The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1902-06-13

be abolished TO the advantage OF the
TRACE Of the whole country, and of the
railroads as well.
There is however a competition be-
tween the railways which will continue
to exist as long as the railways are run,
and that is the competition of markets;
the necessity of building up the various
interests of the country served by the re-
81 fCtiVe railway lines.
In, this the competition lies betv.ean the
PRODUCER and the railway In one locality.
acting together. against the producer and
the railway in another locality, COM
petlng. for the business. If the railway
done by increasing the business of it's
customers. This same principle applies
TO the occupation and cultivation ~ the
land along the lines Of railway through
cut the country, and particularly applies
- the lines west of Chicago. Unless the
farmer can make money by the Cultiva-
ton Of his land. either through selling
Ill., wheat, his grain, his cotton or his
stock. with q p, oft to himself, the time
must come when he will caas. to cult
vate the land, and the railway Is left, as
1t were, in a desert.
Low Rates on Necessities
For the. past twenty years or more I
nave had some experience in opening up
and peopling new states, and have al
ways adopted as a fixed policy the maxi
ing Of rates on the products of the coun-
try seeking a market. and the necessities
of life, such as coal, lumber and building
material, at the lowest. rates the COM
D"'s oioiu, loUhlIA WOIc 10 our
profit from the lighter articles of mer-
chandise and shelf goods consumed in the
country. At times we have been criticised
Tor this, this criticism mainly coming
from merchants who nave desired a low
err tate.
The following will illustrate our an
have pursued: Fake a farmer in Iowa
with a hundred acres of wheat yielding,
say. twenty bushels to the acre. two
thousand bushels, or sixty A re-
auction of 8 cents a hundred, or 81 a
ton. would amount to him to SEQ per an
num-. II he visits the country store once
q week for ffty-two wekes and takes
away from the store each week fifty
pounds OF merchandise, in a year he will
nave taken twenty-six hundred pounds,
the entire freight On which would not
have averaged 40 cents a hundred, or
5000. SO that If the railway carried the
merchandise for nothing and ,harged an
ADDITIONAL D cents a hundred on his grain.
me farmer would be worse off by nearly
S.M a year. This illustration l hope makes
plain the statement that the prosperity of
the people served by the railway is the
only path to prosperity for the railway.
prosper together or suffer together. The
greater the volume of business the lower
the rates can be made. II. for instance.
rattle of LOCO, 600 tons, a single calcula-
ton shows that it's profits must be 81 a
Ton II IL there Re are 100000 t tons so 80 cents q
cents a ton will bring the same profit. In
order to secure this
Additional tonnage
intelligent railway is con-
stantly called upon to secure for the
producers on it's various lines a market
for their productions, and, if possible, a
return load for the car carrying such
product to market. We have on the Pa
citic coast the largest body of first-class
saw timber left in the United States.
When l first visited that country, with a
view to extending our lines to the coast,
/ saw at once that unless we could 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 it's lumber. We
made a rate of 40 cents a hundred for
two thousand miles, or four mills a ton
per mile, on this lumber, in order that We
might load back the cars that carried out
the merchandise to the West. This rate
was necessarily met by other roads and
the result was the expansion of the lum-
ler trade of Washington and Oregon, so
that to-day 1t is over ten times what IT
was nine years ago and, in place of seek
ing additional loads for our cars from the
Mest' We are now seeking adaltlonal
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.
~ tloblt uS W hSSp paw NiNiA Nii
enormous demand for this lumber, was
the moving cause of our building the
Largest Ships in the World,
through which we will be prepared this
fall to meet not only the rates of other
transcontinental lines both in the United
States and Canada, but we will meet the
rates made by steamer from the Atlantic
ports via the Suez canal. Every manu-
ia cturer reached by any railway in the
United States can ship his goods to the
Orient by rail to the Pacific coast and
thence by steamer, at rates that VIII
compete with water transportatlon from
the Atlantic seaboard to the East by way
of the Mediterranean and SueZ canal.
Were it not for the certainty that there
is a carload of lumber waiting for every
empty car that We can furnish on the
Pacific coast, we could not carry the
Oriental business at twice the rates we
will offer.
Much has been said about the increase
Traffic in the East.
/ will use as an illustration what has oc-
Cured in Japan. Twenty years ago the
foreign trade of Japan was not to exceed
81 per capita of the population. To-day
this trade is equal to So or 81 per capt.
OF it's population. Twenty years ago, II
amounted to about $40,OoO,00O and to-day
it amounts to about $3.50, 900 600, of which
the United States share is less than one
fifth. Ten years ago we exported about
$4,000 annually, to Japan, n i'm
our exports to Japan amount to $4,000
600, or six times as much as they were
ten years ago, and the increase in our
imports has been very small. In 1880 the
entire foreign trade with China amount
ed to about 80 cents per capita. With a
good stable government which Will pro-
tect the Chinaman in the fruits of his
! own labor and enterprise, there is no rea-
son why the Chinese trade should not in
crease as rapidly as that OF Japan has
increased. The Chinaman is the best
merchant of the two. Should the Chinese
trade increase to So or "a per capita, 1t
| would amount to more than the entire
exports of the United States, and surely.
this trade Is worth striving. for. The
Oriental trade has built up cities OF the
Old World which are now in ruins. Its
value runs back to the very dawn of his
/ tory. Byzantine enjoyed this trade for a
time, and, later on, it built up Venice, the
city Of merchant palaces, which for
years was the gateway from the East
into Europe. When the Portuguese sent
their ships around the Cape Of Good
Hope, followed by the Spaniards, they
took possession II this trade and trans
ferred it from the backs OF camels to
their galleons. From them 1t passed UNI
der the control of the Hanseatic league,
and the cities OF Holland and ] Tium.
Early in this country, Great L-ltain,
I, through a wise and farseeing policy, in
augurated by her ablest statesmen, took
! possession of the trade, and has retained
it to the present time, for the reason
that she furnished the lowest rates of
transportation to and from those coun-
A.;z- NY - rnuy wing fn Nhollanr~