The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-27
FIRST RELIEF NEEDED.

The first relief needed by the bust
ness men of America is for the pres
ent Congress to confer the power on
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion to regulate rates. If Congress
would give to that Commission the
same power that North Carolina
gives to it's Corporation Commission,
the manufacturers and business men
and consumers would be relieved of a
tax that is most burdensome. AS it is
now, with an understanding between
the railroads, the people have to pay
all that is charged. There is no re-
dress. The Charlotte Observer gives
this story to show how great is the
imposition:
'The other day in Washington a
newspaper publisher went to a large
paper house and negotiated for an an
nual contract to furnish paper. The
manufacturer is a Northern man and
voted for Roosevelt. He called no the
freight office of one of the Southern
railroads and asked the freight rate
TO Charlotte. The rate was given him.
Then followed a current of profanity
that must have burned out the fuse
and the quotable words were some
thing like this:
well, bblankety blank, YOU
certainly do know how to stick it
to the poor devils down South.
You want it all, don't you. Did
you know that L can send paper
from New York to the Philippine
Islands and have done it, cheap
er than that rate you are charg-
ing me from Washington to Char
iotte? Did you know that l can
send paper from Washington to
San Francisco cheaper than that
rate and have done it? Do you
want the earth-blankety blank
NOW 1t happened that the rate
quoted, by recent manipulation, is
halt the rate that is now charged
What the manufacturer would have
and II he had known the whole
truth we are at loss to imagine"
During the past week The News and
Observer received a shipment Of pa
per from Maryland. The paper cost
$149.S5. The freight charge on it to
Raleigh was $29.74. A few years ago
the freight rate would have been one
half or one-third less. The railroads
have not increased the freight rate
oh no-they have merely changed the
classification. That's the trick they
employ to add from twenty-five to
fifty per cent additional rates on much
of the freight they haul. Inasmuch
as the printers can appeal to nobody,
they must pay the excessive and in
defensible rate charged.
Last week a delegation waited on
the President and urged him to rec
ommend to Congress the wisdom of
giving the necessary power to the In
ter-State Commerce Commission to fix
rates The great railway systems have
already fixed" Congress, if they have
not put the President under too great
obligations for him to move in behalf
of the business world.
Nobody objects when railroads
charge rates sufficiently high to earn
a fair dividend upon the actual money
invested in railroads, but it is an out
rageous wrong to permit a heavy tax
on business to pay dividends on wat
help to buy elections and control legis-
lation. And that's the sort of freight
rates that are now being extorted from
the people.
If the President and Congress in
tend to do anything except to continue
to let the trusts and monopolies run
the country and tax the people, this
is the first relief that should be Of
fered.