The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-29

4
SBATTIE, FRIDAY, DECHMBER -.
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Unite Against Commsrciai Piracy.
The merchants of Seattle will make
common cause with those Of other coast
cities against the isnpndent demands OF
Eastern Jobbers, instigated by the cities
OF the middle West. The request Of the
Eastern railroads to be allowed to adj
vance freight rates y modest In COM
parison with the proposal to turn over
the jobbing business of the coast to
outsiders by giving to them advantages
to which they possess no title. It II the
black nag against the ensign Of the
peaceful merchantmen,
We Of the coast want no improper adj
vantage or protection. We do not need
+ assistance to hold our own. We have
no objection to offer to lair competi-
tion. What we will not tolerate is .
series Of rulings that would give Job
bers thousands OF miles away an arti-
fetal and unjust advantage. and over
come by legal discrimination the Inn
pregnable power Of our situation upon
the open highway Of the world. What
we have right to resent Ii the extraor-
binary assumption by the jobbing
trade OF Chicago ana st. Louis and
Omaha and st. Paul and Minneapolis
that they have right to bind upon
the business Of this coast the very
shackles from which they fought for
years to free themselves. They are
now the advocates Of propositions
against which they commended in the
past with all the earnestness .of men
lighting for their lives.
The main points Of attack upon our
5obbing interests are two; the destruc-
ton of the advantage OF water COM
petition and the abolition OF the car
load rate, They have no reference to
the interest Of the consumer. but are
designed wholly to admit Eastern job
bling interests to q territory geographi-
cally our own on conditions that would
drive out our merchants. 1t is as II the
coast jobbers should ask the interstate
commission to make rulings on freight
rates and shipments that would enable
them to sell goods in Illinois and Mime
sofa and Iowa and Missouri on equal
or better terms than the jobbers of the
mississippi valley could offer. 1t is a
case where resistance is duty and
resentment merit.
The influence Of water competition
and its effect upon railroad rates has
been recognized from the earliest deci-
sions Of the interstate commission. The
long haul clause has been modified or
suspended where water routes came into
contention that st. Louis and Chicago,
which have no water communication
with our cities, should pay rates based
upon those of New York, which has.
involves the destruction Of natural ad-
yantages and the notification of the
meaning that commission and courts
have placed upon the interstate law.
We say advisedly that it is impudent.
1t would erase natural advantage as a
factor In commerce. 1t is a piratical
attack upon the business of the Pacific
coast, solely that foreign interests may
have smoothed for them a way into
territory upon which they have no claim
and into which they can never enter
save by unjust discrimination.
The other end of this club shows to
no better advantage. The demand for
the abolition Of classifications, so that
all sorts of merchandise can be heaped
In one car, and for the virtual equaliza-
ton OF rates on carload and less than
carload lots means the overturning of
principles that are universally recog-
mixed in the practice of common carriers
and are based upon just considera-
ton. The difference between Car
and less than carload consignments Is
the difference between wholesale and
retail business. A railroad can afford
to carry one at lower rate than the
other. Where train must be broken