The Saint Paul globe., 1902-12-18
RAILROAD RATES
REVOLUTI0NIZE TRAFFIC
Seattle ost-Intelligencer.

| Seattle Ost-Intelligencer.
The announcement that the Northern
transcontinental railroad lines will
make a rate 10 Seattle less by 81 ton
| than the rate to San Francisco, is the
startling fact standing out above all
| other discussion Of the removal of gov
ernment business from the California
city to this point. 1t sinks into insig-
| niflcance even the question whether
Seattle is to win or lose in the compe-
| tition now going forward. For it is a
| fact of permanent, not of transient
| value. 1t relates to the future of all
| commerce, and the final determination
| of routes of both domestic and foreign
| trade. 1t is a world- phenomenon,
whose influence will be felt in two
hemispheres and affect the destinies of
hundreds of millions of people. It is
| the first gun in a peaceful revolution
of commerce; yet it's challenge is but
an echo of plans laid years ago and
now coming to their realization after
| incessant, indefatigable and herculean
| 1abors, discourag gementS and successes.
| While the rate made in connection
with the bid of the Boston Steamship
company is not that applying to open
and general commerce at the present
| time, but is fitted to the case in hand
and the needs of the government, it is
business and the value of it are con-
sidered. The lines in the northern COM
munity of interest can do this business
at this price, and San Francisco cannot.
1t is openly confessed there that the
rates for land transportation cannot be
met by the San Francisco transcont1-
nentals. 1t is not a question of will,
but of power. The northern route can
do business and make small profit on
a rate that would involve an actual
loss to the southern. This is the ap-
palling fact which San Francisco has
to face; one more fixed and far-reach-
ing than any little matter of govern
ment transport business; a fact of fate,
a fact of destiny, a fact whose porten-
tous meaning will grow big with each
new passing year. For it is to be ap-
piled ultimately to every pound of bus
mess that crosses this continent or any
portion of it, consigned to the Pacific
coast or beyond it.
The public is not even yet prepared
for this momentous revelation, not
even yet cogniZaIlt of the significance
of it. But warning enough has been
given; and developments in the world
of traffic which Have excited the gravest
interest in their other aspects have had
really nothing but this as their inner
significance and ultimate purpose. 1t
is the embodiment in practical rail-
roading of the immense idea that the
line which can carry business proftably
at the lowest costwiH capture and con-
troll trade; that the lowest practicable
working freightarate is master, and that
| a scheme of transportation based upon
| this conception will be as successful in
| the commercial world as it will be ac
ceptable to the people at large and
| friendly to their interests. 1t is the
| somewhat dramatic denouement that is
| in sight, but all the steps leading up
| to it have been taken with toll and
| forethought and wise planning for
| twenty years past.
It would be less than frank or fair to
| withhold the credit for this remarkable
and significant issue from the one man
| to whom it is distinctly due, master
mind in the great affairs of the day,
Mr.. James j. HILL When he first ad
| mitted the project of a new line to the
Pacific, it was with the idea of con-
| structing road that could do business
| at lower cost than its competitors No
| aid was sought from the government,
no excessive fixed charges were ac-
| cunlulated, no future possibility was
| sacrificed to present profit. With Won
derful foresight the first link was forg
| ed in chain of commerce which was
eventually to ef1circ1ef the globe.
| This system, terminating at Seattle,
| had and has the advantage of dis
tance; the rail haul from Chicago to
this city by the shortest line being
| 2,217 miles as against 1924 miles from
| Chicago to San Francisco; while the
latter distance by the Burlington or
Santa Fe is several hundred miles
greater 1t has the advantage of cheap
and honest construction; Of low grades
and curves; and, above all, of termi-
mating in a country that furnishes
ample return freights for cars coming
| westward loaded with wares for the
| Pacific coast. That matter of a re-
| turn freight is one which other man
agements forgot or ignored; yet the
road which has its cars filled while
running in both directions can make a
rate impossible to meet by one which
has to haul it's empties thousands of
miles to carry on its one-way business.
The matter of mighty business to
be developed beyond the Pacific was
part Of the same great plan, and was
carefully canyassed and admitted as a
controlling factor before it had enter
ed the minds of those now scrambling
for a share aof the Oriental trade.
Finally, the harmonious operation of
the northern SyStemS-So as to make
a volume Of business such that cars
would always be filled and low rates
might always prevail, so as to reduce
expenses and facilitate the collection
and distribution of products over half
the world is the last great movement.
And from the combination of all these
ideas, plans, intuitive prophecies and
endless labors, there is generated a
low freight rate; impossible to meet,
commanding, revolutionary of the di-
rection of a traffic that streams around
the globe.
While, as we have seen, the, effect
of this evolution through the survival
of the fttest in the railroad world will
affect million upon millions of people,
1t happens, by the accident of geo.
graphical location, to be a mighty
power for the future of this city and
this state. 1t makes of Seattle juno
ton point between land and water on
the worlds highway. It clasps and
fixes here the seat of a commerce vast,
unpredictable, immeasurable. 1t is des-
tined to moderate and influence here
after the cost, the direction and the
volume of traffic in the United States,
in Europe and in Asia. A great dream,
cherished for a lifetime, is about to
come true; and its fulfilIment will af-
feet profoundly and beneficently more
of the sons of men than have been