terms on which they would render
service, this decline indicates that
there are forces sufficiently powerful
to overcome whatever exclusive pow
ers the railways might have in fact;
thus furnishing that most conclusive
OF all proof demonstration of fact,
OF the absence of truth in the custom
airy denunciation Of these essential
factors of industry as monopolistic ex
tortioners With the disposition COM
mon to all men to get for what thew
produce or have the largest price pos
slble, and possessing, as they undeni-
ably do, special advantages for that
purpose, the fact that they have not.
over long series of years, been able
to make their prices and hold them
should disarm the demagogue of his
favorite weapon
their causes in which the whole coun
Try engaged couple of years ago, the
fact was frequently stated that the
cost to the farmer of getting a bushel
OF wheat from Chicago to New York
by lake and rail had fallen from %
cents a bushel in 1857 and 16 GEMS in
1857 to ASS in 1897 During the season
When navigation on the lakes and Ca
nal was closed by ice the rates on ship
mentS by rail between these two points
were relieved of formidable comDeti-
tor, but even with the exclusive car
rage the charge Of carrying a busheI
of wheat from Chicago to New York
fell from 80 cents in 1857 to 1875 in 1897.
IL was also shown that the revenue
from carrying one ton of miscellane-
Gus freight one mile, taking the average
of the railways of the country. fell
from cents in 1857 to g of a cent in
1897. By 1886 the average revenue fell
below one cent per ton mile, since when
the decrease has been continuous.
While the processes of marketing I'M
der our methods are not as simple as
is the case of the movement of the
grain from the farm to the market
town, still it requires no great power
of reasoning to realize that if the pro-
Queer does part with ownership at the
primary market. he pays the cost Of
further carriage in the diminished
price at the initial point, just as clear
ly as he pays the cost of haulage from
his granary to the town. In the same
way he pays the cost Of carriage from
the factory to his market town of the
articles he gets in exchange Apply
ing this knowledge to the facts given,
the conclusion follows that the pro-
Queer is very largely the beneficiary
OF the reductions in freights.
But there is another method of pre-
senting the same facts that is quite as
conclusive and more interesting. As
stunning, for the purpose Of presenta-
ton, that the farmer and the carrier
are partners working on shares, the
one furnishing the load and the other
the transportation, what have been
their respective shares during these
years? How much wheat has the car
rier taken for his labor? How manv
bushels has he carried from Chica 90
to New York for one bushel? To pl,t
it another way. how many bushels has
the producer got carried between these
two points for one bushel of his grain?
Assuming the share theory and that
the division was made at the terminal.
we find that in 1867, when the export
price Of wheat was so cents, the car
rier transported 494 bushels, and took
one in payment as his share In 1891
the price at New York was nearly the
same, 80 cents, but the carrier was get
ting but one bushel for carrying 1911
bushels, while in 1885, when the export
price of wheat had fallen to 80 cents.
he carried 1929 bushels and took one
for carriage. In other words, the car
r1ers got only third as much in 1895
as they did in 1867 for the same work.
we offer these facts as a sedative FOR
fevered imaginations