Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-01-22


trans portation rates in marketing the
output Of its industries. This must al
{ ways be so when shippers of one state
must sell their products in market in
| competition with shippers of other
states enjoying more favorable rates.
| The claim that reasonable transpor-
tation rates could embarrass produc
| tive enterprise and arrest develop
| ment in any state ought never to have
been given credence and ought never
to have been advanced.
! The magnitude of wrong Wisconsin
| is suffering but enlarges with investi-
cation and reflection. Added to her
| wonderfully varied resources Wiscon-
| sin had another natural advantage
over Iowa. She has more than 800
miles Of lake shore with fine natural
| harbors along her entire eastern and
| northern boundaries. With rate law
such as that under which Iowa has ex-
! celled her, she could have established
just and reasonable rates that would
have carried every ton of her produce
to the lake shore where it could have
the benefit of the cheaper rates of
water transportation on its way to
market.
The only rates which are subject to
regulation by the state commission Of
! Iowa are those affecting state COM
I merce. While Wisconsin would, Of
course, be subject to the same consti-
! tutional restrictions, she could estab-
fish reasonable rates between stations
wholly within the state that would en-
able agricultural and manufactured
products to reach the lake shore, and
| thence if reshipped they could ulti-
mately find way to market under con-
dIuOns that would greatly benefit pro-
| ducerS. In the same manner mer-
chants and manufacturers and dealers
in coal could transport by rail at rea-
sOnable rates supplies from the lake
shore to consumers in every part Of
the state. Milwaukee, ManitoWoc, and
other lake shore shipping points would
4 then become the great centers of COM
merce and trade which natural cOndi-
tons would have made them. But
with the railroads arbitrarily estab-
fishing rates without any control by
| law, they can SO fix charges over diff
ferent lines as to force the products of
the state 200 or 800 miles further to
market, when, under reasonable and
natural conditions, the railroad trans
pOrtatiOn would not upon the average
exceed fifty to seventy-fve miles.
Oh. IL 70 IN fap
possible the oppressive exactions of
the railroads in Wisconsin has very
largely massed manufacturing upon
the east side of the state. The manu-
facturers have seen the Importance of
establishing themselves where they
could secure the lower rates of water
transportation, or more reasonable
railroad rates reduced by the force OF
competition with lake freights. That
more than 70 per cent. of the capital
invested in manufacturing in Wiscon-
sin should be located in but nineteen
of her seventy-tWo counties is an i'm
pOrtant fact in itself. That those nine
teen counties should be counties Dor
dering on Lakes Michigan and Super
ior is very significant in it's bearing
upon this whole question. Except for
the fact that the water affords them
more reasonable transportation rates,
| which influences to their advantage
freight charges by rail, these nineteen
counties offer no better location for
manufacturing plants than most of
the other counties of the state. The
gathering of nearly three-fourths of
the manufacturing of the state into
but little more than one-fourth of the
counties in order to substitute a regu-
latiOn Of railroad rates by water COM
petition for the general railroad rates
of the state, fixed wholly without any
regulation, argues very strongly for
some interference on the part of the
state for the protection of it's ship
pers.
Let it be plainly understood that
nothing more is asked than the crea-
ton of a railway commission having
the authority to investigate this mat
ter fully and to deal with absolute JUS
ice as between railroad companies
and the people Of the state. Members
Of this legislature should not be mis-
| led. The people of this state will not
be misled into any belief that there is
the remotest possibility of doing harm
to the railroad interests of this state,
or Of imposing upon them any injus-
| tice whatever, much less any hard
| ship. The establishment of railway
| commission clothed with all the power
which this legislature can invest cali
not fix transportation charges at a
+ rate so low that the railroad cOmpa-
MES would be deprived of a reason
| able profit upon all of the capital
which they have invested, for the
! courts would at once set aside any
rate fixed by a railway commission
upon showing by the railroad COM
| panies that the rate is unjust.
! There are in Wisconsin today, as In
every state in the union where the
railroad companies are free to fix rates
at will, large numbers of Individual
| shippers and favored companies who
| secure special rates and thereby build
up great fortunes at the expense and
upon the failures of other rivals and
/ competitors in business. No more po-
| tent cause exists today in the upbuild-
/ ing of trusts and combinations than
! the tendency to centralize business in
| the hands Of few through favoritism
bestowed by the railroads. These spe-
cial concessions and rates to shippers
do not appear in the freight bills, but
are directly made through a system of