Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-06-07

ShASNAs W EAi31A1n W NV ~
annum If he visits the country store
cnce a week for ifty-two weeks and
takes away from the store each week
fifty pounds lof merchandise. in a year
he will have taken twenty-six hundred
pounds, the entire freight on which
would not have averaged 40 cents a.
hundred, or $40. 40, SO that if the rail-
way carried the merchandise for moth
ing and charged IN additional 5 cents
a hundred on his grain, the farmer
would be worse off by nearly $50 a
year. This illustration. I hope. makes
plain the statement that the prosperity
of the people served by the railway
is the only path to prosperity for the
railway. The railway and it's patrons
must always prosper together or suffer
together. The greater the volume of
business the lower the rates can be
made. If, for instance, a railway has
to raise $1,OO0,OOO on a traffic Of 1.OOO,-
900 tons, a single calculation, shows
that its profits must be 81 a ton; if
there are 100000 tons, 5Ocents a ton,
and if there are 1000, 900 tons, 25 cents
a ton will bring the same profit. In
order to secure this additional tonnage
Intelligent railway management is con-
stantly called upon to secure for the
producers on its various lines a market
for their productions, and, if possible,
a return load for the a carrying such
product to market. We have on the
Pacific coast the largest body of first
class saw timber left in the United
States. When I first visited that
country, with a view OF extending our
lines to the coast, I saw at once that
unless we would carry their lumber to
market at a price that would enable
them to manufacture and ship it with
a profit, our railroad would have no
business. The first and great crop of
that country is its timber. We made
a rate of 40 cents a hundred for two
thousand miles, or four mills a ton
h11AC,9 jill ! hIu11UcI. Ill OIuCl#LudL
we might load back the cars that car
5ried out the merchandise to the west.
This rate was necessarily met by other
roads and the result was the expansion
OF the lumber trade of Washington and
Oregon, SO that today it is over ten
times what it was nine years ago, and,
in place of seeking additional loads
for OUT cars from the west, we are now
seeking additional loads for our vest
bound cars going out to be loaded with
lumber for the great treeless states of
the Middle West, and the development
Of this Pacific coast lumber traffic will
work a greater change in the Oriental
trade of the country than all the efforts
of all the men engaged in that traffic.
On the subject of trusts, Mr.. Hill
said
There is another subject l think
will not be devoid of interest to the
manufacturers Of Illinois, and that is
the so-called trusts or combinations OF
capital: In a country as large as
ours, carrying on enormous undertake
ings, large amounts of capital are nee
essary, and this capital al be
readily furnished by corporate owner
ship than in any other way. There
are a few individuals in the country
who might furnish fifty or a hundred
millions of dollars with which to carry
on any particular branch of business,
but there is no certainty that they
would furnish one dollar. A man
with that amount of money does not
need all the trouble and annoyance at
tending a large business of any kind,
SO that it is necessary that this work
shall be done through corporate effort,
and no harm is likely to come to the
country growing out of the magnitude
of the business. Has the enormous
business of the Krupp company in Ger
many injured the German nation, or
any of its people? On the contrary
the nation and the people are proud of
the name of Krupp. Can anyone in.
this country point out an injury in
1icted on the people which can be
traced to the magnitude of the Car
negie company? The only serious OBJ
lection to trusts has been the methods
OF creating them, not for the purpose
Of manufacturing any particular COM
modify in the first place, but for the
purpose OF selling sheaves OF printed
securities which represent nothing
more than good will and prospective
profit to the promoters.
II it is the desire OF the general gov
eminent through congress to prevent
the growth of such corporations, it has
always seemed to me that a simple
remedy was within their reach.
Under the constitutional provision
allowing congress to regulate COM
merce between the states, all compan-
les desiring to transact business out
side Of the state in which they are in
l nons,a N,sn4 - 81 - ~,.I 49, - .#AEG.L, oEEREg