The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-22
TRUNK LINE TRAFFIC.

''Trunk-line Traffic and the Differen-
tial Rates to and from the Seaboard''
is the title of a monograph just issued
by the department of commerce and la
Dor through it's bureau of statistics. 1t
forms a part of the monthly summary
Of commerce and finance, and discusses
the pending question of differential
rates on the trunk lines between the
seaboards and the great grain and
stock producing interior of the United
States.
The trunk-line railroads between the
North Atlantic seaboard. and the sur
plus grain states of the central west
have. it says. for fully a half century.
been the chief agency in the distribu-
ton of the nations surplus supply of
breadstufs. To these carriers, starting
from different points on the sea and
converging upon competitive points of
assemblage of surplus food products in
the interior. we owe more than to any
other single agency the degree of com
mercial ascendency now enjoyed by the
United States in the world market.
Their capacity to lay down regularly,
month by month and year by year,
cheap food supplies in European mar
kets. by cooperation with ocean lines,
has converted large portions of western
Europe from agricultural to industrial
communities. The transition of leading
continental states from the agricul-
turai regime prior to 1870 to the indus
trial and commercial order of the last
% years comedies with the rise of the
American trade in which the American
trunk lines have so long been the rul-
ing factor. Not only has the enormous
economic expansion within the United
States been made possible, but also the
economic development of Europe has
been forced into realization
The problem of these highways has
rarely been duly appreciated. The
trunk-line problem is not a local pro-
blen, but prominently a national pro-
blem. If considered from the stand
point of the domestic producer and the
foreign consumer it may be stated as
follows: Between the price of grain in
western America and the worId-market
price in western Europe there is var
liable difference to be divided between
the distributive agencies, including
traders, bankers, and transporters. The
trader does his part of the work for a
fixed rate Of commission plus a specu-
lative profit; the banker obtains a reg
ular rate of discount, from which risk
and the transporter tries to get the
residual share. but is subject to the
foresight of the trader and the banker
who are really the custodians of the
commodity in store or on its way be-
tween producer and consumer If the
transporter holds his services too high
for trader or banker to profit, the com
modities await a higher price or a low
er 5b9ight charge, and production is ul-
timately restricted. If the trader holds
his services too high, the banker him
self may find it to his advantage to
utilize surplus credit in financing the
movement of commodities. If the bank
er in turn exceeds the limit of reason
able charges, credit from elsewhere
comes in to do the work Such is the
mobility both of capital and of business
management within national limits
that no representative of commercial
service can for any considera BILE time
make his own terms for his part in the
annual distribution of any agricultural
surplus.
The student of commercial charges
in their relation to prices of foodstuffs
finds there is one governing tendency
pervading the whole history of trunk
line operations, viz, that this difference
between producers price and consum-
ers' cost tends in the long run to be-
come a diminishing proportion per unit
of the value OF foOdstuffs generally. In
other words, the residual share, made
up of the difference between what the
producer gets and what the consumer
pays. goes to commerce in its various
functions, but that the portion to be
divided up among traders, bankers and
carriers has been gradually pared down
TO margin which probably ten years
ago would have been regarded as ruin
ously unremunerative
The problem has, from this point of