The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-18
Grain Journal Demands Recip.
rOcal Demurrage Law.
Asserts That Kansas Freight
Rates Should Be Reduced.
WHEAT TARIFF UNJUST
Rate from Kansas City to Chi
cagO l 4 Cents.
Freight from HeringtOn to Kan
sas City the Same.

| There is no doubt that the Southwest
ern Grain Journal, published at To-
peka. is making good it's threat, pub
lished in the issue of July l, to go af-
ter the railroads for exorbitant freight
rates. In the issue of that publication
for July Is, which appeared Friday, the
following article on the situation ap-
pears:
We demand that railroad freight
rates in Kansas be reduced from 10 to
20 per cent.
We demand a reciprocal demurrage
law which requires railroad companies
/ to pay a fine for cars ordered and not
furnished, equal to the car service
charges now imposed by railroad COM
panies upon shippers when cars are held
over time.
We demand a law compelling rail-
road companies to give a clean bill OF
lading for commodities transported, and
demand that transportation companies
deliver the exact quantity at destina-
ton which was delivered to them at
point of origination.
We demand from the next legislature
a law permitting shippers to deduct the
value of any shortage, or damage to
commodities while in transit from the
freight bill, at the time the commodities
are delivered to the shipper.
We demand law compelling railroad
! companies to forward all freight with
dispatch and not side track the same
awaiting the pleasure of the company.
| We demand that loaded freight cars are
kept moving toward their destination at
a rate of a least 100 miles per day.
In short, we demand laws to relieve
the people from railroad domination
and extortion and our agitation will
continue until relief is obtained.
OF all the abominable monopolies that
suck the life blood out of the people. not
one can compete with the railroad trust
| of Kansas Kansas is legitimate prey.
In Kansas the railroads can rob legal
ly, thanks to the inbecile legislature Of
1901. That Legislature gave the rail-
roads the right to rob the people, so
| that the corpora tions are not so much
to blame as the imbeciles-to express it
charitably-who passed the law.
1t is well understood that railroad at
torneys framed this measure and that
the legislators were told to pass it: ana
they did. Why shouldn't they, were
they not the servants of the corpora
tions? What right had the people to
expect anything different?
But to prove our assertion, that rail-
roads have right to rob the people of
Kansas, read the last nine lines of sec
tion % of the railroad law of 1901:
"NQI shall it charge more for trans
porting freight from any point on its
line than a fair and just portion of the
freight transported from any other
point; nor shall it be lawful to charge
a greater freight rate to haul any class
of goods for a shorter distance than for
longer one in the same general direc-
tions under like conditions and over the
same system of road IN KANSAS -
Why was it necessary to add the
words lin Kansas" when every child
| knows they were not making laws for
other states? Without the words in
| Kansas" section 25 Pre- vides that
"They shall not charge more for
transporting freight from any point on
its entire line than a fair and just por-
ton of the price it charges for the same
kind of freight transported from any
other point over the same system.
BY adding the words lin Kansas" the
force of the provision is destroyed and
permits corporations to charge one rate
over their system in other states and
another rate, a much higher one in Kan
sas. and this the railroads are doing
with a vengeance.
Had the legislators been honest in
their attempted railroad legislation,
they would have used language similar
to the following:
1T shall be unlawful for any railroad
company to chstge greater rate or
freight for the transportation OF prop
erv in the state of Kansas than what
it charges for like service in other states
on the same system.
If this were the law the people or
Kansas would save enough money TO
| build LOO miles of railroad every year
| Freight rates are over 100 per cent
| higher in Kansas on the same system
of railroads, than freight rates are IN
other states Here are a few Rock Is
land figures:
The present tariff on wheat from Kan
sas City to Chicago, 517 miles, IS u
cents. Herington to Kansas City 1tS
miles, is IA cents. Because in Kansas
! the freight rate is $50 per cent higher on
/ the same railroad system.
For freight on wheat from Wellington
| to Kansas City, 251 miles, the Rock IS
| land charges 1415 cents. Yet this same
road carries freight through Missouri
Iowa and Illinois to Chicago, more than
double the distance. for u cent less.
\ From Kansas City to Rock Island,
336 miles. the rate of freight is cents
on wheat The farmers around va
/ lencia, Kan, are charged cents to have
/ their wheat hauled to Kansas CITY, ~
/ miles. making their freight over 400 per
! cent higher, because living "in Kan
sas."
Nor does the railroad in question treat
people fair and impartial even -'in
Kansas The rate of freight on wheat
I from Caldwell to Kansas City is 14l2
cents for g72 miles. This same road
! charges the farmers of Mcpherson
county 151h cents for only 1875 miles.
Evidently the Rock Island Railroad
company in order to play even makes
the farmers of Mcpherson county pay
the cost of carrying a good share of the
leading citizens for their 'fooence On
! free passes ''in Kansas
In the above we refer only to the
published tariff rate from Kansas City
to Chicago of IA cents per 100 pounds
AS a matter of fact all the railroads for
years have carried grain for about one
half their published rate for favored
firms and persons