The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-25
NEWS OF RAILROADS
CONFERENCE OF JOBRERS CON-
GUIDED IT'S DISCUSSION OF
FREIGHT RATES
BUSY SECOND DAYS SESSION


Question Carefully Argued and
Summed Up by the Representa-
tives of the Coast Interests and
Those of the Middle West-DeIe-
gates Return Home-One West
Man Remains In the City.
The conference called to consider
freight rates to Pacific coast points
closed yesterday afternoon after two
days discussion without a decision in IA
Vor either of :he Pacific coast jobbers,
who demand change in the tariff under
discussion known as transcontinental
rate sheet No. 1SS, amendment No 2, to
the west-bound tariff number 1. c., or
the representatives of the wholesale and
jobbing interests of the middle west, who
insist that the present tariffs must be
maintained. AT the close of the last
session. it was evident that the Pacific
coast representatives had made two Sc
rious mistakes which in the opinion Of
the majority of the representatives will
react against them. The first was in
opposing the election as chairman at the
first session of the conference of a Min
neapOis man on the ground that it would
be prejudicial to their interests, and the
second was made at the afternoon Ses-
sion yesterday, when in the face of the
fact that the transcontinental roads are
eager to arrive at satisfactory agree
ment with the two conflicting interests
the Pacific coast representatives made
the declaration that they had come east
to secure changes in the present rate
sheets and would remain in ST. Paul I'M
til they secured a decision in their IA
Vor.
The session opened yesterday morning at
1880 in the ordinary of the Ryan hotel
and was. presided over by ]. A. Monroe,
general freight traffic manager of the
Union Pacific, owing to the fact that
w. l. Martin, who presided at the pre-
Vious days sessions, was not able to be
present. Vice President Hannaford Of
the Northern Pacific, General Traffic
Manager Clarke, of the Great Northern
and many other prominent railroad men
were present Mr.. Hannaford took an
early opportunity to state that the repre-
sentatives must forego the temptation
TO theorize and get down to facts and
reliable data as fast as possible, indica-
ting specific facts and instances in which
the rates We're unjust in order to give
the railroads a working basis in ad-
justing the difficulty. Since the coast job
berS had confessed that they did not de-
sire to go into details the middle Western
men asked permission to make a further
statement Of their case. J. r. Hick-
man, traffic manager of the jobbers and
managers freight bureau, st. Louis,
opened the discussion with a detailed
statement of the condition of business
in the MiSSiSSiOni valley
He stated that from the standpoint of a
heavy hardware merchant he considered
that Western men were sufficiently pro-
tected under the present rates. COM
parison of the rates on heavy iron ar
ticleS, coming almost exclusively from
the Pittsburg district, showed that the
rate by water to the coast was 81 cents
hundred, while If a Mississippi valley job
Der made western sales of the same ar
ticles 1t is necessary for him to pay a
freight srate of 1879 cents in order to get
the goods into the valley district, and
then in addition pay S1.25 in less car lots,
in order to ship to Washington and Ore
gop- By using the. water route Pacific
coast men would be protected to the. ex-
tent of $3.50 per@ton over the Chicago,
st. Louis, ST. PauI-and- Duluth merchants
handling; the same class of, business. I'm
der the Milwaukee tariff, in effect from
June %. 1888; to May 1, 1899, the minimum
difference on less car lots to coast points
was from So cents to SSH, varying with
the class of goods. This tariff Is still
in@eHect to all except Northern Pacific
points and western iiobbers are at liberty
to take advantage iof the protection it
offers If they wish 90 -z--
Frank NJ Johnson, representing the
Sinaomns Hardware company, st. Louis
after listening closely to the arguments
offered on the previous day. had prepar-
ed a few brief remarks ard arose to ad-
Ia do Of fho
most effective arguments of the whole
session and gave the Pacific coast men
cards and spades on their arguments He
attacked their previous dealings with the
railroads, stating that only a few years
ago the Western men had complained to
the Milwaukee and promised business in
return for favorable rates. The prom
ises were not carried out and the roads
found that they had been led into an
agreement which there was no intention
of. keeping. He warned the Western men
that since an entry had been made into
their territory his firm, at least, proposed
to- retain their advantage, and would
eaualize all freights necessary to hold
trade. F. w. Hurry, of the Farwell
Osmund & Kirk company, presented a
we'll prepared document, showing in spe-
cific instances the effect Of the present
Eastern and Western freight rates upon
firms in st. Paul. The bicycle trade was
cited. goods being brought from Hagers-
town, Md, and shipped west, the coast
jobbers receiving protection from less car
lot. competition TO the extent of 1898 per
100 pounds difference in freight.
The argument was closed by J. A
Gregg, of NicoIs & Dean, and R. A Kirk,
of Farwell, Ozmun, Kirk & Co., both ST.
Paul men. At the conclusion of the pre-
sentatfon of their case by the Middle
West men the coast interests were given
an opportunity for discussion. J. Allan
7 Of ovryi, o.
the first argument of the final debate,
holding that the Middle West representa-
tives had been arguing under a misappre-
hension of existing conditions on the
coast. He insisted that no argument to
counterfeit the claims of the cost men
had been presented but avoided discus
sion of details The argument was re-
plete with generalittes and contained a
but thinly yelled threat that unless the
demands made by the Western men were
acceeded to, they would throw the weight
of their influence against the roads and
tot