Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-08-08
TO REDUCE RATES

CONFERENCE OF FARMERS AND
/ RAILROAD PRESIDENTS.
Meeting Held at Davenport Very Satisfactory
to the Farmers Of the Big Bend Country.
Important Link Of Road Eighteen Mile.
| Long. Which Will Save Haul of Over a
Hundred MiIes-Reductlon In Rates.
Spokane, Aug. 6.-Graian rates will
be reduced from all points in Eastern
Washington, and the reduction will
take place in time to benefit the farm
ers on this years crop. The amount
of the reduction is yet to be deter
mined, but conjecture ranges from to
cents per bushel.
The Great Northern and the Central
Washington branch of the Northern
Pacific will be connected by a cross
road, to run from the terminus of the
Central Washington, in the Grand
Coulee, to Adrian, on the Great North
ern. It will be 1S miles in length,
will cost in the neighborhood of
$3.50, 900, and will be built as soon as
the surveys can be completed, con-
tracts let, and the work done under
pressure. It may be completed be-
fore January /.
AS a result of this arrangement,
the Northern Pacific will cease hauling
garin eastward to Spokane and thence
westward to the coast, and will move
it's share of the tonnage to the termi-
nus of the Central Washington Branch.
There it will be taken by the Great
Northern and carried to Seattle, in
stead of to Tacoma, as heretofore.
Davenport, Wash, Aug 6.-The
greatset aggregation of railroad talent
that ever came into the west on one
train pulled into Davenport at 9
O'Clock a. m. on a special of six cars,
and before the magnates took the
back track to Spokane in the afternoon
they substantially agreed to make
lower rate on grain to tide-water
points. 1t was great day for Daven-
port and the Big Bend, but the effect
of the assurances made by the railroad
presidents will reach beyond Ethe con-
fines of Big Bend and beyond the Snake
river, for, in the language of President
Mellen, "the transportation interests
OF the entire Northwest are SO closely
interwoven that. like a card house,
when rates tumble in one part of the
country they must come down all along
the line"
AS reason for making the reduc-
tion, Mr.. Mellen announced that his
company would at once extend the
Washington Central from its present
terminus, at Coulee City, to Adrian,
on the Great Northern, thus saving a
haul of $50 miles. This announcement
created wild enthusiasm among the
large audience of farmers which had
previously listened to very interest
ing speech by President James j. Hill,
in which the reduction had been
limited at only in the faintest possible
manner.
The big Bend is exclusively Hill
and Mellen territory, and for that
reason President Mellen of the O. R.
& N, when called on, very aptly an
nounced that he was a railorad man
without railroad, so far as this section
was concerned The meeting was
very enthusiastic, and the speeches of
the three railroad presidents were
gems of the first water.
The amount of reduction and the
time of it's taking effect will not be
decided until after the meeting at
Colfax.
At the conclusion Of the mass meet
ing, conference was held between a
committee of farmers and the railroad
men. At this conference, both sides
submitted arguments in support of
their respective claims regarding the
amount of the reduction, and the mat
ter is under advisement until the rest
of the territory affected shall be heard
from.
In his speech to the farmers Pres
ident Hill vigorously attacked legisla-
tion on railway rates, saying: Gas we'll
try to set broken limb by statute, as
to adjust rates. You can legislate until
the barn doors rot off. The best thing
to do is to act as you have here with
the officials. We will try to act in
such way that you will realize that
we are doing something fair and in
good faith.
"What you want is the highest price
from any store. You want a new mar
ket. You must make a market. You
must make more people use your stuff.
Statesmen tell US how to do this;
but they get consideration for doing
so. I cannot find in public acts one
intelligent thing that you have done
to get new markets. I don't know any
place where you have not been left to
shift for yourselves as farmers. You
have crops that keep you busy four
months in the year. You want to do
something the rest of the time besides
whiting and holding down nail keg.
What you should do is to raise stock,
roots, forage. There is nothing better
than raising stock.'
Tas,lor nonios