The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-08-03

of so per cent, and that difference should
continue long enough TO be recognized
| as policy upon which business men
could base their plans the milling bust
ress would go from Minneapolis TO the
end Of water transportation on the Great
Lakes nearest the consuming population.
That would be Buffalo or Niagara Falls.
The millers of Minneapolis have not
been slow to see this tendency, and for
the last few years they have been con-
templating greatly of the large exporta-
ton Of wheat. They say that it ought
TO 30 abroad as -four; It is eaten as
flour, and with American facilities for
manufacture it would go abroad in that
form but for competition on the other
side which they have been unable to
meet because of the lower freight rates
Of wheat When the difference in the
two commodities is fourteen cents on
the hundred pounds it is inevitable that
the product Of the Western grain fields
will go abroad as wheat and be turned
into flour there. But if one hundred
pounds Of wheat went across the Atlantic
at a rate lower than 100 pounds OF -four
than one hundred pounds OF -four there
would be no expectation of the raw ma
terial. It must. OF course be assumed
in both cases that the rate is low enough
TO meet competition with the grain COM
ing from Argentina Russia and Egypt.
It should be noted by observers Of the
railroad problem that the greatest re-
straining, II not regulating, force in OPP
Grafton today is the effect that the rail-
roads. II combined and consolidated,
could impose any rate they choose. has
little actual basis. The competition be-
tween carriers is a small matter COM
pared with the competition between mar
kets. The railroads must have traffic.
This requirement to great extent re-
quires them to make rates independent
Of any question Of competition between
themselves, and this applies broadly to
the great groups of roads in the different
sections of the country. For example.
the territory south Of the Potomac riv-
ers is a great consumer of manufactured
products; it affords an extensive market
for a product of the Northern factories.
Lines Of railroads are tapping that sec
ton, from New England and from the
Middle West, both Of which desire to
sell the south many OF the same pro-
ducts. Chicago wants slice of the
Southern business in manufactured goods
as well as Boston, and the railroads from
Chicago want to get that traffic; to do it
they must make rate which viii enable
the Chicago manufacturer to put his
goods into Atlanta, Birmingham and Mo-
bile in competition with the manufac-
turers of New York and New England,
who could ship by lines so Independent
that no process of combination could
wholly counterbalance. The railroads
from New England to the South. more
over, are doubtless held in check by the
rates by water transportation. and so
the corresponding railroad from Chi
cago. without the direct water line.
would have to respond to the same in
fuence inorder to hold its market.
The Trust issue which promises to be
SO prominent in the coming monts can
never be intelligently considered, if at
all, apart from the railroad question:
and with its rapidly changing phases the
railroad situation is furnishing the great
est industrial questions in America Today