Arizona republican., 1899-06-05
GENTLEMEN STIRRED up
f1ulh Ado Over a Change in Rail-
 road Rates.

tenn, was abolished. The following
 dispatch from Omaha to the New York
 Sun gives a history of the custom:
 Slsockmen ard interests of a kin
 drea nature between Chicago and tie
 Pacific slope will not soon forget this
 date, because today the feeding-in-
 transit rates were abolished on all
 western railroads. Probably no event
 in the history of the west since the
 completion Of the Union Pacific means
 so much to the western stock inter-
 ests as this departure from policy
 established a quarter of century ago. Though a very animated discus
 siCn has already developed as to what
 interests will most lose or profit by the change, there is no difference of
 opinion as to the material affect the
 abolition of these rates will have in
 the way of stimulating the livestock industry generally.
 | Those cattlemen who raise and feed
 small punches of stock annually not
 exceeding, perhaps, a hundred head,
 are pleased with the change, and in-
 sist that they will profit by the new
 rates, although perhaps at the expense l Of the great cattle outfits of the west. | The large stock syndicateS and breed i ing companies, whCse herds run into
 the thousands-the great range own i CTS with their thousands of rough
 stock for sale-they are not So well
 pleased with the change. In fact,
 from them come vigorous protests,
 but the railroad managers, for once at 1 least, are listening to the voices of the
 small stock raiser and the farmer. The
 range owner and cattle syndicate
 managers candidly assert that a con-
 Uinuance Of the new rates means the practical abolition of their interests, but the small stoGkmen of Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and South Dakota mildly reply that though this may be the case the destruction of feeding-in-
 transit rates means the promotion of hundred small stock ranches for che abolition of each one big ranch.
 These feeding transit rates made the great cattle outfits of Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota and Kansas possible, and the abolition of them will very likely deprive those interests Of a considerable source of revenue. Just what relation the range owners and large breeders will sustain to the small stockmen in future is net quite clear yet. To prevent the rates being changed the range owners and large cattle outfits declared that they would be forced out Of business if the old time rates were abolished. but the i1- dications are that they made their case as strong as possible and that rha result will not be as severe as they predicted. Put the opposition asserts that, even if the apprelensiCns Of the big fellows do not prove ground.ess, the stock interests generally will De improved by the change, because the aggregate of cattle fed and bred in the western states will be increased, and the number of persons engaged III the business will be corresponding,y
 The feading-ih-transit rate is a relic Of the pioneer days in railroading and cattle raising in the west. After the Union Pacific was completed it wa5 found that there were plenty of cattle west of Kansas and Nebraska, but 1 nothing but range grass to feed them on. There was plenty Of corn in Ne brasha, but 1t was Of little va.ue be- cause there was little stock to feed the | grain to. The western stock could not be put on the market profitably with | out first being fed corn for several | months-in other words, being fin | ished." Freight rates in those days | were enormous from the mountains to | the Missouri river, and the local rates | were still worse. car Of cattle cost about $200 from Utah and Montana i points to the Missouri river. and if the | big range owner frCm the extreme | west wanted to send a train load Of | cattle into Nebraska to be "finished' | with cheap corn and then On to mar ket, he had to pay as much to the iO- | cal point in Nebraska as to the Mis- SCuri river. and then when he was | 6X- chI in nTS To bot Io forced to pay the local rate, which was almost half as much more. There fore he could not utilize Nebraska | corn and the Nebraska farmer suffered | in consequence. To find a home mar ket for Nebraska and Kansas corn and promote the stock interests in the | territory the line traversed, the Union | Pacific officials established the feed | irg-in-transit rates. Other lines fol- | lowed as they were extending west.
 It is worked in this way: The range | owner CT manager of the big stock | syndicate billed his train of feeders to | the Missouri and paid the through | freight to that point. with the privi- | lege of unloading and feeding his | stock at kearney, and having them re- billed in the fall to the Missouri river without additional expense ether than Q switching charge of s a car. I'm mediately the price of corn in the home market went up; great feeding yards were established in Nebraska | and Kansas, and cOrn-fed cattle went | into Missouri and Chicago markets al- most as cheap as the cid range-fed | animals had formerly gone. At first these rates were given only to the favorites Of the big corporations, 9nd they, having such an advantage, cas- fly built up immense fortunes, and forced all but similarly favored con- cerns cut of business, That is the se- cret of the success of most of the big cattle concerns Of those days. Many Of them have .Cng since dissolved af- ter making fortunes for all stockhold- CTS.
 The intcrstate commerce law placed all on an equal footing, and then the LrliLlIe with tle feeding-in-tr.LnS.t l