The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-03-11
LOWER FREIGHT RATES.

at may be added that the Florida
delegation has been an important
factor in obtaining lower freight rates
for Florida by successfully advoca'
ting the improvement Of rivers anu
harbors. Ten years ago the business
Of the ports Of Florida was insignif'
cant compared to what It's today,
As an example, the business OF one
Florida port has grown from less
than a million dollars annually TO
over twenty-five millions. The
freights have sought the cheaper or
water haul Arade available by deeper
water; and, as such improvement
progresses, so will the business OF
that port increase to the advantage
of both producer and consumer.
a have made some inquiry into
the system of rebates alleged to have
obtained some years ago and am in
formed by reliable parties that, as
the result of a rate war between
competing railroads, freight conces-
sions, or rebates, were given-not
to one firm alone, as Mr. Stockton
would have you believe-but to
wholesale merchants generally at
competing points.
In his attack upon the G. B, Rog.
ers Company, why does Mr., Stockton
SO studiously conceal from the pub
lie the fact that he was connected
with a Wholesale house which also
received rebates in the same rate
war; Has he conveniently forgotten
1t? Let us refresh his memory. Mr.,
Stockton was one of the members Of
the Tampa Commercial Company,
established largely through his eff.
forts. He had been In the wholesale
grocery or grain business with Will
liam Root in Jacksonville, and,
through his experience In the bust
ness, induced others to embark with
him in the Tampa enterprise This
company received rebates, just as did
ether companies al competing points
who solicited the rebates, or
whether they we're solicited at all,
do not know. l did not, certainly
They began, I am told, when steam,
ship line was established between
Mobile and Tampa, which put into
Tampa the Jacksonville freight rate
Jacksonville up to that time having
been practically the basing point fol
Florida rates. To make 1t plain, the
Tampa merchants could buy a barre
of -four and have 1t delivered at Tam
pa BY the Mobile line for the same
freight it would cost a Jacksonville
merchant to have a barrel of floul
delivered from the west at Jackson
Vile. Some of the railroads running
out Of Jacksonville resented this, be
ing threatened, as they argued, witt
great loss of business through tht
competition of the steamship line. Ii
order to retain the business, they Gu
the rate. There were cuts in retalia
ton. backward and forward, and /
was In this war that the wholesale
houses, including the Tampa Com
mercial Company, were given re
bates am further informed tina
the rebates were Of no direct benef
to any of the wholesale houses-tha
every dollar cut from tho freight ratt
had also to be cut from the price o
groceries by the wholesale dealers
in order to hold the trade in the dis
puted territory. So that, after all, t
appears that the consumer was ben
Gifted by the competition, prices t.
him being necessarily lower in conse
quence of the rebates. When thu
Mobile ships were taken off, som,
years ago, the freight war ended,
am told, and with it the rebates, and
as | understand, the rebates have no
been given since.